The Star Theory

The terms “pop performer” and “pop star” in media terms, are not the same thing. This is because pop performers perform pop

songs, however pop stars have a star persona and identity. Pop stars are promoted by their management, curtesy of new

headlines such as a new boyfriend/girlfriend, attendance to premieres and parties and featuring in magazines for style.

A real pop star has a lasting significance and hasd brand awareness amongst a market over a long period of time and

also a constructed image.

Example: The X Factor

This is an example of how an ordinary person is transformed into a star through construstion process, creating a unique identity

through styling and image and being coached. They are meeting the market expectations and making room for themselves.

Late 1990s- Lead singer in “Destiny's Child” one of the worlds most successful R&B girl groups.

2001- Acting debut in the film “Carmen: A Hip Hoperer”

2002- Acting in “Austin Powers in Goldmember”

2003- First debut solo album “Dangerously In Love” earning her 5 Grammys.

2005- Disbandment of Destiny's Child. Beyonce and her mother opened their family fashion line “House of Dereon”.

2006- Second solo album “B'Day” and starred in the musical film “Dreamgirls which gained her 2 Golden Globe nominations.

2008- Third solo album “I Am... Sasha Fierce”.

2010- Six Grammy awards. Broke the record for most grammy awards to a female in one night. She also released her first perfume “heat”. Beyonce was also ranked first on the list for “100 most powerful and influential

musicians in the world” and second for “100 most powerful and influential celebrities in the world”.

2011- Fourth solo album “4”. Beyonce announced that she and JayZ her husband were expecting a baby.

2012- Named “World's Most Beautiful Woman” by People Magazine. Beyonce gave birth to her first child Blue Ivy.

Career Timeline

Beyonce has been in the public eye for a very long time and across every year she has either been releasing new albums, touring, appearing in movies or releasing fashion.

Beyonce has a star image which separates her from other artists in the public eye. She has an incredibly curvy figure and big curly hair as well as a fantastic powerful and sometimes moving

voice. She performs so well in front of any crowd and is confident within herself which is particularly inspirational to women because she is a “real woman”.

Her songs have ranged from upbeat dance songs to R&B beats to incredible ballads so she is always bringing something new to the market and keeps her fans aware of this.

Beyonce's Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)- Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc

Love On Top- Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaasJ44O5lI

One Plus One- Music Video

This video sells to her target audience because it is unique and shouts out to the women who are single and shows them how to have fun. Her video is unique and the dancers are all in time with eachother creating an effective video.

Love On Top is a powerful song and shows off her powerful voice. The video is colourful and fun and different and has a great beat and great dancing. Beyonce has a wide audience of people who love R&B beat and so in a lot of videos she is dancing and having fun.

This video is very very simple in comparison to her other videos but it works effectively to promote herself to her audience as vulnerable, The powerful lyrics along with her powerful voice are used to speak out to her audience and get heard. A lot of people feel they can relate.

Interviews With Beyonce

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Jn8gADEX8

April 2012- The View

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtmr8-BGi4&feature=related

Beyonce and Jay-Z talk about their baby Blue Ivy Carter

You learn a lot about an artist and their star persona not only through performance and style but also through their interviews. This is where you get a sense of the Stars personality and the way they interact with people and their fans. Beyonce is an artist who has always come across as a warm hearted celebrity who people look up to and this comes across in her interviews.

Parodies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieNCmD7jKugThis is a parody of Beyonce's “Single Ladies” starring Justin Timberlake. The video is exactly the same as her original video however seeing Justin Timberlake in a black leotard and doing the dance movies adds humour! This can also help to promote the song and artist.

A Parody involves changing or copying existing music ideas. It is used usually as humour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvOucvTpKrE

There are also parodies such as this one which can take the mick overa video but also add humour. For example, in this parody for Beyonce and Lady Gaga's Telephone, the lyrics have been changed to add hummour.

Gramsci and Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci, an Italian (1891-1937), was a leading Marxist thinker.

Gramsci used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'. Commentators stress that this involves willing and active consent.

'Consent must be constantly won and rewon, for people's material social experience constantly reminds them of the disadvantages of subordination and thus poses a threat to the dominant class... Hegemony... posits a constant contradiction between ideology and the social experience of the subordinate that makes this interface into an inevitable site of ideological struggle' (Fiske 1992: 291).