Studying Pop Stars

In the 100 greatest singers of all time most of the artists on there you will never see again because they are dead and buried, but because they were such good artists their music carried on living and may have even become more successful. Unfortunately this is not the same for everyone and some artists die and their music dies with them. 
A good example of people dying but their music still living would be the ’27 Club’  who ‘lived fast and died young’. Their music has been adapted and continues to be bought by generations of fans. 

It is said that pop music is ‘of its time’ and it looses all meaning and value after a certain period has passed. While music remains rooted in the era of its creation it seems that some pop stars transform their context. 

While pop music constantly changes and is evolving into a variety of hybrid forms, pop stars keep common characteristics. Their songs may change but the singer/artist themselves stay the same.

They embody the same set of values:

• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relation to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds 

“However the longer a star remains successful on the world stage, the more difficult it is  to continue to embody these values. Originality and creativity burn out.”

I think that this is going to be something very important to take away from the article when creating my own ideas while constructing my products this year. It is so important to be original and creative because at some point you wont be able to create the same stuff because it would have already ‘burnt out.’

“If you don’t quit, eventually popular culture moves on, and quits you.”

So I have learnt that no matter how famous you are or how good your music is, at some point the candle will have burnt at both ends and nothing will be left and the music industry will eventually quit you. I think that this also suggests that it is a very tough industry and business area to be in.

The Top 10 Of Dead Pop Heros 

(in rough order of demise)

1. Billie Holliday
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Jim Morrison
4. Elvis Presley
5. Sid Vicious
6. Karen Carpenter
7. Kurt Cobain
8. TupacShakur
9. Michael Jackson
10. Amy Winehouse

These people all relate to James Deans “Live fast, die young, have a beautiful corpse” 

Dyers theory applied to pop stars

We read and understand song differently depending on who is singing the song. A song forms part of a pop stars ongoing narrative, eg with a break up album like 21 by Adele. When a pop star dies we start organising their life in to a three act narrative. Postmortem sales meann big business. A celebrity death creates headlines and often rekindles a fan interest. For example, Michael Jackson sold more songs in the week after his death then he had for years.





From reading this article I think that the best way for me to get a good reaction out of my own products is to focus on a song or an artist who may have died. I may get more interest because people may be sympathising with my ideas because of the death involved in it.