Analysis of star and dyer theory

Celebrities seem to want to reinvent themselves in the eyes of the public and the media, particularly in the music industry. The artist may have a few reasons for such a diverse and sudden change in their direction and type of music and also the person they are as a whole, sometimes even creating an alter ego of themselves, e.g Beyonce as "sasha fierce". Artists may change themselves or their music in order to appeal to a new target audience, reinvent themselves as a fresh new person if they feel their music is becoming boring and isn't selling as well anymore. By reaching out to a new audience, it can gain them more popularity and the artist themselves may be having more fun producing a different kind of music. In some cases, artists do this for publicity and sometimes even controversy, creating more buzz around them and get people talking about them.

Examples of artists who have done this are Justin Bieber and Madonna. Madonna experienced success in the late 80's and early 90's with hits such as "Papa don't preach" and "Material girl". Her record sales however took a dive since then, and she has been beaten out over the years by various artists of her pop genre, for example, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani just to name a few. She has attempted a few times to stay relevant to her intended audience and try to tower over competition, for example, changing her "pop girl" image and creating a darker character in the video for her song "frozen", to possibly reach out to a new group of fans and extend the reach for her content. More recently, madonna tried to make her music more modern, and also perform with current popular artist Nikki Minaj, in order to stay relevant and bring fresh new content, with the song "give me all your luvin". Her attempts have not been considered successful however, as madonnas music is far less popular than it was, and female artist of this genre such as Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift continue to thrive.

Justin Bieber has showed changes in his music throughout the course of his career to the present day. He was orginally knowing for first starting his music with pop, with the record breaking song "baby", which has accumulated over 1 billion views on youtube. Bieber had a mop top hair style and his music style appealed mainly to teenage girls, who he gained a massive cult following from. In 2012, Justin Bieber changed his style of music and wanted to appeal to a new, older target audience and possibly more towards boys, with the song "boyfriend" which although is still mainly targeted girls, includes a hip-hop beat, therefore changing the style of music from pop. He acts more of a cool character, rather than a prepubescent heart throb and also raps, compared to baby which is just singing and ludacris does the rapping role. His 3rd stage of change came with the song "Where r u now" which appeals to a very wide range of audiences, this time not specifically female, equally both genres and also we see the genre of music change to dance from hip-hop.

The artist that I have chose to analyse for this post is Miley Cyrus. Known for being the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, when she first gained popularity as a musician, she based her music around the rockpop genre. Her first stage as an artist can be shown with the song "best of both worlds" under the act of "Hannah Montana". She released her music from disney, a show mainly viewed by young children, and marketed her music during the Hannah Montana phase at mainly girls, aged specifically around 4-12. She was seen as an idol for many young girls, a girl who had her own show who was seen as a tad wild, but a relatable character and also sensible in the end, one that girls everywhere can look up to. The element of goodwins theory here is present as she is meeting the demands of the record label, she suits poprock characteristics and is performing for her fans, which builds hype around the artist and makes the record label money. Further elements from goodwins theory are supported as we can see it is performance based, she is singing on stage to all of her fans.  From the best of both worlds video, we can see her performing on stage fully clothed and not revealing anything, in southern american clothing too, such as boots and ranch jeans. We can also see that looking at the crowd cheering for her, not only are they all female, but they look to be from the ages of 4-12, who her music was targeted at during this phase. Dyer's theory is present in this video, as the artist appears as both ordinary and extraordinary, she seems just a normal teenage girl no different from anyone else, but is also extraordinary, as so many young girls want to be like her and have her unique fame. From her lyrics, we can see there is no offence to be taken, as she does not curse once, and her lyrics are mainly inspiring and the purpose of them is mainly to make young girls believe in themselves, and that maybe that can achieve something great, the lyrics "Whoever thought that a girl like me would double as a superstar", shows that if she can do it, anyone can. This song and video is conventional, as in the rock pop genre there isn't typically much swearing and the artists show a pinky side but are usually good characters, this song features no curse words and "Hannah Montana" is designed to be a role model and an idol, therefore being a good character. Overall, this gimmick was meant to be a role model for young girls and an inspirational character that her target audience could admire and aspire to be like. 

Her first change was seen when she released "Can't be tamed". We see her here ditch the "Hannah Montana" character, and reinvent herself as "Miley Cyrus", appealing more towards female teenagers, and also possibly young adults in a number of ways, being a more relatable character for older ages but also controversial, can't be tamed may be disturbing for a young child and the lyrics may be hard to understand, so her target audience here may have changed to possibly a teenage girl audience. The video shows an element of goodwins theory with a voyueristric look and treatment of the female body, as a lot more of her body is exposed compared to best of both worlds and her stances in this video are provactive, e.g prowling and lying on her back. Another element of goodwins theory is present as the song has a deeper meaning and a concept behind it. This song is about Miley wanting to show she can be someone else other than Hannah Montana, the gimmick she created that everyone looked up to and all young girls wanted to be like, and that she can be a darker character, not just one of your conventional pop artists, she further states this with her choice of lyrics, one example being "I wanna be a part of something I don't know", showing this is new for her and she wants to experiment. She is also seen here revealing herself more, such as being seen in the video with a black revealing costume showing off her arms and legs and also some of her cleavage, different to her Hannah Montana gimmick where she would usually be seen in brightly coloured clothing with sequins and tacky necklaces, or relating to her best of both worlds performance where she wore boots and ranch jeans. Although a change is present here, Miley still follows the main conventions of pop, and doesn't do anything too controversial or even use foul language and also includes dance routines and costumes, all typically present in pop music videos, so miley here wants her fans for hegenomy in her own music video.

Her second change and current character is still under the act of Miley Cyrus, but considering her first change was pretty extravagant. she found a way to make herself even more of a diverse character from 2010 in the early stages of when she reinvented herself as Miley Cyrus. In the current era, she presents herself as someone who has little care at all about what people think of her, by the lyrics in her songs and the way she dresses in her music videos and also in public. not forgetting her behaviour, for example twerking on Robin Thicke at the 2013 VMA's. A music video that shows her current character, is her recent release "dooo it". This video relates to goodwins as it is primarily performance based, she is seen in video for the whole 4 minutes and 26 seconds, the focus is always on her and she is always seen either gurgling glitter or sprinkles or smoking marijuana. Her lyrics in this song feature far more explicit language than any of the previous examples I have given, some examples being "yeah I smoke pot, yeah I love peace, but I don't give a f*ck" As this character has developed, we can see just from those lyrics the dramatic change. She uses foul language for the first time in my examples and also mentions drug use for the first time, more commonly seen in rockstars music videos rather than Mileys music. We see her here move away from the pop genre and into the electronica genre, showing not only her change in persona, but also her music too, the song features three major changes in the tempo, and ends with miley repeatedly singing the lyrics "peace motherfucker" over and over. As odd as it seems, this video ironically supports the genre conventions, as electronica is known to be a genre with creative and unique music. This video definitely places fans against hegenomy, the freakish and extravagent behaviour aswell as vulgar lyrics are not considered the norm, and Miley herself is rebelling against the norms of society, saying loud and clear she doesn't care what others think by saying "I don't give a f*ck". Due to most of this content being grossly offensive, its fair to say this could only appeal to an adult audience, specifically female, which again shows mileys change as now she is producing music that may not even be appropriate for teens to listen to, as also parents may worry about Miley giving bad influences. Overall, from the start of her music career (2006) to the present day (2015), her change has been signifficant, not only with the change in her musical content and genre, but also her overall attitude and persona. Many may blame this on her age, that as she grew older and through puberty she would understandably change and also the fact she was born into the limelight having an already musically famous father and that she wanted to differ from that type of music and be her own person, however many would also agree that she has been near extreme about being a different artist to her father and also in general from herself when she first started. She started off as a role model for young girls that they could aspire to be like when they were older and transformed today into the miley we know that mainly aims her music at young adults and speaks for people who love partying, and people who don't care what others think of them, which is shown in her lyrics that freely commercialise drug use and also her flamboyant behaviour in her videos and in person, for example, various instances of twerking. All in all, Miley's change from the start of her music career only 9 years ago has been dramatic and with her being only 22 years old, she has plenty of time for more change and it will be interesting to see the direction miley cyrus takes her music in  and also how much her persona will further change over the course of her career.

This research will aid me in finding an artist to base my project on, as chosing a controversial artist may be a risky move and viewers of my project may be disturbed or not enjoy it, although typically Indie, the genre my project is based around is not controversial, so finding a relevant song for my preferences should not be too hard, and something extragavent or unordinary shouldn't be expected with my project.