Celebrity culture
Celebrity culture is a high-volume exposure to celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands.
Whereas a culture can usually be physically identified, and its group characteristics easily observed, celebrity culture exists solely as a collection of individuals' desires for increased celebrity viewing. Celebrities themselves do not form a cohesive and identifiable group with which they identify themselves, but are rather found across a spectrum of activities and communities including acting, politics, fashion, sports and music. This "culture" is created when there is common knowledge within a society that people are interested in celebrities and are willing to alter their own lives to take part in celebrities' lives. The "culture" is first defined by factors outside of celebrities themselves and then augmented by celebrities' involvement within that publicly constructed culture. Celebrity culture has become a part of everyday society and functions as a form of entertainment.[1] Today, everyday citizens play an important role in the perpetuation of celebrity culture by constantly checking the whereabouts of celebrities, their friends, the trends within celebrity culture, and the general lives of celebrity via media.[1] Celebrity culture is now reflected in social norms and values because of the extreme citizen involvement.[2] Today, as it is now used as entertainment, celebrity culture is viewed as a form of "escapism" from reality and a means of preoccupation for everyday people.[3]
History[edit]
Celebrity culture in the United States began in the late nineteenth century as the nouveaux riches sought personal publicity in the society columns and magazines of the day. While philanthropists, politicians, and other public figures were the best-known New Yorkers in the 1870s, by the 1890s, the new elite were people celebrated for their gossip value.[4] Film historian Richard Schickel cites the beginning of the modern celebrity system to the period between 1895 and 1920.[5] In the 1930s and '40s, the modern culture of celebrity was fashioned through the columns of Walter Winchell, America's "most celebrated gossip writer".[4]: 254
Promotion from celebrities[edit]
There have been multiple phases in the popularity of celebrity culture. Some examples include the broadcasting of television programs where human beings could reach wider audiences and individuals could be given rise to fame. As different technologies were released, the manipulation of audiences changed, and the reaches of celebrity culture has greatly expanded. Entrepreneurial individuals began to recognize the financial value in purposefully promoting certain individuals, and thus a consumer approach to celebrities as brands emerged. A culture began to take shape as consumers accepted celebrities as a part of society. This acceptance along with shrewd marketing perpetuates celebrity culture with its constantly shifting customs and beliefs.
Celebrity culture can be viewed as synonymous with celebrity industry, where celebrities are treated as products to be sold. Celebrity culture differs from consumer culture in that celebrity culture is a single aspect of consumer culture. Celebrity culture could not exist without consumer culture, as people are consistently buying magazines, apps for celebrities, and other celebrity-related merchandise. Consumers' choices are thus influenced by celebrities' choices. By following celebrities, consumers are invited to take part in the collective society created by the existence of celebrity culture, unknowingly perpetuated by the consumers themselves. Participants of the celebrity culture phenomenon also include the celebrities themselves, being aware they can brand themselves and achieve financial gains through their own fame and status, apart from the foundation of their celebrity pre-branding.
"To people who have grown tired of self-government, the belief in kings and queens and fairy tales seems easier and more comfortable than the practice of politics," wrote Lewis Lapham in his book, The Wish For Kings. This notion is the basis for the naturally occurring relationship between "regular" men and women, and those on a pedestal.
The famous religious books of the world's faiths are replete with examples of individuals who are well known by the general public. Some of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt set in motion devices to ensure their own fame for centuries to come.
Celebrity culture, once restricted to royalty and biblical/mythical figures, has pervaded many sectors of society including business, publishing, and even academia (the scilebrities). With every scientific advance names have become attached to discoveries. Especially for large contributions to humanity, the contributor is usually regarded honourably. Mass media has increased the exposure and power of celebrity. A trend has developed that celebrity carries with it increasingly more social capital than in earlier times. Each nation or cultural community (linguistic, ethnic, religious) has its own independent celebrity system, but this is becoming less the case due to globalization (see J-pop or K-pop).
Perpetuation of celebrity culture[edit]
According to Oliver Dreissens, celebrity's social and cultural prominence can be traced back to the success of the mass media.[6] The various forms of mass media allowed for the spread of new images and branding of celebrities. Especially with the inclusion of televisions in the average home, there became more of a familiarity with the people or celebrities now "in our homes".[7] Media surrounding celebrities has heavily influenced not only celebrity culture but the general social environment in our lives.[8] Celebrities are known to not only influence what we buy but many other things such as body image, career aspirations and politics. Richard Dyer has stated that celebrity culture is bound up with the condition of global capitalism in which "individuals are seen to determine society".[9] Newer technologies, such as cable television and 24/7 coverage, have made today's celebrities manufactured for mass consumption, as opposed to the celebrities of the thirties and the fifties who were more self-made.[10] 24/7 coverage pushed for more programming and people to fill the extra time. With this evolved more shows and celebrities who partook in the additional screen time. Reality television has been a large part of fostering a new celebrity culture that is more interchangeable and recognizable.[11] Cable television and social media sites such as YouTube, have made "overnight" sensations which have perpetuated today's perception of celebrity culture.[11]: 493 Celebrities such as Justin Bieber, who rose to immense fame after being discovered on YouTube, are argued to elicit emotional ties and self-reflexiveness that invoke a seemingly personal connection.[11] This can be seen with some fans, especially female fans, feeling like they have a certain ownership or connection over a celebrity.[12] At the same time, the love-hate relationship that many popular media (e.g. British tabloid newspapers) foster between the public and celebrities, whom they admire, envy and also despise, helps to generate continuing interest in celebrity news, and ironically, to promote the cult of celebrity.[13]
Tantrums[edit]
Some celebrities are known for "throwing tantrums" to get their way. They are also known for getting in debates with their friends, who are also celebrities, in order to amp up the drama and let their names be seen. When an individual is in the public eye, it changes how they act and their behavior. Usually it encourages people to act in extremes, whether that be extremely good or extremely bad. Most of the time, publicity only goes to celebrities who are going against the social norm, and doing something different. People are more interested in reading about something crazy a celebrity did, rather than them going out and having a respectful lunch.
Posthumous fame[edit]
Some creators such as poets, artists, musicians, and inventors are little-known and little-appreciated during their lives but are feted as brilliant innovators after their deaths. A desire to achieve this type of posthumous fame may have motivated Alan Abel, Adam Rich, and Pauly Shore to stage their deaths. In some cases, after historians uncover a creator's role in developing some cultural or technical process, the contributions of these little-known individuals become more widely known.
Sometimes a false death mention can cause a person to rethink their legacy. Alfred Nobel founded the Nobel Prizes after an erroneous obituary labeled him a "merchant of death" due to his invention and selling of dynamite.
People who were far more famous after their deaths than during their lifetime (and often were completely or relatively unknown) include painter Bob Ross;[35][36][37] Greek philosopher Socrates; scientist Galileo Galilei; Romantic poet John Keats; painter Vincent van Gogh; poet and novelist Edgar Allan Poe; singers Eva Cassidy and Nick Drake; comedian Bill Hicks; writer Emily Dickinson; artist Edith Holden, whose 1906 diary was a best-seller when published posthumously in 1977; writer Franz Kafka; singer Jeff Buckley; diarist Anne Frank; philosopher Søren Kierkegaard; writer John Kennedy Toole (who posthumously won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 12 years after his death); author Stieg Larsson (who died with his Millennium novels unpublished); musician, artist and poet Rozz Williams; and William Webb Ellis, the alleged inventor of Rugby football.
Herostratus, a young Greek man arsoned the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) in 356 BC to immortalize his name. Although authorities at the time tried to erase him from history and punished people with the death penalty for even merely mentioning his name, he succeeded in achieving lasting fame, as his name is well known today.