Star Construction

Pharrel WilliamsPharrel Williams is a American singer-songwriter, record producer and fashion designer. This is another star constructor I am analysing to help me figure out the sort of genre I want to do for my music video.

The genre Pharrel Williams sings and performs are Hip-Hop and RnB. These images are from the music videos, Happy, Come Get it Bae, Marilyn Monroe and Blurred Lines. As Pharrel Williams is a fashion designer, we immediately get the impression of how he dresses and the style he prevails. He is dressed is a stylistic, smart hipster look which tells the audience about his persona and image. This look which Pharrel Williams wears, is a genre signifier as the common convention for the genres of Hip-Hop and RnB requires for an artist to be funky, cool and unique.

Pharrel Williams is a natural performer as he takes on the stage live. Due to the stage and lighting we get the impression that he dances a lot as he engages the audience significantly.

Pharrel Williams is known for his fashion style which has given him the hipster image. He authentic look is similar in almost every music video he has done which is a common convention in the Hip-hop and RnB genre.

In the majority of Pharrel Williams music videos, he uses back-up dances to create a narrative. This is effective as it engages the audience as they are focused on the star constructors every move.

Setting & Persona

These images show the magazines/articles Pharrel Williams features in. All These magazines/articles give positive feedback about the star constructor’s lifestyle and music which is effective as it will have a positive effect on his fans. The GQ magazine tells us that the star constructor is the ‘Hitmaker’ of the year 2013, this shows how popular and successful Pharrel Williams is. Pharrel Williams has kept his private life to himself however, he has kept his relationship lifestyle open and clear to the audience as they can engage and keep tabs on their artist. This is effective as he can connect and interactive with his fans which will build a strong connection with his fans.

Pharrel Williams uses Twitter to interact with his fans. He is very social as he tends to post quiet a lot of tweets and pictures as his fans can keep tabs on him. Pharrel also tweets his fans to show his affection which suggests that he appreciates his fans support and love. He also has shouted out the director in the picture below, this shows that his persona is encouraging and caring. He tends to keep his private life to himself as he only tweets about his latest news, videos, pictures, tours and mostly music.

Pharrel Williams has perhaps produced the song of the decade ‘Happy’ which has over 450 million + views on YouTube. Along with his success, he has also been given positive support and feedback from his fans on the comments which is effective. He has also introduced postmodernism in his music video ‘Happy’ by intertextuality referencing ‘Despicable Me 2’ into his music video. This can be seen as intertextuality as he has referenced the happiness in Despicable Me 2 and put it into the music video ‘Happy’. This is effective to the target audience as it can attract both sets of audiences such as Pharrel Williams fans which are targeted at teenage girls and women (a convention of the RnB genre) and Despicable Me 2 which is targeted at kids. Pharrel Williams music videos can influence my choice in the particular genre I will be choosing as he interacts with his fans by dancing and creating positive music.