Analysis Of A Star And Dyer's Theory - Miss Miller**

The music industry is always evolving and one of these changes are the way artists reinvent themselves. There are many reasons to why they feel the need to,whether it's to keep up the current era as they've been around for a long time e.g Madonna or simply just bored of their genre of music, all these changes have been observed by audiences. Other examples of why artists may reinvent themselves is because of bad press of something they did and they wish to gain good publicity or like many disney stars such as Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, to show maturity and grow up along with their target audience. In this essay i'll be discussing the ways in which former Disney star, Miley Cyrus has changed over the past years through her music and appearance etc. 

Hannah Montanna - Nobody's Perfect

Miley Dancing 

The song 'nobody's perfect' is a song sang by Miley Cyrus but as her Disney character, Hannah Montanna. Goodwins theory of the style of video is evident in the music video, as we see a performance is the music e.g Miley performing on a stage in front of her fans. This is primarily seen throughout the whole music video as it is a live performance of the track which was released on July 3, 2007. 

Audience 

A performance is seen in the music video as we see Hannah Montana dancing and singing, and musicians at the background playing the instruments for the song. The purpose of this styled music video, is to intervene with the musical and TV side of her, as the TV show follows how she's two different people and one of them is being a singer. This shows her performance skills as an artist in the show, and showcases the talents she has that audiences from the TV show love. Incorporating a live audience as well makes the audience feel involved and feel like they're watching the live performance themselves, building a close relationship between the artist and audience. This is conventional to the Pop genre, as artists in this particular genre like to show off their talents through performing which allows them to visually see how the artist truly is like, especially when its a live performance. 

The genre that this music video belongs to is the Pop genre. A convention that is apparent in the music video through mise en scene; costume and iconography   is the fashionable costume worn by the artist throughout. Miley as Hannah Montanna, is seen wearing a buttoned jacket with a sparkly long sleeved top, black jeans and boots. The iconography used in the music is a blonde wig, which Miley wears when she's Hannah Montanna; the person  who is a star. The use of the blonde wig could symbolise the stereotypes of how blondes ' have more fun ' and help characterise herself as an artist as a fun person which is appealing to her target audience.  The dull colours and sparkly top she wears mixes her look with looking rocky but however still glamorous which is conventional to the pop genre. This is conventional as artists in this genre usually wear bright, flamboyant outfits that look glamorous to attract their audience but also convey their happiness and star qualities in themselves. 

Another convention that is evident in this music video, is the use of young dancers and actors. We see this throughout as Miley has back up dancers who look similar to her age, and actors with camera that pretend to be paparazzi. The use of the young dancers and actors, especially dancers is to convey the youth of today, but also make the artist relatable and appealing to their target audience e.g Miley's target audience is of young children to early teens. 

In Dyer's theory of how the artist is represented, Miley Cyrus as known as Hannah Montana in the Nobody's Perfect music video is represented as a fun, confident, happy young girl. The music video portrays her as fun and happy through her performance involving dancing and singing which she clearly enjoys doing. This is clearly shown through her body language and facial expressions. Also, she's portrayed as a confident person because she is performing in front of a crowd and does not look like she is afraid to.
I think Miley Cyrus in this stage of her life can be viewed as a product, especially targeted for younger audiences. Miley is viewed as a product by being seen as a girl living her dream which young audiences may look up to and see her as a role model. Examples of where she is seen as a product could be when her character, Hannah Montana has been used in magazines, TV adverts, Teen Awards etc. This shows how she's fabricated for her target audience through what she looks and says in these media platforms. 

She also displays Dyer's paradox that an artist must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary as she is represented as ordinary in the TV Show as being Miley Cyrus, but as extraordinary when she is Hannah Montana and performing (as seen in Nobody's perfect music video). This makes her relatable, but fascinating for her target audience which engages them to continue following her as an artist. The second paradox of an artist being simultaneously present and absent can be seen through the use of Miley known as two people. For example, when she is seen as Hannah Montana and willing to be seen as a star she is present, but when she's Miley she's normal and doesn't want people knowing who she is. 
I think the music video 'Nobody's perfect' is for hegemony, as Miley Cyrus promotes it in the sense that she is saying to go against the norm and be yourself. In addition showing how the rich people are telling the working class to accept their flaws,so they don't work to be better and because its a smiley face of a teen it is internally accepted. This also links into the messages and values aspect of accepting flaws and mistakes by not beating yourself up about it but in fact learning from them. This song was released in 2007, and in this time period teen stars were dominant in the music industry where many would make music videos or songs to fit their TV Show but also keep the target audience entertained. The positive social content message behind this was essential back then as it discusses the importance of overcoming mistakes.
The target audience for Miley Cyrus at this stage is primarily young, pre teen girls, specially the age 6- 15. The reason for this is because she her self is young and portrayed as a teenager, that the audience could inspire to be when they're her age, therefore acting as a role model for the younger ages. 

Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed 

Miley's music video ' Can't Be Tamed', was the one that demonstrated the drastic change in her sound and image. Through Goodwin's theory of voyeurism, this is clearly seen as we see Miley dressed in a revealing black leather leotard which portrays her drastic change from the previous video. This is also used in the album cover of her third studio album named 'Can't Be Tamed' where we see her wear black leather tight trousers, leather jacket and black crop top.  The use of this particular costume, conveys the point addressed in the whole song of how she ' can't be tamed' which suggests her breaking free from her past self, and telling the audience how she wont stay the same forever. By wearing this sort of costume, this attracts a new older audience, particularly male which shows her branching out and growth as an artist. This is conventional to the pop genre, as they often consist of revealing and tight costumes that emphasise the body figure, so it attracts the male gaze.  

Synchronised dancing 

A genre convention that is clear in this music video is synchronised dancing. We see this on numerous occasions in the music video, for example when Miley is in the cage with other dancers. The use of the the synchronised dancing engages the audience into watching the music video, as everyone is seen doing the same thing. This is conventional to the pop genre as it shows a sense of togetherness and makes the video look more lively, which may have the audience copy the dance moves. In addition, audiences may copy dance moves from the music video, and then create a buzz around it which produces more publicity for the artist. 

Peacock representation

Eye Make Up 

Another convention that is evident in the music video, is the use of make up. Miley's make up, especially eye make up is quite dark and green which portrays peacock colours which we see her dressed as a peacock further in the video. The eye make up help convey her bird look and can portray her as dark and free. This is conventional to the pop genre, as artists usually wear makeup that suits their music video, but also so it helps illustrate the music video and artists feelings, views or message, so audiences have more of an understanding. 



Miley at the Grammy

In reference to Dyer's theory, Miley in this music video is represented as rebellious, abnormal, voyeuristic , a sexual magnetism , aggressive, youthful and creative which shows that she has more of the common values in his star theory. This is evident through the use of costumes, dancing and iconography. I don't think Miley in this music video is seen as a product, as the video is about not being held back by anyone and doing her own thing. This shows her maturity from Hannah Montana and that she's now interested in doing things her own way instead of being told what to do. An example of her growing up is from the way she dresses, its not longer 'childish' but more grown up. Artists tend to do this so that they attract an older audience but also show that they are growing up. Furthermore, Dyer's paradox of being ordinary and extraordinary is evident in the music video. Miley can be seen as extraordinary through the use of costume and concept of the music video of being a bird that cannot be tamed. This exaggerates her stardom and shows her as being different to others. However, unlike the Hannah Montana music video, She is seen as different through her real image as Miley cyrus but this can be seen as ordinary because 'normal people' do change the way they are when they grow up, which adds on the point of her growing up. The second paradox of an artist simultaneously being present and absent could be evident in this sense, as when Miley was 'breaking free' from her Hannah Montana stage she was quite low - key. But after a year, her album Can't be tamed shows the change in her and how she's reinventing herself away from the disney world. I don't think the music video ' Can't be tamed' is for Hegemony but in fact for it because of the lyrics it self and concept of not being controlled by others especially society. Therefore, she's promoting the belief of not being restricted, and being herself whilst going against the norm to her audience. Furthermore, she promotes hegemony in the sense of telling her audience to against the norm through the use of lyrics "I wanna be a part of something I don't know, And if you try to hold me back I might explode". This illustrates her wanting to be apart of something that does not follow the norms, which encourages her audience to be like her as they may see it as cool because she is feeling that way. 

Miley in the bird cage 

The video could be seen as breaking away from what society see's as normal because of the use of birds and a cage that she is contain her. This may attract the new audience to think that she is rebellious and fearless as she is not following societies norm in her music video and is seen as different to her Hannah Montana stage where she did follow societies norms because she was young. Unlike the previous video, the music video attracts a new target audience of young females as well as men due to her being seen as a sex symbol. This show the maturity and change in Miley, which older audiences may be intrigued to follow and watch her videos. Therefore, Miley's target audience in this period is young adults; age 17-27, due to the mild revealing costume and minimal provocative dance moves that she illustrates showing that she's fearless and powerful. 

Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop

Twerking 

In this stage Miley's life, she reinvented herself not only through her image but her music as well. Back in 2012, the drastic change that happened in this period, was the chop of her hair. She tweeted after cutting the hair " never felt more me in my whole life" , expressing how she feels like her self with the hair do. This drastic change in her appearance was talked about in social media a lot and was trending on twitter. This was the mark of Miley's true change. The We Cant Stop music video was one of the most talked about videos as well, due to the sense of oddness of seeing Miley do different things. Goodwin's theory of a relationship between the lyrics and visuals is evident in this music video. This is evident when we hear the lyrics " To my homegirls with the big butt, shaking it like we at a strip club" and see Miley and a couple of girls 'twerking' (shaking their bums). This style of dance was a trend that started then, and the fact Miley is incorporating it in her music video, is showing how she is up to date with the latest trends which audience may talk about and be like ' Miley did so and so', which creates a buzz around her music video. This is conventional to the pop genre, as artist tend to convey that they are following whats 'hot' right and also to show that they're not afraid to try new things. 

partying 

A genre convention that is apparent in the music video, is the theme of partying. This is evident in the We Can't Stop video as we see numerous of clips of Miley and other people partying in a pool and indoors. Also the use of people dressed up as bears conveys the party theme, as parties can be fancy dressed for the fun aspect. This represents the artist as fun, youthful and rebellious through the use of the setting and actions happening in the music video e.g dancing, drinking and drugs shown. This is conventional to the pop genre, as artists usually want to convey themselves as daring and fun to their audiences so that they feel like they're having a good time whilst watching their music video like how they are in the actual video. The imagery created is often based on sex or partying because this is usually associated with what the target audience e.g teens enjoy doing, which makes the artist look relatable. 

Posing seductively 

The next convention that is evident in the music video, is the use of Miley wearing revealing clothes. This is seen throughout the music video, as we see her wearing white mostly; a crop top and tight leggings, body suit, a cutout leotard and so on. Linking with Dyer's theory of sexual magnetism, she uses voyeurism to gain attention and inform the audience that she is rebelling from her past and has grown up. With the exposure of her body through her revealing clothes, Miley also flaunts herself provocatively to look more sexual and appeal to male audiences. This is conventional to the pop genre, as artists tend to wear more revealing clothes to portray a sexual atmosphere and lure the audience into watching their music video. This often creates a hype over the music video as audience talk about the seductive activities portrayed in them which gives the artist more publicity. 

The music video definitely follows Dyer's start theory, as the common values of a star e.g rebellion, sexual magnetism, originality , creativity/talent, aggression, youthfulness and references to drugs and sex are noticeable. This is because Miley wants to assure people are aware of her reinventing herself as she wants to break away from her Disney childhood image. Unlike the Can't Be Tamed video, Miley does this major change and promotes it with her new look which connotes her new style, whereas the other video it was just a small change. Miley can be seen as a product, especially for teenage girls as she represents the growing up stage in this music video which audiences can relate to. However, illustrates that she is for hegemony in the We Can't Stop video like the Can't Be Tamed video and Nobody's perfect video. This is through the use of drugs and alcohol which promotes the idea of her audience to do these activities, because they're seen numerous times in the video and emphasises on the way she's having fun with them. Therefore, hegemony is apparent within the music video, which promotes the idea that using drugs and alcohol is cool and fun and that her audience should so it as well. The target audience are quite the same as the previous video, but just more primarily with adult audiences as she is older and able to do what adults can do. The target audience is 18-30 year old females and males because she is seen indulging drugs and alcohol which is known to be consumed by this target audience, but also the whole party lifestyle is relatable to them as well, therefore making Miley look like she's one of them. In addition to Dyer's theory of being present and absent, Miley is simultaneously present after the release of the video as she further promotes her escaping from her childhood image and being 'herself' through interviews and performances e.g 2013 MTV VMA's where she performed 'We Can't Stop ' and danced provocatively with Robin Thicke. 

The messages and values from each video have been fairly similar, with the idea of being yourself and not allowing anyone to change you. In the Nobody's Perfect video this demonstrates this by expressing the view to accept your flaws and not let anyone get to you. Whereas, the Can't Be Tamed video expresses the ideology, that you should not restrict yourself to what others want you to be, and should break out of the norms, and the We Can't Stop video showcases the message of having fun and no one being able to stop her from doing what she wants to do. Therefore, the overall message and values promoted throughout Miley's music videos is the message of being true to yourself and not letting anyone tell you what to do or change yourself. This appeals to the audience, as we live in a society of rules and with her music videos, the audience could feel a sense of escapism from the rules. 

In conclusion, it is clear that Miley Cyrus has reinvented herself in the past few years purely to break away from her past imagery and actually be seen as what she says his herself. Also, that she changed because she wants to keep up to date with the latest trends to stay relevant, but also grow up with her audience so that they will still engage to her. This research will help assist me with an idea of who I will choose an artist to create a music video to, as it is clear from the research the ways artist reinvent themselves has an impact in the music industry. Also, it'll gain me more of on understanding of my chosen artist as I'll do research on them so that I make my music video as conventional as possible. Furthermore, I've learnt from this post that it is good for an artist to reinvent themselves as it attracts new audiences which widens their target audience and gives them more publicity.