Celebrity Culture

Celebrity Culture

I want to investigate the general public's desire to associate with the celebrity. Simultaneously celebrated and degenerated stars represent not only the embodiment of success but also the ultimate construction of false value.

In the public sphere a cluster of individuals are give a greater presence and a wider scope of activity and agency than those who make up the rest of the population. They perform in the public eye whilst we, the viewer, simply sit back and watch.

Thousands of online blogs, magazines, books, TV shows and radio shows narrate the rise and fall of celebrities who we allow to express themselves quite individually and independently to feed our obsession of the celebrity lifestyle.

Why are we so driven to take part in the construction and collapse of the celebrity idol?

Take Britney Spears for example, an iconic star that has grown up in the public eye, living and breathing the celebrity status. Fifteen years ago, Britney Spears was at the height of popularity, "women wanted to be her, and men wanted to be with her." She was the biggest sex symbol since Cindy Crawford. But as history has told us, success, especially at a young age, has its price. Swamped by paparazzi, every aspect of Britney's life was closely scrutinized from her boobs, to her music, to her virginity.

As Britney slowly started losing her footing in the areas that made her popular (music and sex appeal), the world started to become interested in the slow backslide of America's sweetheart. We started to become interested in watching Britney in the way that we can't help but looking at a car crash on the side of the road. She's got a flat tire, and we all slow down to take a look.

Our obsessive fixation on the Britney Spears saga has even given life to new celebrity personalities such as the infamous figure of YouTube's, Chris Crocker. Crocker appeared in an emotionally charged two minute video with tears in his eyes, which has had upwards of ten million hits. Rather than critiquing Britney and everything she personifies, Crocker cried ‘How fucking dare anyone out there make fun of Britney after all she's been through?' lambasting the media for shamelessly making money from Britney's difficult life circumstances. Crocker's raging response raises several questions such as it may suggest that as well as highlighting our love to be a part of the construction and collapse of the icons we are fixated on, but also we may have entered a post critical era of visual culture.

Celebrity status operates at the very centre of culture as it resonates with conceptions of individuality that are the ideological ground of western culture. The celebrity is a prominent component of contemporary culture participating openly as a marketable commodity. The power of celebrity status appears in business, politics and artistic communities. It operates as a way of providing distinctions and definitions of success within these domains.

As David Marshal said, ‘'Within Society the celebrity is voice above others'', this is a voice that is channeled into media systems as being legitimately significant.

This is constantly demonstrated in the marketing media where celebrities are used to stand behind a brand and say that they use the product which in turn legitimizes the brand or product and makes the consumer want to buy into it too. It becomes considered a status symbol to purchase a celebrity endorsed product.

The Beckham brand demonstrates perfectly both the power of celebrities becoming hugely marketable. Together Victoria the former Spice Girl, now best known for her pout and David the footballer not afraid to experiment with hairstyles and tattoos, are arguably the UK's most famous couple.

Phil Gould, assistant editor of OK! Magazine