The End Of The Era Of Celebrity?
The death of Michael Jackson has given voice again to the chorus claiming that the era of the celebrity is over. There fall of mass media and the rise of niche sub-cultures would seem to preclude future megastars. But Creative Class author Richard Florida writing for The Atlantic says that just the opposite may be true:
"The big mistake of most chroniclers of popular culture is that they see only one side of digital technology. It is true that new technology enables niche acts to reach larger markets, giving rise to the Long Tail phenomenon identified by Chris Anderson. But the long tail is only part of the story of the transformation wrought by high-speed digital networks…Now, Harvard's Anita Elberse and PRS's Will Page are finding that, in the digital age, even though the tail is long but thin, the head remains "fat." In fact, if you take power laws seriously, the head of the tail should grow in proportion to the length of the tail – getting fatter as the tail gets longer."
"The digital revolution – from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube – creates a powerful platform for instantaneous global reach that goes beyond what radio, TV, and even cable TV can offer."
Florida postulates that their may soon be stars of an even greater magnitude than before. Not just country centered celebrities like Elvis was in the US, but rather global stars with more fans than could previously been imagined. Barak Obama is the most obvious example. "Jai Ho," the theme song for Slumdog Millionaire, featuring lyrics in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and Spanish has been covered by the likes of Pussycat Dolls and Snoop Dogg and black/Chinese/Jewish reggae star Sean Paul is almost as popular in India as he is in his native Jamaica.
Share on:
So does that mean the “long tail” basically would follow an exponential curve or rather a bell curve, wherein the growth of the full width at half maximum would indicate a growth of the maximum as well?
Personally, I guess that RF’s point is basically right, because in this era of increased advertising efficiency, brands get thrown at you more than ever before with an almost absurdly high frequency of occurence, even if you could not care less.
And MJ clearly was one of those who most effectively used celebrity culture in his heyday, even though it turned its head against him later.
These days, Andy Warhol’s Factory stars would all have their own online community profiles visible from all over the world, not just locally.
But let’s get back to music, shall we?