STAR THEORY


 Introduction

Our task was to pick a well known musician and analyse their public image. We compared our chosen artist to Richard Dyer's star theory, which believes that the star image is often manufactured for the sake of building a 'brand'. They do this by constructing a unique selling point based around brand values, that help attract certain audiences. One way of doing this is by making the star relatable, to represent 'real people'. This helps the audience relate to them so that its easier to sell their brand and products. I decided to look at British singer and songwriter Sam Smith.





 Unique Selling Point

Sam Smith's unique selling point adapted after a few years, shifting to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community once they came out as queer. Their brand is based around around simplistic imagery, instead choosing to focus on their unique and distinctive voice. Since coming out as non-binary and changing their pronouns to They/Them, it has created an additional unique selling point that appeals to non binary individuals.

Target Audience

Sam Smith's sexuality comes across through their lyrics, and they are one of the first openly queer artists to achieve continued mainstream success. Despite conversations suggesting that 'coming out' would alienate parts of their audience, their continuous ability to reach the billboard top 100s suggest that it has only expanded their success and widened their target audience.

 Ideologies

Using the website "Look To The Stars", I was able to look at the charities and organisations endorsed by Sam Smith. Through the website, I learnt that Sam Smith supports charities such as Children in Need, Comic Relief, GRAMMY Foundation, and MusiCares. I also found articles talking about a foundation they formed to support gay youth. It is clear they are a strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and this is reflected in their foundation and the incorporation of their sexuality into their brand and unique selling point. Furthermore, Sam Smith is also a global ambassador for War Child UK, and in 2017 they visited the programmes in Iraq and Jordon. They talked about this experience inspired songs on their new album, "The Thrill Of It All" - including the song "Pray" which was released as a single. For their 26th birthday, Sam Smith asked for fans to donate to War Child through a FaceBook link, raising over $17,000 before his birthday. Smith's ideologies have influence the development of their music and they have used their social media platforms to spread support. This is also part of their brand, as an unproblematic figure who connects with fans through their lyrics and impressive vocals.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LOCATION SCOUTING

Image
  Introduction Clementine and I were looking for two key locations for the music video to take place in. We drew inspiration from scenes in Fleabag (2016) and Taylor Swift's music video All Too Well: The Short Film (2021). We decided on filming the two parts to our film in a kitchen and dining room, and in order to film a shot we had in mind they would have to be connected. At first we considered using the school cafeteria as a location for the dining room, as it could be made to look like a restaurant setting, however we realised that in order to have the characters arguing in the kitchen it would have to be filmed in a home environment. Our main requirements was somewhere dark with warm lighting, so we could create an intimate dinner party scene. The clear next step was to evaluate the rooms in our houses. Inspiration Kitchen ...
Read more

GENRE RESEARCH

Image
  Introduction In order to understand our target audience and the conventions of our genre, we did some research to better prepare us for the task of creating our music video. With the help of interviews conducted to discover our target audience, along with sources online, Clementine and I determined that the song we selected fits into the 'alternative genre'. This a broad definition with various sub-genres, despite online sources varying, 'Under the Table' more specifically fits in to 'alternative pop/rock'. Origins Above are some artists that are considered alternative. The alternative pop/rock genre was originally influenced by late 1970's punk-rock, and is a term used to refer to music that is distinctive from mainstream or commercial pop or rock music. Merriam-Webster defines alternative music as "music that is produced by performers who are outside the m...
Read more

DIGIPAK - FINAL PRODUCT

Image
  Final Product To create the final product we combined all the edited pages and placed it onto a digipak template, as if it were for an actual product and we were going to print it out. On the left is the template I used, and on the right is the final product. In order  to show off the final product, I also edited the images to show what the final digipak would look like if it was printed off. This was done using an app called sketchbook, which is intended for digital drawing but I discovered it is also very useful for manipulating images.
Read more