Choice of artist: Eminem
A pop performer and a pop star is something that should be differentiated. A pop performer is their identity for their musicianship or what they are well known for performing in. A pop star is someone that has an identity outside of their main role also. Some so-called pop stars today according to Richard Dyer don’t actually have a sociological impact on society or cover a wider market because their ‘brand awareness’ isn’t that big. Richard Dyer (1979) also said that “A star is an image constructed from a range of materials”. These materials he is talking about are things such as a pop star’s songs, album art work (their representations), media coverage (such as interviews and gossip), live performances and their music videos. A star persona is effectively the image of the famous person given by all the ‘materials’ listed above.
One of Eminem’s first music videos was called ‘My Name Is’ where he appears on the television set of a stereotypical American couple eating dinner and watching television. At a young age to present he has mostly appeared as being very comical when rapping and you can see this in his first songs. His first music video doesn’t seem to have any big budget aspects such as special effects. The editing is pretty basic with a few sped up clips and other editing techniques.
Eminem, since he started has always been on the music scene up to present date. Along the way he has made music videos with other artists, some featuring Eminem and the rest featuring other artists. These collaborative music videos help Eminem’s and the other artist’s popularity and keeps them in the public eye. Eminem has made many songs and we can see that compared to his first music videos he has adopted a big budget and is able to make more music videos with more creative ideas and locations. In the past he has made music videos with many rappers but recently has been with other artists such as Rihanna. This shows that he isn’t stuck to one genre of music.
At the time when Eminem was growing up, the genre of rap seemed predominantly an African-American ruled genre in America. With Eminem’s songs continuously being rated high on the charts he made it slightly more acceptable to see white people rapping on television. Eminem also made a movie called 8 Mile in which he stars as a new rapper trying to make it big in Detroit. This was seen to have aspects of Marshall Mather's life.
Eminem seems to have 3 personas however, one being Eminem, another being Slim Shady and another being Marshall Mathers. Slim Shady seems to be very comical, Eminem seems to be serious and Marshall Mathers is a representation of his own personality.
Eminem’s physical image has changed slightly from 1999 – 2011. He still has the same hair style and maybe now has a few more tattoos but he has changed the way he dresses. In some pictures when he was younger, you can see him with t-shirts with rude words on it or hoodies and bandanas. Nowadays he dresses a bit more stylish and has the money to afford to dress this way. His identity however has gone from a rebellious rapper who poked fun at institutions and made it seem like the world was against him to someone who is seen to be lyrically intelligent.
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