BLOG TASK 2

Task 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Prepare a Powerpoint presentation to the following brief: With reference to Richard Dyer’s theory of star image, demonstrate how elements of the star image are sold through your creative choices in the video, digipack cover and poster. In particular, you should look to show how the three products work together to sell the artist and/or where there may be some contradictions in the images created. Make sure that you illustrate with images from your work and, where helpful, from existing products.

In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars. The term "star" refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common.

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 (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).

Our Star image has been constructed out of a range of materials. We created a star image which we then marketed through the use of a promotional music video and a digipak. Richard Dyer describes the common values of music stardom, including youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, an anti-authoritarian attitude, originality, creativity/talent, aggression/anger, a disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour, conspicious consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods as well as success against the odds. The star image we constructed is an artist called Jack Thomson. The main characteristics we constructed for him are demonstrated in our creative choices in the video, digipak cover and poster. We chose the give him an star image with the following common values of music stardom: youthfulness, sexual magnetism (working as one of the unique selling points), originality, creativity, talent and a previous fanbase. These qualities are mainly shown in our pop video. The fact he is youthful is reinforced by the fact that he has a very youthful look to him. He is the typical “american sweetheart” with long hair in Zac Efron style which signals to our audience that he isn’t a teenager any more but has element of youthfulness to him.

This is vital for the star image, because to appeal to the audience of female teenagers the artist needs to have elements of youthfulness to him so they can fall for him, however for the male audience he should seem experienced and an “even opposite player” and even superior, therefore you have to make sure you find a good mixture between youthfulness and experience in the look. His sexual magnetism is shown in the video in the fact that towards the end he is playing his music topless and is surrouonded by attractive girls dancing around him. This therefore signals to the audience that if these girls think he is attractive he must be.

Furthermore the video works for the female and male fanbase because the males believe that if they were to look like him they’d have these girls dancing aroung them and the females may think that if they were to jump on stage on the next concert of Jack Thomson he might also continue playing the song. As well as this Jack Thomson has a prior fanbase, so he isn’t actually a “newcomer” but more of someone finally coming out. This is shown by the fact that at the beginning of the video you already have females dancing around him and he is on a TV show where the TV Presenter leads the audience/camera into the world of the star.

The last, but probably most important key element of our star image is the fact that Jack Thomson is an original who has creativity and talent and belongs to an organic band. Keith Negus argues that the organic ideology of creativity is a naturalistic approach to artists. Furthermore the seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be "nurtured" by the record company. The image of the artist is "enhanced" by the record company and the artist is given time to envolve and progress through their career. Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue. This is often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers. Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.Furthermore Keith Negus said: "What I'm looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you a career. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts... Two years ago I started a dance label... Now that's not a career orientated label. I mean those records are non-off situations and every now and again maybe you'll get an artist come out of it." "When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is becoming more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it's as much about: I sit here and think "there's really a gao in the market for this kind of project...". Jack Thomson and his band show key elements of this, because he is on stage playing and performing the song live. This is shown in key shots of him playing the instruments and singing into the microphone. Also when the girls come on stage to take off their clothes and change their instruments, they continue playing their song perfectly which shows that they are talented. Furthermore the rest of the bands only pays little attention to the camera which on the one hand side lays focus on Jack, however this also shows that they are very into playing their instruments, showing that the song means a lot to them and they probably wrote it themselves.

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strenght 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. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and "open". Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes. THE STAR MUST BE SIMULTANEOUSLY ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY FOR THE CONSUMER. THE STAR MUST BE SIMULTANEOUSLY PRESENT AND ABSENT FOR THE CONSUMER. Jack Thomson shows this as in our music video we tease the audience by having a lot of shots of the band playing the instruments and then only brief shots of Jack looking straight into the camera. This creates the impression, that on the one side he is present for the consumer and reachable however then again that he is still a star who is extraordinary and absent for the consumer. The incoherance of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to "complete" or to "make sense of" of the image. This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products. In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimatley unsatisfying. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in erlation to dominant social values (that is hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

Evaluation of the ancillary texts:

The front cover of our CD signifies Jack Thomson to be the lead of the band because it is his face in a close up shot looking straight into the camera, reinforcing the elements from the video, that he is directly addressing his audience and has a sense of availability. The fact that it is black and white mixed with colour, red in particular, catches the eye of our audience and somehow to an extent reflects the music video because it is the combination of 60’s style to the modern (shown by the modern picture of the whole band).

The back cover of the CD says the name of the artist in bold which shows that he is the main importance of the whole album. Furthermore there is a list of songs (10 all together) with the single being second on the album which shows its importance. Furthermore we included extras on the CD such as “enhanced DVD of “For your Love””, “backstage documentary of the tour” and an “interview with the band and picture gallery”. This signals to our consumer that this CD/Digipak is worth buying because it includes extra footage that is fan base orientated. This ties in with what we tried to show in our music video, as the band continue to play their music even though fans run on stage and they even interact with them. The fact they have interviews and commentary also shows how they want to interact with their fans.

For the inlays we’ve chosen to take pictures of the band performing with a mixture of 60’s style and modern photography, reinforcing the whole concept of the band. Furthermore it stretches out the different members of the band so that the audience can identify with each one of them individually. This is something we haven’t actually focused on too well in our video but we use the digipak to give the audience a choice of who they like best. Written on the pictures are special thanks from each one of them which the audience can read through and feel addressed by, as if they were talking to them and somehow thanking them.

Lastly, we have the promotional poster which shows Jack Thomson on the cover with his guitar and a microphone, topless. This shows how he is extremely attractive but also an organic act that plays his music himself. The background of the poster is red and therefore ties in with the album cover (which is on the poster as well). To show that our band is very modern and into the modern media we wrote on the poster “available on itunes” which shows that you can get their CD also through the use of different/modern media.