An Analysis of the Celebritized Snoop Dogg - Case Study Example

An Analysis of the ‘Celebritized’ Snoop Dogg Introduction The concepts celebrity and fame have different meanings and implications in different historical and cultural contexts. Nonetheless, the Latin origins of celebrity signify an interaction wherein an individual is defined as exceptional, and a social structure wherein the nature of fame is short-lived. But for the French term celebrity is a profit-seeking enterprise that appeals to human emotions (Kellner 2003). The latter definition of celebrity reflects contemporary view of the concept whereas the former illustrates the original connotation of celebrity and fame. The process of producing a celebrity undergoes a different kind of ‘commodification’. Celebrityhood, as it is specifically called, is a process in which people are transformed into ‘commodities’, that is, to be manufactured and consumed. The production of celebrities is facilitated by various forms of media, such as television, film, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and others (Couldry 2003). The objective of this study is to analyze the mechanism of celebrityhood through an inclusive examination of one contemporary celebrity; for this case, the gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg. The study will attempt to discuss how Snoop Dogg was ‘celebritized’ across a range of media by applying the fundamental theories and concepts covered in the discussion on the sociology of celebrity. Primarily, the paper will examine the systems of celebrity production relevant to Snoop Dogg’s rise to fame. Then, the concepts of cultural industries and cultural intermediaries will be taken into account so as to thoroughly analyze the various components that facilitated the production and consumption of Snoop Dogg as a celebrity. The next section will discuss the production of fame mechanism, involving the rise of celebrity journalism, tabloidization, and celebrity scandal. Finally, the paper will wrap up the discussion by providing sociological analyses of the ‘celebritization’ of Snoop Dogg, using the relevant theories of sociological imagination by C. Wright Mills and the ‘powerless elite’ by Alberoni. Systems of Celebrity Production The production of Snoop Dogg as a celebrity was facilitated by a variety of medium, namely, stardom and the movies, magazines, newspapers and tabloids, reality television and most importantly, the popular music’s star system. Snoop was introduced to stardom through the assistance of other famous rappers, such as Dr. Dre, who gave Snoop’s biggest musical break (Haggins 2007). However, stardom presented Snoop differently as a rising celebrity to the public. Snoop was framed to stardom by establishing his violent and ‘bad boy’ public image. His music dominantly contains vulgar language and the lyrics sounds real, particularly following his arrest for charges of being an accomplice to a murder. Stardom extended Snoop’s identity to the domains of the private and intriguing in order to ‘celebritize’ him, and this process effectively encouraged consumption since it forcefully appealed to human interests and sentiments. Apart from stardom Snoop’s rise to fame has been shaped by the movie industry. Snoop starred in a number of films which usually portrayed him as an urban troublemaker or a struggling blue-collar worker (Quinn 2005). The medium used Snoop’s reputation as a rascal to establish him as a celebrity with a wide-ranging appeal. The movies ‘celebritized’ him by exploiting his ‘gangsta’ authority and his unrepentant admission of street offenses, which then increased the public interest on Snoop’s real character (Quinn 2005). In a similar way, magazines, newspapers and tabloids produced Snoop as a celebrity by sensationalizing his delinquent activities, such as his drug and gun crimes. The print media frequently feature Snoop as a notorious gangsta rapper, committing serious crimes such as murder and rape. Indeed, the print media create, and at the same time further destroy him. Unsurprisingly, being ‘celebritized’ by entertainment organizations, Snoop is excessively exposed to public consumption by news organizations. But then Snoop has recently been ‘celebritized’ in a starkly different way in a reality television show, which simply exposed his character as a father to his three children. The half-hour reality show focuses on his family life as he juggles music career and stardom (Entertainment Weekly 2009). This particular medium shows a different and softer side of Snoop, which is largely overlooked in other traditional medium. The reality show will definitely ‘celebritize’ Snoop as an individual struggling to prove to the world that there is something more to the man who has long been portrayed as a ‘bad boy’. Consumption of this new star identity will rest on the interest of the public on how Snoop will balance his family life and career. And lastly, the ‘commodification’ of Snoop as a celebrity primarily stemmed from his exceptional musical talent. The music industry used this talent to establish his unique star identity from many of his contemporaries, which gave him the title ‘a pillar of the hip-hop aristocracy’ (Quinn 2005: 141). The publicity mechanism itself, in this case, becomes a fundamental design component, even a fundamental character. Cultural Industries and Cultural Intermediaries The cultural industries are focused on the production and distribution of products, specifically texts that affect individuals’ worldview. These cultural industries become influential forces in people’s lives when people devote absolute amount of time in consuming these texts. Another strategy that cultural industries use to reinforce its influence is ‘formatting’ its cultural products. The star system is one of the primary techniques of ‘formatting’ which relates the names of artists and celebrity writers with texts. This entails substantial marketing endeavors, so as to make an artist or an author a new celebrity or guarantee the preservation of the celebrity’s charisma (Couldry & Mccarthy 2004). The cultural industries, in the case of Snoop Dogg, make use of the film and music industries, the Internet, print publishing and advertising. The hip-hop celebrity is already a pop culture tycoon, with a weekly radio program, and independent film company, pet and clothing product lines and countless advertisements. Due to his level of fame, regardless whether he plans it or not, the preferences of Snoop about clothing, attitude, slang, and symbols generally function as an exemplar for behavior for young people who idolize him. Yet, the fact that Snoop Dogg is a cultural fabrication should not be taken for granted. Snoop did not obtain public approval without the help of cultural intermediaries whose task is to create the public staging of celebrity icons that will bring about a lasting appeal for the fans, or more specifically those who influence the use and exchange values of celebrities and pursue to organize how these particular values are linked to the lives of the people through the different strategies of persuasion and advertising and through the creation of markets. The objective of these cultural intermediaries is to relate a celebrity to a prospective consumer by attempting to build a sense of identification. The cultural mediation of Snoop Dogg as a gang-defined artist serves as a suggestion for audiences about what fans should do. The commodification of Snoop as a gangsta rapper compels his audience, especially his young audiences, to emulate his style and behavior. The cultural intermediaries at this point were successful in stage-managing Snoop by making his public presentation an expression of both his self- and star-identity (Haggins 2007). His public appearances, in other words, are staged to convey meanings and messages to fans and to show that Snoop shares a common identity with many of his audiences. The making of a celebrity does not follow the procedure of product manufacturing in factories. The star system is justified, yet it is not oriented toward creating a homogenous product in the common connotation of the term. It creates an ‘individual celebrity’ (Kellner 2003). The creation of a highly individuated product, or individual celebrity, is further reinforced by promotional websites. The inclusion of Snoop’s celebrity profile on the web makes him more accessible for public consumption. The Internet facilitated the opening of celebrity discussion to numerous other sources, such as fan sites. The current celebrity discussion on Snoop Dogg’s personal and public life is an interactive one. The various Websites featuring Snoop’s celebrity profile are effectively organizing information about the famous rapper, which consequently strengthened the traditionally ‘celebritized’ image of Snoop Dogg. The Mechanism of Fame Production It can be assumed that Snoop Dogg has fallen victim to tabloidization. This process transformed him into something intended, unnatural and planned. Moreover, tabloidization has commodified Snoop in such a way as to wipe out the origin of his emergence as a talented performer and left him a product and form of celebrity life in the contemporary period. As been described in the literature, tabloidization is normally taken as an alternative to sensationalize and consequently boost consumption. Snoop is highly subjected to tabloidization because of his deviant activities and behavior, and extraordinary style and fashion. An example of this is the recent tabloid news about Snoop Dogg’s decision to pull out of a charity concert simply because the organizers failed to place an X-Box in his dressing room. The news was further exaggerated by inserting a statement from a Page Six insider: “He insisted on having an Xbox in his dressing room. We finally found someone who lent us their kids’ Xbox and had to put Snoop somewhere on the third floor because he was smoking so much dope” (Gossip Center 2007: para 2). News like this never fails to attract consumer attention. People are not merely deceived by these tabloids; if something gives them even the most momentary pleasure they will continuously crave for deception which is in fact known to them (Kellner 2003). This then could be attributed as one of the reasons Snoop Dogg’s commodification as a celebrity was remarkably successful. Apart from tabloidization but in a quite similar way, Snoop Dogg’s rise to fame was structured through scandal. The involvement of consumers to celebrities is tied to the manner the star system immerses people in the core mechanisms through which the larger society represents deviancy as an object of interest. Celebrity scandal has the capability to change news values somewhat radically (Quinn 2005). For instance, Snoop Dogg has been recently denied entry to several countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia because of his arrest in Heathrow Airport due to inciting violent mayhem and disturbance (Gossip Center, 2007). The hanging question now is what other countries will deny access to Snoop Dogg? When this kind of scandal with a particular force surface they rapidly transfer from the entertainment column to the headlines. A Sociological Analyses of Snoop Dogg’s Celebritization The celebrity status of Snoop Dogg is evidently achieved and attributed. It is achieved in the sense that he is in fact a talented performer and musical composer, and he surpassed other talented hip-hop artists and rappers of his time; moreover, Snoop Dogg is perceived by the public as an artist who possess exceptional talents. His celebrity status is attributed for the reason that he was greatly represented by cultural intermediaries as a notable and extraordinary performer. Snoop Dogg as a celebrity can also be classified as a ‘quasar’ since his unusual behavior and style were rendered oddly interesting by the print and electronic media. Moreover, Snoop Dogg himself merits a sociological analysis, as informed by the premise of the sociological imagination. According to C. Wright Mills personal problems are also public concerns. Hence, individual biography can only be understood if it is placed in its proper context (Knowles & Sweetman 2004). Understanding the commodification of Snoop Dogg as an aggressive and unruly gangsta rapper requires a deeper look into the social structure where Snoop’s biography lies. Snoop was raised in a gang-dominated neighborhood thus he was exposed early to street crimes and violence. Consequently, his media character became grounded on the gangsta way of life (Haggins 2007). Therefore, his public image as a ‘bad boy’ can be attributed to the influence of the social context to his behavioral, psychological and physical development, and later on to the process of his commodification as a celebrity. Nevertheless, Snoop Dogg as a celebrity can be classified as a power elite based on Alberoni’s premise. The influence and power of Snoop as an institutionalized celebrity is in fact very narrow due to the fact that he is declared a celebrity by the collectivity. This means that his famed status can be taken away from him anytime by the public, thus making him a ‘powerless elite’. Conclusions Snoop Dogg has been celebritized in various media, specifically in the film and music industry, magazines, newspapers, tabloids, and the Internet. But based on the discussion, it seems evident that the primary facilitator of Snoop Dogg’s celebritization is the print media, which is decisively illustrated in his tabloidization and newsworthy scandals. The rise to fame of Snoop Dogg clearly attests to the premise put forth by C. Wright Mills about the interaction of individual biography and social structure. For the mainstream culture, Snoop Dogg’s behavior, attitude and style may seem vulgar and inappropriate but this view should not be accepted as true. The quite negative public image of Snoop is a product of his social context and, most importantly, the product of the exploitation of the media of his biography. References Brown, S. (2003), Crime and Law in Media Culture, Philadelphia: Open University Press. Carter, C. & Weaver, C.K. (2003), Violence and the Media, Philadelphia: Open University Press. Couldry, N. (2003), Media Rituals: A Critical Approach, New York: Routledge. Couldry, N. & Mccarthy, A. (eds.). (2004), Mediaspace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age, New York: Routledge. Haggins, B. (2007), Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 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