Is there such thing as a celebrity anymore?

Kermit.de.frog

There was a time not long a go where celebrities like movie stars or music artists where on a pedastol. A minutely small number of people you look up to but you'd never meet, rich and successful. They were mysterious, distant, living a life very few could attain. Most of us were fans of actors or bands. You might travel to other countries for concerts or whatever to enjoy a gig and get a glimpse, maybe a photo if lucky, pick up some merch.

Nowadays with social media anyone can communicate with a 'celebrity' and there is a very good chance it will be seen but also anyone can get their 15 minutes of fame for one thing or another (which for me kind of nullifies the whole concept of fame and celebrity now it's open to everyone).

It's definitely changed but is the whole concept of celebrity dead?

Manic Moran

It seems to me that if anyone is trying to communicate with someone they don't know just because they are famous enough to be known about by that communicator, then that would probably qualify as a celebrity.

ceadaoin.

Yes celebrities are still a thing. Just look at Taylor Swift

20silkcut

The percentage of super talented people is probably unchanged . In the sporting world and music and arts etc. As incredibly small elite group of people as it always was.

In the 21st century though modern communication has benefited the loudest and most bombastic and most dominant apes to reach an audience and prominence that they would never have reached 30/40 years ago and get famous for no particular reason at all only a forceful personality which is a talent of its own .

concerned_tenant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058349178/is-there-such-thing-as-a-celebrity-anymore

It's yet another toxic by-product of social media. "Influencers" being the new "celebrities". I loathe that term.

To take one example; one person I knew from college days decided to flaunt his physique on Instagram and Twitter. As a result, he has amassed a following, now over 100k+.

He now calls himself an "influencer". He has developed the most unbelievably obnoxious, self-absorbed narcissism — and I don't even think he can see it.

I find the whole thing very shallow. It tends to attract the worst egomaniacs around.

Clo-Clo

In Ireland people are more interested in the lives of politicians than of pop/TV/movie stars.

Jim_Hodge

If anything there as more people treated as celebrities today than ever before. Every eejit on a reality TV show or TiK Tok is treated as a celebrity.

Leg End Reject

Tabloids started the end of the mystique.

Think of old Hollywood stars, their image was controlled by the studios they were under contract to, all publicity photos were glamorous and the studios had false stories printed to prop up a fake image. Now you might see them dishevelled and hungover on the way for a pint of soya milk, they no longer appear otherworldly.

Unfortunately, that probably helped the emergence of influencers, although at least actors and musicians have discernable talent.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122072457#Comment_122072457

They think they are celebrities but in reality they are just gobs**ts

Then again you had RTE telling everyone they hired  Doireann because of her online following, at the time I think she had circa 10k followers 🤔

Rawr

I feel the real indicator of what has happened to the term “Celebrity” is whenever you get a Reality TV program that appends the word “Celebrity” to its title, particularly the Irish variety of such a show. Organisers of such show really seem to need to stretch the definition of celebrity on order to fill out their roster of guests (and to do that within budget).

In a terminally online world where everyone has a studio in their pocket, I’m guessing “celebrity” continues to rest on referring well know faces that appear on movies or TV shows. Others are notable too, but more often they are infamous characters in everyday life / politics, or an online face that get their 15 seconds of fame before the next algorithm change makes short work of them. To call those latter groups “celebrity” I feel is incorrect.

whisky_galore

There's several categories now;

Genuinely talented artists, we'll probably include so called "celebrity" chefs, sportspeople in this as they have something they're good at.

Being a relative of someone genuinely famous, and just feeding off that.

15 min online fame, 'frostbit' boy and others.

People of average or no discernable talent, trading on looks, connections or their seat in the RTE canteen; lets say the Doireanns and Vogues of this world.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122072536#Comment_122072536

I agree they're far from celebrities in my eyes but not to the media. Every Celebrity version of a BBC, Channel 4 or ITV show is packed with them.

Hande hoche!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122072585#Comment_122072585

True quite a few of the "celebs" padding the roster are known for their participation in celebrity shows rather than any significant accomplishment.

Pauliedragon

I suppose it's down to the individual. When I was growing up (I'm 44) celebrities were basically music/actors/sports "stars". The first time I started questioning the term celebrity was when I got into the electronic music scene in the 000's and got thinking all these dj's do is play songs with records and mostly other peoples songs. Now it's one of those words that for me has lost all meaning.

thereiver

It takes real talent to be a great actor singer sports star it takes talent to be a YouTuber talk for hours about various subjects and gain fans

Then there are celebs who will appear on

Any tv show or reality tv program

its part of an actors job to appear on talk shows and promote their latest t.v show film

Influencers get paid to promote products services

Its expensive to be a celeb they have to buy expensive clothes and go to the latest cool restaurant imagine if everytime you go out people are taking photos of you or asking for a selfie

Bobson Dugnutt

There does seem to be a trend at the moment of middle-aged men who obsessively track the lives of people like Vogue and Ryan Tubridy. They hate them, but know everything about them.
It’s a relatively recent phenomenon, and wondering if it has something to do with spending way too much time on the internet. Real “having a bitch down at the hairdressers” type of behaviour. What’s the male equivalent of a Karen?

highpitcheric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058349178/is-there-such-thing-as-a-celebrity-anymore

This is something I've wondered too.

I am hoping for the death of the celebrity through saturation, and moreso for the long overdue death of the crap pop star.

I'm happy to say that it seems to be happening, I follow 'celebrities' who are largely unknown to the greater population, both in Ireland and the rest of the world, they are niche acts with relatively very small numbers compared to years gone by. For me they're the perfect fit, for 99% of the public they're uninteresting.

They get paid less, they get paid appropriately. The big acts that we grew up with were not exceptionally talented, and didn't/don't justify the mountains of money/fame. They are good, they deserve to be rewarded, but they're generally around as good as each other. With a little variance. None at the top deserve what they get.

What caused the massive multi-million sales up to now was a business structure which allowed for only a few to make it to production and the stage, basically there was 1 spotlight to go around, so the spotlight owners would find someone who fit the mold and hype the living bejaysus out of that act. Take the profit from their spotlight game and push out anyone else who tried to get in on the industry.

Now, as you observe, the attention is becoming more fractured, the spotlight is cheap to build, and there are many spotlights, they're cheap and plentiful. This fracturing of the market ripples down to the somewhat talented 'celebrity' and their unjustifiable reward level.

Many acts can get on many stages now, many people can find many acts and pick the one they like best. The death of the mediocre, 10 a penny, paint by numbers, privileged through luck, self agrandizing, conceited, otherwise useless, overpaid, over featured, over praised, a—h-le "celebrity" is upon us and nothing could make me happier.

Galwayguy35

Conor McGregor.

Like him or loath him he did actually have to win fights and was smart enough to get a cut of the PPV revenue to make himself a multi millionaire.

These so called influencers on the other hand are talentless people who if it wasn't for Tiktok and Instagram would be on the dole.

Kingslayer

Didn't they put some random woman in celebrity big brother once. She had to convince everyone inside that she was famous. By the time she came out she really was a celebrity, without any real talents though.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122072367#Comment_122072367

EdEdiT.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122073215#Comment_122073215

I would strongly caveat that last paragraph. It may be true. It may not. If Person A couldn't do X (eg play basketball or run fast or fight fights or sing well or whatever that one thing is that they are famous for), is there any reason to think they would be any more or less likely to be on the dole than someone on Instagram?

Ultimately it's a job, a way of making money just like everyone else has one to stay off the dole. Some succeed, most fail. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it as a side gig to earn easy money, but the reality is that earning money on the internet actually takes a lot of work and very often smarts. Sometimes I despair at the daftness of things which get gazillions of views, but that's an entirely separate issue to someone understanding that there is a demand for that (daft) product and has been successful at meeting it, which is the essence of running a modern business.

Isthisthingon?

The criteria for celebrity is at such a low bar these days so maybe the question should be what qualifies someone to be a celebrity. Clearly having any discerning talent in any given field is no longer requirement it once was.