What qualities do you look for in a pop star?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Obviously musical/singing ability is required (well, most of the time) but what else?

- Eccentricity?
- Frivolousness?
- Dancing ability?
- Number of white towels in their rider?
- Appearing on Saturday morning kids' telly/Christmas specials?

Phrasing the question slightly differently: What makes you think an artist is 'pop'?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I look for different things in pop music than I do in pop stars. For "pop stars" I put my marketing hat on and what I look for is basically a Unique Selling Point - I want my pop stars to have an essence, something or some combination of things that makes them uniquely them, even if you couldn't put it into a sentence (though sometimes you can). One of my favourite books about rock and pop is Nik Cohn and Guy Peelaert's Rock Dreams, an attempt to define essences and establish an iconography of pop through vaguely kitsch but very powerful paintings of stars. Cohn was particularly good at zeroing in on a truth about the stars he wrote about.

This means that people I hate musically can be good, effective, talkable-about stars, and people I like musically can be quite bad pop stars.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Could your point be extended to "good pop stars can be charicaturised"? I mean, if you can draw a cartoon of them that everyone recognises then they have a USP? It doesn't have to rely on looks e.g. In Great Pop Things then they capture Sting (String) perfectly despite him having a very ordinary visual presence.