Richard Dyer and Andrew Goodwin - Star Theory and Paradox

 

In Twice's "What is Love?" music video, many many examples of intertextuality can be found. The video opens with the group at a sleepover, then depicts each member as a popular and/or iconic piece of media. Some examples of intertextuality included are The Princess Diaries, Lapland, Pulp Fiction, Ghost, Romeo and Juliet, etc. 

Richard Dyer's Star Theory can be seen in Twice as the group are very carefully styled and done up, showing how carefully manufactured they are as stars - this is point one. Point two concerns stars as a commodity: these girls are selling themselves as commodities, dancing, and overall serving as entertainment value rather than selling themselves with their singing talent alone. For point three, we could say that Twice represents the ideology of teenage hood, especially for young girls, which can be seen in the whole sleepover thing. And the intertextuality in itself also helps to feed the idea of the ideology of teenage hood as the films they have chosen to reference are films that typically, young girls would watch.

The paradox of the star by Andrew Goodwin can also be seen in the music video as Twice are simultaneously being represented as teenagers having a sleepover, as well as main characters in films and celebrities dancing to promote their music. What this does is create a sense of relatability and the idea that they are ordinary, while also positioning them far away as idols to be looked up to as figures of entertainment. Twice, in this music video, are also very present in their fan base as they regularly do interviews and game shows, but are also absent in their higher nature of being an idol. This generates fandom very effectively as fans are likely to be hooked onto the fact that these girls have charming personalities despite the fact that these personalities are carefully engineered and crafted specially for the camera.

So, in short, Richard Dyer's star theory is: stardom is a construction, manufactured purposefully with a specific persona extremely different to how the person may be in their private lives; stars are a commodity, a product, whose purpose is to make money with their existence; and that the star is an ideology, and promotes a certain perspective on life.