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

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"Star" is an interesting generic category, because there's an assumption of "naturalness" in the star that's necessarily socially and/or personally constructed; and yet, to each person identifying the star, the effect IS natural. I don't think I could be argued into thinking that Girls Aloud, say, are stars when I don't think they are, and yet I couldn't tell you some rule that they broke that kept them from being stars. It's a totally ad hoc rationalization for appeal (or lack thereof).

What I like about stardom is that there's no way of trying to wiggle yer way out of making a pretty serious, possibly irrevocable value judgment (regardless of popularity) about the power of the star...I dunno, presence, or auteur status, or whatever you want to call it. It's a super-something, an exemplar, head-and-shoulders above the mass of artists, and there's no particularly clear way of deciding what distinguishes a given artist's star-power/presence/whatever, despite the intensity and singularity of the classification.

Anyway, one question: can anyone, once becoming a star, actually become de-starred? The new Stooges certainly doesn't exhibit any particular star quality, but as you said, the Stooges are a star; so they haven't exactly given up their star status, they just haven't contributed anything to it. It's stuck in the past, but it's not like it disappeared.