Star persona Leah Aston

What is star persona? Star persona was first written about by Richard Dyer, who argued that stars are created by management. They’re constructed for a unique selling point as the genre is heavily influenced by the audience’s perception of the star.

An example of this would be Marilyn Manson: Marilyn Manson was born ‘Brian Hugh Warner’. He is well known for his controversial stage image and personality, where he dares to go beyond social and cultural norms. The name ‘Marilyn Manson’ comes from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson.

Star Persona is presented here through Marilyn Manson's direct eye contact. By giving the audience direct eye contact, he is creating a dangerous and rebellious atmosphere that is usually associated with him. The enclosed shot also shows this, as it creates a claustrophobic mood.It’s also presented through Marilyn’s outfit and accessories as he usually wears dark colours and dark finger nails, which emulate his outer dark persona. Also, his make up emulates this too, the use of red under his eyes and painted red lips create the image of blood, which is really prominent with Marilyn (Shown in his music videos and photoshoots)

Born Villain music video (Very explicit) – but it emulates his persona of breaking social norms.

Slipknot are a hard rock band that usually wears decorated, haunting masks that are unique to each member of the band. By wearing these masks on the cover they are keeping with the persona, which is good for the audience because if they don’t wear the masks, then it’s likely that casual fans of the band won’t know who they are. The colours also emulate Slipknot’s persona as red, black, grey and white are very prominent for the band. It would be unusual for the band to dress up in light pinks and blues, so this creates the bands atmosphere and mood successfully.

Left behind music video - the masks

Black veil brides first came onto the scene covered in black face paint and body paint, and their persona was created through this. Yet, as years went on, they began to wear less make up and just wear black clothing. Despite this, their old persona still reigns true, which is why they’re wearing make up in this magazine cover. Although not wearing this make up would seen odd, their new persona was taken well by fans. The outfits and accessories also show the bands persona, as fans usually link these outfits to this band, and without them it would be odd, and audiences would likely be confused as it doesn’t match the bands stereotypical persona. Fallen angels music video- original personaGoodbye agony music video- new persona

My artists star personaMy artist’s name is Elizabeth Black, or Eli Black for short. She has short bleach blonde hair and usually wears heavy eyeshadow and dark lipstick. She is very young- almost 22 years old and first came onto the rock scene at the young age of 17, because of this, she was faced with a lot of backlash from the public because of her provocative style and demeaning lyrics in her bands songs. The band, Hell’s basement, went triple platinum after their third year and sold out two world tours ranging from Asia to Europe. However, the fame was too much for the band, and they went haywire, cancelling their third world tour days before it began because of a sudden break up. The band split, leaving the four members in disarray. It was argued that the break up was because of their lead singer, Elizabeth Black, as she went on a rampage, taking advantage of the easy alcohol and drugs. Despite the new found additions, Elizabeth is a kind person at heart, having grown up in North London to a working class family. Although, she is likely to speak the truth and not hold her tongue, but in some respect, she is still the same shy girl from North London that suddenly rose to fame. Elizabeth has no religion, and often talks about this in her songs, which is why the band’s music was banned from three radio stations and 4 schools. The band, however, takes pride in this, which was one of the main reasons for the public backlash.The inspiration for this character is Taylor Momsen of the band ‘the pretty reckless’, however, I’ve changed her look slightly and gave her a completely different background. My star will also have aspects from Marilyn Manson, where she breaks social and cultural norms.