Analysis of a star and Dyer's Star theory- Miss Miller

An artist may want to reinvent themselves for many reasons. They may feel as though there image has become out dated and tired and that presenting themselves in a different light will promote them as an artist as they get more publicity through reaching a larger target audience. They reach a larger target audience through possibly changing their genre of music and increasing their fan base.

Micheal Jackson

ABC (1970)

Thriller (1982)

Black or white (1991)

Micheal Jackson kickstarted his monumental career in the mo town genre in the family band 'Jackson 5' gaining popularity with the hit single ABC which is still much loved by audiences today. After this his grow and reinvented himself into a completely different artist. He changed the genre of his music from Mo town to dance/rock pop reaching superstardom and changing the music video industry forever with his hit single 'Thriller'. His constant reinvention of his image then began to get notoriously controversial, earning world wide media attention and with the realise of black or white in 1991 he became a national treasure. 

Genre and generic conventions 

In all of Michael Jacksons music videos that i will be analysing above there are a considerable amount of genre conventions used to make it work inline with Goodwins theory.  An example of which can be seen in Micael Jacksons latest song that i analysed 'Black or White'. It is conventional to the pop genre through the use of mise-en-scene. The location of a suburban residential area (shown bellow) is conventional to the pop genre as it is a relatable setting for the audience. This is also relatable to other musical genres as relatability between artist and audiences are key in ensuring that a relationship between audience and artist is made.

Artist's image/Dyer's image

It is no doubt that Micheal jackson has been portrayed in a variety of different lights throughout his lengthy musical career. At the start on his career he was portrayed as cute and wholesome. Being only 10 years of age when he performed ABC Michael Jackson's childhood innocence defiantly played a party in how audiences represented him and his ultimate success.  

However compared to his image in his song 'Black or White' 21 years later much change was made to his image and that is apparent in the contrasting images on the right. From being portrayed as the innocent child when performing ABC Michael Jackson went on to reinvent himself numerous amounts of times to come under media controversy and false allegations. With some people arguing that he is now portrayed as a 'freak' his thriller music video was too 'outlandish'


ABC (1970)

The upbeat tone of the music as well as the colourful setting within the music video invokes a happy atmosphere and so represents the artist, Michael Jackson in a positive way. The light-hearted manner in which the artists move around and the set and smile is mirrored onto the artist portraying him as a upbeat, approachable and friendly artist. 

I would argue that the artist is not viewed as a product in the early stages of his career in his music video of ABC as he was just introduced to the music industry.  He was portrayed as much more genuine as opposed to a product to be consumed by audiences. I would argue that Michael Jackson being portrayed in such a way in the being of his career was tantamount to his success as he seemed more likeable and authentic to audiences. 

According to Richard Dyers theory in order for someone to become a successful star they must adhere to the paradox that they are both ordinary and extraordinary. I would agree that Michael Jackson is portrayed in this way during his ABC music video. He was ordinary in that he was represented as a genuine approachable person. This was shown through his costume (shown in the screenshot on the right). What he is wearing is similar to that of clothing that would be worn by audiences that Motown music was targeted at and so viewers see him as a person just like them because they wear similar clothes. However he is also extraordinary as he was only 8 years old during the filming for the music video. His accomplishments at such a young age make audiences view him as a extraordinary person.

  

Thriller (1982)

Michael Jacksons music video for his single 'Thriller' represents him in a controversial way. 

The bizarre themes of horror (Zombies) are unfamiliar to audiences as they went against the 

social norms at its time of release in December 2nd 1983 and so audiences therefore viewed him as a 

'trend setter'. As the ideas of zombies became vastly popular after shown in his music video. 

Michael Jackson can be veiwed as a product throughout his music video as he looks to worked on. 

All the make up, characters and dancing makes Michael Jackson appear more fake and unfortunately 

in doing so Michael Jackson looses the more genuine characteristic that he had in earlier stages of his 

career such as in his music video 'ABC'. 

Michael Jackson 

Michael Jackson is shown in two contrasting, contradictory lights within his music video. He is 

shown to be both ordinary and extraordinary. Extraordinary, in that his video promotes a belief in the

occult (Mystical, paranormal activity) a concept unfamiliar to audiences that is not conventional to 

the music genre. Ordinary in that the narrative is relatable to audiences. Michael Jackson takes his 

girlfriend out on a 'date'. This type of scenario is relatable to the audience of teenagers that the music 

video was targeted at.

Black or white (1991)

The artist is represented as multicultural this is 

done through the music video communicating the 

concept of all cultures living together in peace, 

shown in the image to the right, where Michael 

Jackson is atop the statue of liberty next to other 

international landmarks such as the Eiffel tower 

and Big Ben. Michael Jackson is therefore 

covayed as caring to audiences because of him 

spreading this message. This helps him gain more

fans as they view him as a nicer person.

The artist can be viewed as a product as he is just a 

vessel for the message of multi culture to be 

communicated.

His performance within the music video is also in line with Dyers theory of what makes a star 

according to the first paradox, where an artist has to be both ordinary and extraordinary. 

Macaulay Culkin makes an appearance where he is playing a air guitar in his bedroom making loads 

of voice when his dad comes into the room. Aggravated with the noise and distraction it is causing 

him his father tells him to "go to bed!" to which Macaulay reacts by having a big speaker play music 

blasting him all the way to Africa. This narrative is both ordinary and extraordinary in that it is totally 

unrelated to the song and the message it is getting across. However it is relatable to the target 

audience of the song. The target audience of this music belonging to the pop genre would be young 

ages between 14-24 years old. They could possibly relate to this or a similar scenario making the 

artist appear 'ordinary'. This would also help to build a relationship between artist and audiences as 

the audiences feel as though they have connected with the artist as they can both relate to the 

narrative shown. 

HEGEMONY

Target audience

Throughout the course of his career Michael Jackson continuously reinvented himself in order to appeal to the ever changing age of his target audience. In Michael's Motown days his target audience was African American's aged between 14-30. The next song 'Thriller' was targeted at a large target audience and i would argue that this is whys had such success as a music video. The horror factor appealed to the younger generation, while the narrative attracted older audiences with the intricate dance moves appealing to all audiences. Michael Jacksons 'Black or White' also reached a larger audience as it raised awareness for racism in society. Michael Jacksons target audience is constantly evolving in older for him to continually appeal to the audience he attracted to start of with as well as earn more fans as he progresses with his career. He had to adapt to appeal to the audiences he attracted at the start of his career at Jackson 5 so when they grew up he wold have to make his music appeal to a slightly older generation and he would do this through reinventing himself. 

Messages and values in the music video and also of the time

Many of Micheal Jacksons music videos have some element of concept within them however videos such as 'Black or White' are primarily concept based music videos. It addresses the concept of racism and its role of the society in the late 1980's early 90's although allot has changed unfortunately racism was still about at this time and Michael Jackson and his music video tackled the issue directly spanning world wide publicity for the problem. Michael's messages within his music videos have changed over time. He explored many concepts within his music videos including Love in 'The way you make me feel' as well as the concern of environmental damage that humans are causing in 'earth song' (shown in the image to the right). The screen shot taken from the music video shows Michael Jackson  walking through a destroyed forest reflecting on the humans influence on destroying the earth.
 Since his single'ABC' he was gone from creating performance based music videos to exploring and creating more concept and narrative music videos. I would argue that this transformation,to creating more concept based work such as 'Black or White' is the result of his skin disease, vitiligo. Causing pigment in his skin to die and parts of his skin to become white. 

Summery

I think that in order to be and maintain successful as a music artist there are certain sacrifices that you will have to make and arguably reinventing your image and your is one of them. All artists will eventually begin to loose fans and popularity over time and reinventing yourself as an artist is how you avoid this. Michael Jackson reinvented himself numerous amounts of times in order to continue appealing to audiences and his success is partly because of that. 

The research that i carried out today will help me decide on an artist for my music video as i am now aware that artists must constantly reinvent themselves to become a star and maintain popularity and target audience within the industry.