Celebrity in contemporary America - Essay Example

?Drawing on the theories, ideas and concepts covered in the discuss how your assigned celebrity has been ‘celebritised’ across a range of media. A celebrity is a personality who bears an outstanding sketch in the media, among the mass and are therefore easily recognized. They are the individuals who stand with a prominence wherever they go. People admire their actions, try to mimic them, try to wear outfits like them, try to look like them or try to follow them every possible characteristic. It depends on the individual interest whom to portray as an ideal. Some like the sports stars who bring name and fame to the nation, others could be fond of writers like Shakespeare while majority of the crowd is highly influenced by the actors and singers- the performers. They institute them gorgeous, eye-catching and love to see them on screen or if anyhow they get an opportunity they would like to see their live performances, have an autograph and thus they are highly infatuated with them. It is a mob psychology to follow these celebrities, as most of the people do not know actually know much about them but they have to keep pace with the trend and hence they are keep a track of their favorite celebrities through media, magazines, internet, discuss about them, their personal life in gatherings. People like to discuss about their lifestyle, romance and fashion and here media plays a crucial role in publicizing the personal life of the celebrity. Media in this manner try to seek the attention of people and hence they also enhance their popularity. Media very well grasp the prevailing psychology of the mob and therefore they advertise about any information or program related with the celebrity and their interview so that people watch their show and in turn the channel gains fame along with the celebrity. However, does everyone know what a celebrity is? Indeed, the public just know what kind of people they call celebrities through the media. This paper will closely demonstrate the definition of celebrity using the example of one of celebrities, Britney Spears. Britney has become a celebrity at a very early age, released numerous hit songs. The present article highlights the making of Britney, how has she become a celebrity. According to the theories for being celebritised, Britney has technically been used icon for performance, music, fashion, and of course life style. She emerged as an icon, a complete performer and entertainer in the world of music. People love to watch her performance, they appreciate her every act and move and truly adore her for voice quality and that is how she became a popular star at a very young age. According to Rojek (2001, pp.17-20), "there are three aspects it can be de categorized: ascribed, achieved and attributed." A brief explanation of these categories are initially attributed to the opportunity that is provided to the individual, the fate and destiny- a sheer luck factor that transforms an ordinary individual into a celeb, a star, an icon, a public figure and a big shot. In case of Britney, she is possesses both achievements as well as attribution. People keep a track of their preferred celebrity and try to peep into their life styles, what they eat, what they wear, the big brand names they are associated with, what they eat, how much they eat, and hence a complete business of many industries revolve around the celebrity. It is for this reason, big companies mark the celebrities as their brand ambassador and advertise their brands through them so as to gain command over the market. Business run through these celebrities for big organizations and hence such organizations earn a lot through their publicity making people buy their brands for food, clothing, grooming, writing and decorating their homes and offices. Thus, big companies use celebrities for their brand popularity and use the celebrities as an image of their brand. Marshall (1997, p.150) analyses the popular music has been bounded up with the mass media. Thus, promoting the importance of music to expand the status of the celebrities. It also indicates the efficiency of the music companies to reveal their hold on the market and also to depict their ability in promoting the song and its performance. Britney, after she sold her album “baby one more time…”, she gained celebrity status glamour and fame showered upon her from every corner of the world and she became an icon at a very tender age. She is born genius, a born performer and with plenty of luck and opening that she got made her a known figure across the globe. With the passage of time she is becoming more popular and people appreciate her songs, like to listen to the songs every now and then whether they are moving in train, buses or in their private vehicle they keep the music on and hence keep Britney with them. Her unique songs, variety of performances and music videos boosted her popularity. It is the destiny that controversies are also associated with the name and fame, as with every good thing comes some bad moments too, Britney was expected to be a budding celebrity; she obtained too much stress from media regarding her style of outfits and her approach was focused as one of most fashionable celebrity. Which types of celebrities does Britney belong to? At a very young age she made her appearance on television as a performer for singing and dancing in front of public. She gained recognition, name and fame, people started liking her songs, adore her for her voice quality and hence she became a popular figure among the mass. After achieving recognition, distinction and admiration of public, she released her album of songs and hence she attained a label of celebrity. She has modulated her voice quality and has become a an accredited, attributed singer. She understood the feel of people, what they want to hear, what is soothing to their ears, what is essential to reach out to the remote listener across the globe. Celebrities are now-a-days used as commodities not only by the big brands but also by the entertainment industry. Music agencies promote the singer and hence in return they get their popularity. The singer gets a platform to hail and each the crowd and the industry earns be selling off the album of the singer. If the singer is popular and public like to hear the songs the company spins profit. This provides a symbiotic association where both the parties are benefitted. Singers and performers are well appreciated and talked about. People keep a track of their new releases. How the celebrities affect the belief nowadays? On the media such as the web sites, videos, movies, TV shows, blogs and twitter, many of the celebrities are followed by their fan followers. The read them they like to share their views, they publicize their words, this is gaining more prominence through the media and more through the internet. People like to follow their celebrities, especially youth, and are highly influenced by their sayings, remarks, opinion and declaration. Twitter is one such site where celebrities and their comments are always posted and people love to read them. One of the finest example of youth fascination was observed in the month of September, 2010. Glee, an American musical comedy drama, has directly approached Britney Spears as the power of celebrities. The casts, especially Lea Michele and Heather Morris, follow the styles of Britney. They were encouraged when they pretended to be Britney Spears. Britney is such a popular icon that she has captured the life and minds of all the youth across the world and people love her like a god. He is not only an inspiration for the upcoming singers and performers but also an inspiration to single mothers as well. Additionally, Britney's outfits and fashion is widely accepted and people appreciate wearing such an outfit. They want to pose like Britney, her style of clothes, hair style, the wearable, shoes and everything. For instance, Lea as Rachel and Heather started wearing outfits like Britney. Regarding outfits, various companies approach Britney to advertise their brands of outfits so as to excel in their business as people and even the other celebrities like to have outfits like Britney. Young girls like to be popular among their own circle so they mimic their icon, Britney especially the teenagers and the collegiate population. They wear outfits like Britney to gain popularity amongst their friends and group. Celebrity gets stuck with the gossip displayed by media for public interest. What the nation wants to listen about their icons is related with whom they are dating, their love life, their romance, any kind of controversies associated with them or their involvement in any scandal. Nonetheless, a number of information is amusingly generated by the gossip magazines in order to sail their business in the cut-throat competition. With fame, comes the defame and hence Britney is not left away from this, she is always engaged with gossips and is focused by paparazzi such as Fashion, private life –romance and habits. For this reason, her official web site provides ‘BS Alert’ which represents Britney’s gossips on the magazines and web sites. Paparazzi shadow celebrities in their private lives to take sensational photographs. She is often associated with the image of love and problem. Is there any true story about them? Even though the celebrities have been interviewed with each magazine, its story is also not everything obvious. Indeed, some of content is honest of their words, but another is cooked up for maintenance of a favorable public image. It is because the rate of a reputation is very important for the celebrities. Some of the celebrities raise objection for depicting wrong information while others use it to gain popularity may it be some cheap popularity! All these pave the way for publicity and hence such gossips are used as publicity stunts. Conclusion Public is impressed by the predisposition of an artist, a complete entertainer, an innovative style of presenting oneself and all these make an artist from a simple individual to an icon or a celebrity. Everyone does a job but the achiever is the one who do the thing differently and hence the celebrity, they exploit their potentials with which they are gifted and born. It is their apt to do things in a dissimilar manner that makes them unusual from the rest of the crowd and public say, "She has a style!" "She has a voice!" "She has something that attracts the attention she has that magnetism, the charisma, she has a face value and she is a real celeb!" In the present study related with Britney Spears, she proves the definition of celebrity. Public love to watch her and this is the reason why last year, several magazines picked up Britney as a come-back star. After that she got several awards for proving she is a famous celebrity. References: Rojek, Chris 2001, ‘Celebrity and Celetoids’, Celebrity, Reaktion Books, London, pp. 9-29. Gamson, Joshua 1994, ‘Industrial-strength celebrity’, Claims to Fame: celebrity in contemporary America, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 57-78. Dyer, Richard 1998, ‘Part one: stars as a social phenomenon’, Stars, 2nd eds, British Film, London, pp. 5-19. McDonald, Paul 2000, ‘Stardom as a system’, The Star System, Routledge, London, pp. 5-13. Marshall, P. David 1997, ‘The meanings of the popular music celebrity: the construction of distinctive authenticity’, Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 150-84. Inglis, Ian 1996, ‘Ideology, trajectory and stardom: Elvis Presley and the Beatles’, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 53-78. Read More