‘Dolly “5 to 9”: manufactured authenticity, transmedia storytelling, and Parton’s star image’

ABSTRACT Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton has increasingly been using transmedia storytelling in a distinctive way, by retelling some of her signature songs in new contexts and turning them into television movies and series rooted in her autobiography. Her expansion of her classic songs into new texts on different media platforms illuminates recent trends in how star images are evolving. It reflects how Parton joins other musicians in marketing their star image as a brand, part of a neoliberal branding of the star as entrepreneurial self. Parton often merges her life story with narratives in her lyrics, drawing on her autobiography for storytelling and personal mythology. She uses her life narrative extensively in her projection of authenticity, fashioning a stage persona and media image featuring a particular version of sincerity. This essay focuses on two recent examples of retold Parton songs, the ‘9 to 5’ advertisement and an episode of the Netflix television series based on her earlier song ‘Two Doors Down’ (1977). Through historicised textual analysis and discussion of cultural theory, the essay shows the evolution of her authenticity narrative, how her transmedia storytelling illuminates trends of musicians marketed as brands, and how her star image generates new meanings via retold songs.