The most relevant part of the Dyer reading to my post is when he explains how stars are "supremely figures of identification." Not only do they personify a social type, great stars transcend those norms and become individual. Watching Velvet Goldmine, however, made me realize how these qualities that they personify seem to be reproduced continuously.
Changing them only slightly to fit the slightly changed social types, these characters are not only developed, but are essentially nothing new. We discussed in class how Adam Lambert's image practically mimics that of David Bowie (through the Brian Slate character) even down to his hand mannerisms. I read an article a couple of weeks back (I don't know exactly what it was in), but they asked him to respond to the critical uproar that resulted from his American Music Awards performance. H
e responded simply stating that his performance was basically unplanned and anything that happened only represents exactly who he is. This same response was seen in Velvet Goldmine when the press ask Brian how he would respond if he is "accused" of being bisexual.
While watching Velvet Goldmine, I couldn't help but to also think about other stars who have consistently changed their image - and those that represent qualities of other stars. I don't think that anyone could doubt that Lady Gaga has reinvented her image dozens of times over the past year. At the American Music Awards, Lady Gaga changed her outfit five or six times in support of her album "The Fame Monster." Could this represent the idea that stars have to tirelessly reinvent themselves in order to stay within the spotlight?
Lady Gaga also represents qualities (one that Dyer points out that is extremely relevant is charisma) of other stars. For example, Lady Gaga's wild ever-changing style seems to resemble that of Grace Jones. Jones is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music - and became an icon because of that. Kurt Wild in Velvet Goldmine is a perfect example of this because he reminds us of Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain AND Jim Morrison - all iconic stars with possibly similar qualities.
All of these are fueled and embraced by our culture - as is the Brian Slate character in Velvet Goldmine.
Questions for the class:
- If a star image is supposed to exemplify social types, how does such an out-of-the-ordinary character like Lady Gaga become such a relatable (or not?) star?
- What does it take for a media company to manifest such a star? Is it possible for a media company to create a star to manifest qualities that aren't even social types YET?
- Are there negative effects for a star to "reinvent" their persona?
1 comment:
These are interesting figures to compare. As we talked about in class, in some ways all belong to the rebel social type and so fulfill an already established social function, but in other ways they all offer something different. Grace Jones did lots of things, one being opening up the kinds of social types available to black people. She offered something different than the soul or gospel image. There are still few black rockers - TV on the Radio, Living Color, Lenny Kravitz come to mind (I'm old - someone help me out!).
Of course, this also points to the way we make categories - what is so different between country music and gospel? or Rock and rap? Why do we expect certain kinds of artists to do a type of music. Velvet Goldmine sort of alludes to this when Bryan and Curt give credit where credit is due and talk about how soul and blues musicians helped shaped their sound. The star and their image helps commodify and categorize the music -music that could be interpreted and heard in different ways depending upon the images associated with it.
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