Star Image - Miley Cyrus

Star Image - Miley Cyrus

Andrew Goodwin uses the term ‘Star Image’ and refers to the ‘image’ an artist will portray themselves as in order to appeal to their target audience.  Goodwin stated ‘the creation of character identities for stars provides a point of identification for the audience, which is especially important when lyrics lack depth.’ This highlights the way in which an artist is represented as being crucial. Furthermore, the star image is the best way for an artist to reinforce their new persona, which is often shown through close ups in their videos. Miley Cyrus is a perfect example of how an artists star image can be radicalised over time and the impact their star image can have on their success. I have divided Miley’s star images into three categories:

Sweet and innocent Miley:

In this video which was released in 2008 whilst Miley was starring in Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, we can see that she is presented as being a better role model to her TV audience. The clothing she wears is a unique style however, it is suitable for the children who idolise her. Therefore, she has to appear to be a sweet young girl so that parents will be happy for their children to be watching her programmes. 
Dancing Miley:



'Party In The USA' was released in 2009 and this is where Miley started to relax and find herself. Her video now included more provocative dancing in comparison to '7 Things' and she now has more dancing girls who are dressed in a more revealing way as is she. It was soon after this that Miley stopped filming Hannah Montana and therefore she didn't feel as though she had to be someone her audience wants her to be. 

Sexual Miley:

My final comparison is this video which was released in 2013. In this video, we can see a drastic difference in her clothing which has turned into not wearing very much as well as her provocative dancing which we can see in this picture where she's on all fours and sticking out her bottom to show her sexual attitude. 

As we can see, there has been a huge change in Miley Cyrus' star image in just 5 years of fame. She has now become more sexual and  provocative which is definitely inappropriate for young children. As Goodwin said that an artist will portray themselves in a way that will appeal to their target audience. In this case, Miley was young herself in 2008 and therefore her target audience was people her age who watched her programme. Recently, her image changed as her target audience changed due to her growing up and maturing as a person. She has developed her image and made herself appeal to people more of her age group now.