Star Image- Beyoncé
Richard Dyer came up with the star image theory and he split it up into three sections:
- The star as a construction- The star is constructed through music videos, magazines, advertising etc. For example, Miley Cyrus is constructed to be crazy and stand out (twerking and being naked on a wrecking ball) however, she wouldn't do this is her personal life
- The star as a commodity- Stars are produced to create profit off of related merchandise like t-shirts, posters etc. Similar stars are created because record labels know certain patterns and trends that work & will generate money e.g. boy bands
- The star as an ideology- Stars will represent certain social groups and views therefore creating a certain ideology. This results in fans copying the stars style and share the same views as them.
Beyonce's early star image was when she rose to fame in 1990's when she was in the popular R&B girl-group 'Destiny's Child', the group became the worlds best-selling girl groups of all time. In 2003 Beyonce became a solo artist after creating the debut album, 'Dangerously in Love' which earned five Grammy Awards and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy". In the music video, "Crazy in Love" Beyonce was made for the male gaze due to her lack of clothing, close ups of her assets and her provocative dance moves, shes carried on this theme even up until today.
In Beyonce's music videos, she's much more performance based instead of playing a character because she's a really good dancer and this is what she does in mostly all of her videos for entertainment and to showcase her other talent apart from just singing. The recurring visual motif for Beyonce's music videos is her dancing and performing for the audience but also having a narrative behind it which links with the lyrics.
Beyonce's appearance in the majority of her music videos is always her looking very glam with her hair and makeup done and in more quirky high end clothing and accessories, this is for her to appeal to both genders in her audience, for example it'll make girls want to look and be like her because she's beautiful and very talented making the girls want to aspire to be like her and the male audience is mostly for the male gaze because they'll find her attractive, hence why they'd want to watch her videos. Overall, a lot of her music videos include close-ups of herself so attract the audience but also you could say she's trying to create a relationship with her audience because she'll be looking into the camera whilst lip syncing the song, for example in the music video "If I Were a Boy" there's a lot of close ups of her face looking into the camera to show her sadness and to make the audience feel emotional because it is an emotional song.
Due to the theme of most of Beyonce's songs (upbeat and quick tempo) her editing is always quite fast to keep up with the music in the background and she uses a lot of close ups and long shots in all of her videos because pretty much all of her music videos she's lip syncing so the close ups are for her to sing to the camera, again showing her emotions, and the long shots are because her music videos are performance based so it's to make sure the audience can see her and the other people in the music video dancing. These both reinforce the image of Beyonce being a performer and very talented because the camera shots and editing enable the audience to see this.
Ever since Destiny's Child, Beyonce has been one of the most famous singers in the world this could be due to her catchy songs, or it could be because she's married to also one of the most famous celebrities in the world; Jay Z. Another reason for how Beyonce is so famous is that she's always been a good role model to everyone as she's never been caught doing anything bad or out of the ordinary. She is known for her 'independent woman' ways and promoting 'girl power' to young females. She's done this through writing songs about being independent, for example the popular song "Singe Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" which is about being single and not needing a man to help you in life and her other popular song "Run the World" is also about women empowerment. This could be another reason for why Beyonce has so many fans because she's a huge role model to young females and motivates them to go out and succeed whatever they want to succeed.
The reason for me choosing Beyonce for looking at star image is because in the sense of them mostly being performance based and having a lot of dancing, it relates to my ideas for my music video because i'm including dancing and using close ups for showing emotion and lip syncing, which there's evidence of Beyonce doing this in multiple of her music videos. We portrayed a star image in our music video with our actor, Phoebe, we did this through extreme close ups of her face. This makes her connect with the audience, through the use of eye contact because she's looking straight into the camera. The image of our actor will attract the younger teenage girl audiences because we've made her very plain and like a normal teenage girl, so this will make her relatable to the audience as she looks just like them, instead of having her dressed up with lots of makeup and her hair done fancy because this isn't the image we wanted for her.
In Beyonce's music videos, she's much more performance based instead of playing a character because she's a really good dancer and this is what she does in mostly all of her videos for entertainment and to showcase her other talent apart from just singing. The recurring visual motif for Beyonce's music videos is her dancing and performing for the audience but also having a narrative behind it which links with the lyrics. Beyonce's appearance in the majority of her music videos is always her looking very glam with her hair and makeup done and in more quirky high end clothing and accessories, this is for her to appeal to both genders in her audience, for example it'll make girls want to look and be like her because she's beautiful and very talented making the girls want to aspire to be like her and the male audience is mostly for the male gaze because they'll find her attractive, hence why they'd want to watch her videos. Overall, a lot of her music videos include close-ups of herself so attract the audience but also you could say she's trying to create a relationship with her audience because she'll be looking into the camera whilst lip syncing the song, for example in the music video "If I Were a Boy" there's a lot of close ups of her face looking into the camera to show her sadness and to make the audience feel emotional because it is an emotional song.
Due to the theme of most of Beyonce's songs (upbeat and quick tempo) her editing is always quite fast to keep up with the music in the background and she uses a lot of close ups and long shots in all of her videos because pretty much all of her music videos she's lip syncing so the close ups are for her to sing to the camera, again showing her emotions, and the long shots are because her music videos are performance based so it's to make sure the audience can see her and the other people in the music video dancing. These both reinforce the image of Beyonce being a performer and very talented because the camera shots and editing enable the audience to see this.
The reason for me choosing Beyonce for looking at star image is because in the sense of them mostly being performance based and having a lot of dancing, it relates to my ideas for my music video because i'm including dancing and using close ups for showing emotion and lip syncing, which there's evidence of Beyonce doing this in multiple of her music videos. We portrayed a star image in our music video with our actor, Phoebe, we did this through extreme close ups of her face. This makes her connect with the audience, through the use of eye contact because she's looking straight into the camera. The image of our actor will attract the younger teenage girl audiences because we've made her very plain and like a normal teenage girl, so this will make her relatable to the audience as she looks just like them, instead of having her dressed up with lots of makeup and her hair done fancy because this isn't the image we wanted for her.
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