Slightly More than 15 Minutes of Fame

You'd think that a lecture on Celebrities would be passable, that picking up a copy of Heat Magazine would be more beneficial. However, much to my surprise, the lecture was actually very thought provoking and a lot more intelligent than I imagined! Future students: It's definately worth going to this lecture!

I missed last weeks lecture due to a obviously contaminated beef burger from Chicken Hut, (a place I won't be attending again). The lecture discussed the rise of the celebrity culture, reasons for it and its roots.

This weeks talk focused on the Commodification of Celebrities and was conducted by the trendiest looking professor I have ever seen: Ellis Cashmore. I found an old BBC news story on him today: Apparently he once (or still does) taught a module on David Beckham (see here).

The lecture in a paragraph: Celebrities are the ideal of ourselves, although reality TV has diluted the 'us and them' dicotomy. We tend to put Jade Goody through the 'Othering' process, similar to the way we perceive Al-Quaeda. Jordan on the other hand is the commercial alter-ego of Katie Price which is marketed to a completely different niche. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the multiple personalities and characters of Rap and Hip-Hop artists. Vertical integration of corporations means that companies can own, produce, distribute and collect the sales revenue of celebrities.

Up to a point I disagree with Ellis where he says that it is very difficult for a celebrity to become famous due to being invisible to the public eye. The graffitti artist Banksy is only known for his random artistic daubings which perhaps contributes to his mystery and ambiguity, feeding his (admittidly cultish) fame. Syd Barrett, the reclusive founder member of Pink Floyd disappeared from society in the early 70s and went back to live with his Mum. However, he does tend to get photographed in the Daily Mail from time to time.

Some interesting questions were put on the OHP at the end and will undoubtedly be similar to ones on the exam. But I will be annoying and not put any of them up here, you'll have to go to the lecture for that!