Star Image – Avril Lavigne

Victoria Rooney

Avril Lavigne’s Star Image. Avril Lavigne known as the ‘rock and roll princess’, began with her ‘Sk8er girl’ image, in her

2002 album Let Go. However over the years as her popularity has grown with her music, her image has changed for example in 2002 she was a sweet innocent ‘Sk8er Girl’ to her latest in 2013 as rock chick with poppy rocky music. Avril Lavigne does wear outrageous clothes (an example is in her Hello Kitty music video when she is dancing around in a Cup Cake dress), some of Avril’s videos, music and outfits could be classed as outrageous which has gained her public attention over the years bringing her from a Pop Performer to a Pop Star. As fans will want to have the wacky clothes, hair and to have her style she has over come the pop performer and become a pop star. Avril Lavigne doesn’t use her Pop Star image and outrageous elements to show her in the lime light as a bad role model, she uses it to show her ‘Black Stars’ that you can be outrageous, be daring and gain attention through good uses of music, outfits and videos rather than being bad and being known in the media for taking drugs, or doing other ghastly things other celebrities have over the years to be well-known.

More detail on Avril’s Star ImageAvril Lavigne took the use of her outrageous, interesting, much loved fashion sense in July 2008 in order to create her own store Abbey Dawn for fans to share her particular design and taste in clothes, the store was a success and in 2010 she then added men's clothing to the store. This new clothing range gave Avril a chance to gain even more publicity. Due to the clothing business Avril can be seen as business women as well as idol and singer giving adding to her Star Image. Lavigne has also sold and branded many other things to show her in a business woman light such as creating several perfumes and so on for her fans to buy.

In 2013 Lavigne married Chad Kroger (the well-known singer of Nickelback) both her fans and his fans congratulated them and on getting married, Avril gained some of Nickelback’s fans and vise versa. Also due to this married they both released a new song Let Me Go onto Avril’s new 2013 album joining the two together through their career and giving both fan bases something to enjoy together, the song was a success and a video was released as her third music video in order to promote her new album. The marriage gave Avril a new light to how she Is seen, now she can be seen as business woman, singer, idol, wife and so on.

In 2013 Avril Lavigne again shaved half her hair off just as she did a few years ago, this did give her some criticism, however she was fitting in with the new trend of hair styles and gave her ‘Black Stars’ a new trend to follow. Avril’s image was something her fans could look at and copy for a trend. As a fan of Avril Lavigne I myself can prove that Avril’s image has had an impact on me for example I have taken some of her hair styles and colour's , make up styles, clothes designs and I look up to her as a role model for her choices in life and taste in music.

2002 2004 2007 2011 2013

Avril Lavigne's Image Change Over The Years

The 5 Criteria's Fitted Within Avril Lavigne1 – How did Avril become a Pop Star?

Avril Lavigne gained her Star Image through her hard work (going to karaoke when she was 14, writing her own songs, getting with famous stars to gain her attention and promote herself), good music and being a perfect role model to her Black Stars in order to promote herself, however just as Dyer says she has done other things to gain public attention such as; shaving half her head, adding bright colour's into her hair, marrying rock star Chad Kroger, ‘being racist’ which she was accused of recently however she politely took the accusations and answered them in a way in which proved her innocence and much much more such as creating a ‘bear-shark’ into her new “Rock ‘n’ Roll” video which was seen as wacky and weird but evidently caught the audiences eyes. Avril does most of what Dyer says in his theories On how to get a Star Image for example she has well placed news stories, a famous husband, attendance at premiers and parties and features in magazines.

The 5 Criteria's Fitted Within Avril Lavigne2 - How is Avril Constuctions?

Through Avril's constuction she is shown as a real person rather then an artificial image the way some stars decide to have their image. Avril is shown to have expressed real emotions forexample at her wedding, within the passion in her songs, her divorce with her ex husband and the major song and music video in which Lavigne shows her emotion fully is within her song ‘Slipped Away’ from her album ‘Under My Skin’ album the song is about her loosing her grandmother and through her voice and face we can see her pain, the images below are fromother songs Avril has produced, also once she had to performance the song she couldn’t as itmade her cry again showing her as a ‘real person’. Using this image Avril has a unique selling pointas no one can copy it, know one has it and so on which makes herself and her image unique.

The 5 Criteria's Fitted Within Avril Lavigne3 – Industry and Audience

Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose, in Avril's case to sing and entertain her fans and produce money by selling goods to them. The record company shape and mould their stars giving them a certain look, style and purpose the industry has molded Avril to a pop, rock princess prompting things such as Abbey Dawn to gain more money and give her fans what they want. To the audience Avril is seen as a role model which is exactly the way she is and the record company has promoted her if Avril was taking drugs she wouldn’t be fitted into the way the industry has promoted her and she wouldn’t appeal to more of an audience, this proves that even though a star may have good interest, goods and so on it is also their character and their personality in which also sells to fans.

The 5 Criteria's Fitted Within Avril Lavigne4 – Ideology and Culture

Avril Lavigne conveys beliefs and ideas outside her music in which helps creates her personal Persona for example she states she will never take drugs or create a bad image of herself, she Also has her own fashion trend which is why she created Abbey Dawn for her ‘Black Stars’ to follow in her image. Within Twitter and Facebook, also Instagram and her own website Avril Lavigne can show her true self to her fans. Avril’s twitter page is mainly dedicated to giving out information, thanking fans, and discussing business matters just as her Facebook, Instagram and Website is also from this matter we can see Avril is professional but also gives time in talking to her fans and giving information to new ideas.

The 5 Criteria's Fitted Within Avril Lavigne 5 – Character and Personality

Through Lavigne's star image we can see she is a very friendly, outgoing, approachable star, her personality seems to be nice and sweet and her character seems to be portrayed as a fun rock pop princess. Avril shows a thin pretty, girly image however this has changed because at first she was a tomboy. Lavigne doesn’t give strict beliefs that you should be thin and pretty, she accepts anyone, however to fans who want to be like her they will use her image into doing so.

How I will use Richard Dyer's theory to create my own star image.

Richard Dyer’s theory of ‘A true pop star does have a lasting significance and has a brand awareness amongst a wider market over a period of time’ will be used in order to create my own star image within my practical work. Richard dyer states that all celebrities have a particular style and a lasting significance which creates a more wider market, therefore in order to create a bigger market and create lasting significance my work will need to be different, catchy, gripping and marketed correctly in the way that celebrities such as Avril Lavigne is shown to the public in order to give her a wide fan base, recognition and her own personal star image. Within my work I will need to appeal to as much of the public as I can and also recognize what catches the audiences attention through a good light rather than a bad light for example Avril Lavigne is recognize through more of a good light then say other stars I will also need to create a whole new star image to bring a new style to the industry and create the audiences attention. Each of the Celebrities below have been molded to their own star image in order to gain public attention and make them a star in themselves, as you can see each one of them is different In many different ways from music to style and so on. Michael Jackson was a well-known pop star, he had his own image and his own style in music just ad Adel does and Miley Cyrus, as Miley has grown older her image has changed to more of a bad girl image which can show her in the bad light however it does gain her much public appeal, people watch her videos to see how wacky she has gotten now, people love and people hate her.

Reflecting on why it is important to get the star image right

It is important to get the exact star image or the star themselves will not be recognized to the extent, can be criticized and will not have their own image in which will make them in the industry, an example of this is through Avril Lavigne, she was a sweet young Sk8er girl and turned into cute, rock princess changing her image each and every time to match her new album, for example in Under My Skin, most of the tracks are sweet and rocky with a touch of gentle tone within it Avril's image changed to match that then for example in her latest album Avril Lavigne, her music is a mix of all types of music she has ever done ranging from rock to pop and hip hop and much more with this she has a clean fresh image of style she has ever done this brought all fans back over the years and reflects her image over all. Within Avril's correct image she has gained a Star image, fan base and success, without this she may have not done so well. Therefore with the correct star image the star will gain the best success.