Stars and Stardom

My star: James Blunt

James Blunt is a singer and song artist who falls under the genre of soft rock.

He is a very popular artist who is known by millions, as evidenced by his staggering record sales (his very first album sold over 11 million copies).

Record LabelThroughout his career, James Blunt has been signed to three different record labels: WB Records, Atlantic records and Custard records.

WB records has many hugely popular artists under its label, such as Paramore and Red Hot Chili Peppers. This would help massively in the creation of his star image as his image would be up there with highly regarded musicians, making people more interested in him.

The record labels he signed to afterwards were not quite as popular, but that did not matter as his star image had already been made.

Common ValuesYouthfulness – James presents himself as a young man riding a motorcycle and interacting with many people in his video “Bonfire Heart”

(This could also be an example of anti-authoritarianism, as motorcycles are often used to symbolise that)

Creativity/Originality – In the video for the song “Satellites”, special effects are used to create fantasy sci-fi looking helmets which spell out the lyrics of the song as they’re sung.

Richard Dyer’s Features

A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials.

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.

Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.

The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences

ParadoxesRichard Dyer invented two paradoxes for star images. 1. The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.2. The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

1. James Blunt appears in his promotional photos as a normal, down to earth man despite his star image and overwhelming success. However, in his videos he tries different, very extraordinary ideas, creating an extraordinary image at the same time

2. The star’s image makes them feel closer to the viewer, but in reality the star’s fame and popularity makes them incredibly distant, as they have millions of fans and aren’t close to the majority of them

Our StarThe image we will create for our star will be similar to James Blunt in many ways. We want to make them seem normal and down to earth so they can be related to by the target audience.

We’ll achieve this through aspects such as plain, casual clothing, a regular, accessible location and a narrative that people can relate to.