The star image

The star image or ‘meta narrative’ is the development of an artist over time; this includes the stories surrounding this particular artist. The music industry relies very heavily on the star images of a few very popular artists to fund its actions; as in most cases it fails to connect with popular audiences directly. This means that basically the theory of ‘star image’ has a hugely important role to play within the music video production process.

Case study – Michael Jackson

Jackson’s Meta narrative has been a long and event filled one, proving difficult to handle for the star, leading to his downfall and untimely death.

· The first crucial aspect of Michaels Meta narrative is his move from the Jackson 5 to becoming a successful and charismatic solo artist.
· Going on to develop one of the most distinct voices and images in the music industry he went on to forge a hugely successful career.
· Innovative, original and inspirational videos such as ‘Thriller’ and ‘Beat it’ became important tools in creating his path to super stardom.
· In the 90’s Jackson’s star image, took a U-turn and instead of being seen as a talented and unique artist, he was viewed as a disturbing, self indulgent character. This then lead to the start of the constant comparisons between his new ‘weird’ self and his younger, vibrant, happy-go-lucky self.
· However, through it all Michael Jackson has remained a huge media fascination making him still a larger than life, eccentric star.

Meta-narratives of star image are not simply a matter of manipulation, but a dialogue or negotiation of what the music business asserts about their star, and what we accept.

Michael Jackson was for the last years of his career trying to regain credibility and improve his star image but he never quite managed to do it due to the negative connotations that began circling his name, such alleged child abuse. An artists’ video’s can be viewed as the most important way to manage themselves as far as public relations and advertising goes.