Richard Dyers Star Theory: Ariana Grande

Richard Dyer is a media theorist who believes that stars are a construction and they are not real people. Their advertisement, television and magazine personality has been created by their management. For example, Ariana Grande started off on the Nickelodeon programme called 'Victorious' as an actor who was portrayed as a sweet, innocent little red head. Across the beginning of her career, everyone saw her as only a childish character.

To get away from this naive character, she had to make drastic changes to her star image. Victorious soon ended as a programme and this was her chance to reinvent herself as a singer, as this is what she truly wanted to do. She released the hit song 'Problem' in 2014 featuring Iggy Azalea, consisting of a music video that showed off sexy, mature moves that would swing her out of the tween category. In this transition her management had to strategically change her appearance over a length of time, by changing her red hair to her natural brunette hair and have an iconic half up and half down hairstyle throughout the most of her career. 

Stars are produced to create a profit off of related merchandise. At her concerts, she sells t-shirts, caps and necklaces. There is a continued consumption of the star through her products such as concerts and worldwide tours. Performances seem to promise the completion of the image of the star but eventually leads to disappointment for the fan. The unclear image of the star ensures the audiences continually strive to complete or make sense of the image by keeping up with them on social media and buying merchandise.

As for Ariana as an ideology she represents empowerment in women as she tweeted in 2015 a heart felt letter for her fans about how she has been objectified by being called Big Sean's 'ex' instead of her being called own person. Stars do this in order to fit to her target audience to gain a larger audience. She represented women as powerful and important which will reach out to wider audiences and fans will copy from their style and share the same views and copy their 'role model'. 

Referring to Richard Dyers Star Theory, there are 2 'paradoxes'. Paradox 1 is where 'the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer'. This consists of the star having to be able to relate to us as fans, but also have the ability to amaze us with their talents. For example seeing Ariana post on social media in her pyjamas drinking hot chocolate lets the fans know that she also leads an everyday life, just like them. Paradox 2 is where 'the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'. For example having a poster on your wall of Ariana suggests she is present because there is a picture of her on your wall, but at the same time absent because she is not physically there. Stars must show the second paradox by letting their fans into their personal lives and post about their doings and where abouts on social media consistently.

Ariana's digipak is pretty basic, consisting of a stereotypical portrait on the front and text of the songs on the back of the CD cover.

As for her website, it is laid out in tour, news, album and merchandise details format: The first thing you see on the website is the 'One Love' charity concert advertisement. This is amazing for Ariana's career because she is raising money for charity and helping the victims of the attacks by giving away free tickets to everyone who went to the concert that got attacked. https://www.arianagrande.com

Her music video 'Dangerous Woman' is a very raunchy, sexual video that takes her out of the child category from the acting/music industry. Many of her music videos are listed on her website.