Kanye WestRyan. A. Henson

Becoming a Pop StarKanye West has used very clever management when it comes to his spotlight in the media. His news stories vary in how they portray him but for the majority the media chooses to represent him in a negative way. Kanye never fails to make his appearance at a premier or awards evening unknown, especially during interviews with the press. He’ll do anything to get his thoughts on national television, including grabbing the microphone off of someone who just won an award and tell the audience that someone else should have won it. Almost everything Kanye does gains a large amount of attention, such has his relationship and now marriage to Kim Kardashian (Kim West). His partner was already famous for a number of controversial reasons alike Kanye and he has had other controversial relationships. Such as his relationship with Amber Rose who is the face of an event called the “SlutWalk”, she is mainly known for her promiscuous behaviour. Furthermore Kanye’s magazine features have gained him a lot of media attention in the past, branding him arrogant. Kanye has gained such a large amount of media attention in the last few years that it has started overshadow his music, the reason he was famous in the first place.

Stars as ConstructionsKanye West has been constructed by the media through representations that they want the public to see, they often show him to be rude and arrogant. Even if this is how he is in real life this is still the constructed image they are representing. This gives Kanye a unique selling point as everyone loves to hate and Kanye is used by the media as a target for such hate. Kanye West is recognised globally due to his unique selling points, including his own brand of clothing labelled “Yeezy”. Another unique selling point to Kanye west is his perception of himself, he is shown as very self-absorbed, especially when it come to his music. He has been quoted calling himself a “God” and a so called “Genius”, in fairness to him he can be seen as a genius when it comes to self promotion. He never fails to steal the spotlight and bring attention to his latest products.

Industry and Audience Kanye was constructed to serve a purpose in the music industry, this purpose being to make as much money out of their audience as possible. Through buying records, attending live performances and purchasing merchandise. Record companies mould their stars into sellable product, this is why some popstars can be seen to be “copying” each other. For example record label A may look at a popstar belonging to record label B and if they are doing well then record label A may try to take some characteristics from the record label B pop star and apply it to their own pop star. Different stars within the music industry tap into different audiences based on their genre, constructed personality and unique selling points.

Ideology and CultureKanye West heavily and often focuses on his African American background and ties it in with fact that he is successful, with songs such as BlackSkinhead. After a natural disaster hit southern regions of the united states Kanye West and Mike Myers reported on the matter. This was televised live on a national television broadcast so anything Kanye said was not going to go unheard, knowing this Kanye chose to state that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. Later on however in an interview Kanye commented on this statement saying that George Bush doesn’t care about anyone.

Stars that do this and make political statements often do this on their social media too, most popularly twitter. Then the star’s fans will show their support to the star’s ideology by retweeting and commenting on the star’s original tweet. Fans can also gain attention for their star’s tweet by starting a trend using a #.

Character and PersonalityAll stars, like Kanye, start their careers as the person they already are. On their first album they will try to mould their star identity through their songs and performances on their first tours.

It is key for the star to appear in control over the development of their own persona as the audience will deem them fake, something very discouraged by todays generations. A pop star’s persona is fragile, there are many ways it can be damaged, this is why stars need constant nurturing and management. These stars often have whole teams of people that monitor their social media and their overall movements to make sure that they keep up to their persona and they do not do anything that will tarnish the stars or the record company’s name through activities that their persona is not tied to. This allows the media and press to expose the star as fake due to their break of character, resulting in the star being branded fake and just doing certain things and acting certain ways for publicity.