applying the star theory to an artist and a band.

Rihanna.
Rihanna would be a prime example of Richard Dyers Star Theory- Rihanna has become increasing well known after the past few years, causing some controversy over how she is going about her career. Rihanna, who signed to Jay-Z's Def Jam Recordings in 2005, released two albums which both reached the top 10 US billboard. Rihanna rose to fame in 2007, with her album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' with the chart topping single 'Umbrella'. Selling over 150 million records world wide, being one of the best selling artists of all time.
Rihanna is known for her style and image, often causing controversy over the things she puts on social media for all the world to see! posting tweets on twitter and pictures over instagram, Rihanna matches perfectly to Richard Dyers star theory.

'Star theory'
Star theory is an idea that a 'Star' is not a real person- they are an image, not being themselves, to sell their products and gain them fans.

Richard Dyer
Dyer wrote about the roles of TV, film, and music and come to the conclusion that stars have certain features in common, that a star is an 'image' that is constructed out of a range of materials such as the way they are represented in the subsidiary media- through magazine articles, radio etc. Which they can construct themselves and create an image which addresses their target market. They are produced and consumed on their strengths of their meanings.
 The star is incoherent, Dyer believes this is based on two paradoxes.
Paradox 1.
the star must be extraordinary but yet ordinary for the consumer
Paradox 2.
the star must be present, yet absent for the consumer.

“In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.  There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions.  On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong.  This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society.  On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (e.g. the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).  Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Pitch.
Our group ................ would like to pitch our music video to you that is going to be directed by Joe Leah, Connor Lovatt and Megan Hopkinson. We feel with the knowledge from all three of our members we feel that an great music video could be produced. The proposed song we are planning on doing our music video too is from the genre of pop as this is what we feel would be great for our target audience of teenagers with us knowing exactly what they want from our own personal experience as well as researching deeper into this area. 

The specific song that we have chosen is to the song 'Break free' a newly released pop song by Arianna Grande.  For our proposed music video we would be filming in a mixture of locations these being a studio (preferably all white studio as we have seen this in other music videos where it looks very effective when done well and we also believe that certain aspects could be reinvented for our video), natural settings outside to keep the quick change of locations that is often seen within pop music videos to keep up with the quick beat, or possibly an effect with the use of a green screen if we need a certain effect/location that would be nearly impossible to create for real on the budget provided.

The overall effect we are aiming for with this music video is a general happy feel good music video as these are the typical conventions that you would find when looking at pop video. As mentioned above our video will appeal to people aged from children through to teenagers because we believe these are the main group of people who would tend to watch these videos on the internet or listen to this type of music. Our music video will also be suitable for all ages because it will not be provocative like many in the industry that are made today.

Another reason that we would like to pitch our idea to you is because we now realise that the music industry is not just about the song but a lot of emphasis is placed on the videos now days with channels such as MTV as well as the large library that is available on YouTube. So if we could get your involvement within this task we feel that the music video would be more memorable and powerful hopefully allowing people who watch the video to remember it, eventually increasing the overall sales of the song.

So I hope you will consider this opportunity to produce our music video, our company, has the skills to create a professional and well known music video that will be remembered with our great filming/photography team, with editing skills that are able to create a high class music video, living up to the consumers standards of the song and what they should see.

Music video regulations.
the BBFC (British Board of Film) classification systems sets the standards for music videos with explicit contents.
Throughout the years, many music videos have been blocked on sites such as Youtube, for inappropriate scenes which would be unsuitable for younger viewers who are harmlessly searching the web for their music idols.

Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines'  has been banned from being played in certain universities, such as Edinburgh, Leeds, Derby, and West Scotland, on the grounds of the song promoting sexism, and the song objectifies women.


Ciara 'Ride It' Bet refused to air the music video due to the explicit contents, with fans even starting a petition to get the video back online, BET asked Ciara to reedit some of the clips which were unsuitable.
http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/10-05-2014/MmDnta.gif 


Rhianna 'S&M'  this song caused quite the controversy, with the video being restricted on Youtube, and being banned in 11 countries, with radio stations also reacting to the racy music lyrics, with the BBC not playing the song before 7pm. while singing lyrics such as 'Sticks and stoneas may break my bones but chains and whips excite me' whilst dancing around in a latex outfit, and a dog leashed Perez Hilton.