Research - Star Image

‘Star Image’ is the way an artist is represented to the audience. The most effective way to do this is through music videos as this can reach a mainstream and international audience.

A music video can help an artist’s career in a few ways. Firstly it can build a strong relationship between the artist and their target audience. Also, It can help the artist become more popular in mainstream audiences and can help them share their thoughts and opinions. This makes it able for the artist to express themselves to the public in artistic ways and also makes their visuals come to life. Reputations will grow massively with the help of music videos too.

Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson’s career was a roller coaster from the beginning, right until the end for him. Not only in social ways but also in very strong political ways too.

He started off in Jackson 5, a family band with him and his older brothers. They were extremely successful and were popular worldwide and loved by everyone. Michael Jackson was the lead singer and gained the most attention out of all of them. The Jackson 5 was formed by their father in the early 1960’s. He was seen as a cute, young boy who was innocent inside and out. He was represented as very family orientated and a happy child. Everyone found him adorable. Jackson 5 created hits such as; Blame it on the boogie, who’s loving you, ABC, I’ll be there, and many others.

As a teenager, he went solo into the industry which caused a lot of family problems due to him leaving Jackson 5. This is because they needed him as he was the main attention from the band. His solo career was extremely successful as everyone found him cute but became more mature and grew with his target audience. He made his own songs (which were of course a success), made TV appearances and appeared in films, such as; The Wiz.

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was released on November 30th 1982. This was where his career was at its highest, most successful point. Thriller was the first short film with horrifying images released to the public, so this was a shock to the audiences eyes as well as gaining a lot of interest. He was extremely popular through all audiences across the world. many other songs he released were extremely popular/successful and became hits, such as; smooth criminal and bad. His songs were beginning to show political and social views to the world, He was representing diversity, equality and positive thoughts to the world which really helped and gave the public positive thoughts about him as a person and an artist.

The final stage of his career was his downfall. Many news reports represented him as a very bad person. Rumours spreading globally gave him a really bad name, The 1990's was when his career slowly had its downfall due to the accusations of serial paedophilia behaviour and continuous sexual assaults were recognized by the public in 1993. In 2005 a trial was held for these accusations people had of the star. During these accusations he was going through physical changes too, He went through a skin disorder called vitiligo, but rumours spread of him bleaching his skin. This caused a lot of political issues due to black people being offended about him apparently bleaching and wanting to be white instead of black. Rumours also spread of him not wanting to be black so this offended the black society massively. He was also diagnosed which a body dysmorphic disorder. In 2003, his father admitted to whipping Michael and all his siblings when they were youngsters. This cleared up the truth from back in the 1960's/70's. In 2002 he was seen by paparazzi hanging his baby out of his balcony. This caused a lot of gried and abuse from the public due to the poor handling of a baby from its father. After all of this damagin drame to him as a person and his career, the overdose of drugs killed him on the 25th of june 2009. His doctor was accused of actually giving him the wrong drugs and more than he should take to purposely kill him. A trial was held in 2011 and his doctor was accused of man slaughter. By the end of his life and career, it was very stressful and this is what led him to his death.

Kylie Minogue

Another example is Kylie Minogue. Her career began in the 1980's and she was targeted at young girls with her cute appearance and jolly songs made. her dancing was energetic and appropriate for younger audiences.
As she got older going into the early 1990's, boys and girls started to become interested in her as she became more mature and independent in her style and the way she sang/looked. She was very confident in herself and began to look sexier, attracting boys attention. However, she wasn't too inappropriate for her target audience, she matured with their age.
As it hit the 2000's she became extremely mature and sexy as she began to make hit songs which played in clubs. Her appearance came across as very sexy and mature in an aggressive and intimidating way towards her female audiences.She was extremely confident in herself and her videos became very falic in her movements, Her clothing was very limited as she showed a lot of skin. For example, in her most recent music video she is extremely sexual and shows a lot of skin in the video. She also bounces on a bouncy ball, showing falic movement.
Her image in her music videos changed over time due to her starting off as a sweet young girl and being very fun and innocent in her music videos to being more mature looking, wearing less and being more sexual. This completely changed the audience's impression of her as a star. Sexual Reasons:
some people can use music videos to exploit or to feel comfortable with their sexuality.

Political Reasons:
Some people can use music videos to exploit or to feel comfortable with their sexuality.

Moral Reasons:
Some people can use these music videos to express their personal opinions on issues that they believe are important,

Social Reasons:
To represent a type of lifestyle or ideologies,

Star image is extremely important in many ways. To attract a target audience, you need to have a star image which will attract them to you. For example, if i used a female artist and i wanted to attract a male audeince, i would represent the female artist as very sexual, minimal clothing and use close up shots of their assets, This will appeal this target audience. If i used a male artist in my music video i would make he is quite attractive to the camera so they can attract a female target audience. However, i would make sure they have talent to attract male audiences aswell. Star image is the way an artist is represented to an audience so they need to be able to hold a stable image for the audience.