Distribution: Textual Analysis

Website Textual Analysis: Arctic Monkeys

Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' Theory

Star Theory- Justin Bieber

Star Theory

The music industry likes to create stars. The word 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around the music performers in order to sell the performers to a large and loyal audience.

A recent example of an artist that I believe this applies to is Justin Bieber. He became famous at the age of just 16 for his fairly controversial 'girly' voice; which most people seemed to hate but he then developed his fan base of 'Beliebers'. Bieber now has 70 million followers on twitter and his fame all developed from he media attention he was given, with one of his first songs released ('Baby') now above 1.2 billion views with 5 million dislikes. This shows that even if people aren't too keen on you you can be a star, linking to the values of stardom.

Values of Stardom

• Youthfulness- when Bieber first came on the scene he was young and youthful.
• Rebellious- Bieber was seen to not care what his haters thought about him, and was even seen to spit on one of his fans; maybe not the best attitude but definitely rebellious.
• Sexual Magnetism- A huge amount of females saw Justin Bieber as very attractive, securing himself multiple modelling jobs for famous brands (eg Calvin Klein)
• Originality- every song he brings out has a different element to it; he used to do pop music mainly and now he has incorporated a little bit of house music into his songs too
• Creativity/Talent- No matter how much people don't like him there is no denying he can sing. To have the majority of your hits to reach over 30 million views on YouTube you have to be talented and creative 
• Disregard of social values- In his recent music video ('What do you mean?') he is seen to get very intimate with a girl in a hotel room, and there has been multiple news stories about him and other females relationships. He is often caught smoking and doing various other drugs fairly conspicuously and this is published in news papers, proving the disregard for social values. 
• Success against the odds- Bieber started off with a large amount of haters, but now his status has increased massively and even I'm a fan of his music now!

Richard Dyer said that irrespective of the medium, stars do have things in common.

They are an image, not a real person that is constructed from a range of different materials, they are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings, to get their image they depend on a different subsidiary media,

The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audience; this links to Bieber because everything he does is targeted towards his target audience and helps to make his fan base grow- they may like the fact that he is a bit of a rebel, they might like the fact he models for Calvin Klein; it makes them fonder of him.

Star Image

For a star to continue people want to know more about them personally; so people can connect and complete the image they have of them. This is done by continued consumption of their products e.g Justin Bieber has brought out a film called 'Believe' which tells audiences more about him and his private life keeping the his star image.

Performances (concerts) are set up to complete the image of the artist but ultimately are unsatisfying as the audience doesn't find out the full image of the artist so therefore makes them more determined to carry on consuming the products so they can find out the full image of the artist. This ultimately keeps the audience interested and ensures the star doesn't die out.

Justin Bieber regularly performs at concerts/does his own concerts to keep his audience interested in him, and it also makes his fan base grow.

Depending on the artist the audience may be positioned against the mainstrain or within the mainstream; or possibly even somewhere in between. Bieber's fans are positioned within the mainstream and are seemingly in love with anything he does- so no matter how bad his actions are his 'star image' clouds it.

Music Video Regulation

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are in charge of regulating music videos and ensuring the are suitable for viewing. Here are some examples of banned music videos:

'Just Lose it'- Eminem
The fact that I found evidence of Eminem having a video banned did not come to me as a shock, at all. I almost expect it! The irony of the song is that he seemed to have 'lost it' in the making of it; with the many elements of controversy. The song itself caused controversy because it has lyrics and parts within the music video in which it parodies and mocks Michael Jackson; who was scrutiny of child molestation at the time. Not only does it cause controversy for that but it badly spoofs Pee-wee Herman, imitating his signature shout within the chorus and Eminem even going as far as dressing as him for the video. Eminem also walks down the street naked in various parts of the video, and he also didn't hesitate to poke fun at MC Hammer, Madonna, Beavis/Cornholio and others.
Its hardly surprising that this was banned, but the song itself actually reached number one in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.


'Girls on Film'- Duran Duran
The song was banned for being too raunchy, but the song did well on the radio and the charts before the notorious video was filmed, but the controversy actually helped to keep the band in the public eye and the song on the charts for many weeks. This created the social interaction factor of the uses and gratifications; being the topic of debates/talk of people. The video featured topless women mud wrestling and other not-very-stylised depictions of sexual fetishes. The hazy yet sexy imagery made it tough to determine whether the photo shoot, which was under scrutiny, was fashion-oriented or explicitly inappropriate.


'Low'- Foo Fighters
Actor Jack Black teamed up with Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl in a bizarre video where the two portray rednecks getting drunk in a motel room. The beginning of the clip shows the pair drinking heavily while filming each other, but it soon gets weirder when they proceed to put on sexy women’s clothes. Black wears a homely pink bikini top with a pink skirt, and Grohl wears a black thong and garters. The booze makes things spiral even more out of control, ending with Black vomiting into a toilet. The video was banned by MTV for its content in 2003, and although it never gets too explicit, it is ridiculously weird.

My choice and why

I had originally chosen to do a song of which I have been a fan of since it first came out; 'Homesick' by Catfish and the Bottlemen. However, recently I have decided to change my mind and do a song which I cannot stop listening to. The song is 'Trojans' by Atlas Genius.

This has meant I have had to adapt and add to my original ideas I had for the song by Catfish and the Bottlemen as it is obviously a change in song and also genre. Trojans is more of an alternative song with a different target audience; again making me change my ideas and theories I had for the audience.

I have recently completed my pitch the video and here are the lyrics with my ideas I have planned already.

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