Superstar
A superstar is someone who has great popular appeal and is widely known, prominent, or successful in their field. Celebrities referred to as "superstars" may include individuals who work as actors, musicians, athletes, and other media-based professions.
History
The origin of the term in the context of celebrity is uncertain, but a similar expression is attested in
By 1909, silent film companies began promoting "picture personalities" by releasing stories about actors to fan magazines and newspapers, as part of a strategy to build "brand loyalty" for their company's actors and films. By the 1920s, Hollywood film company promoters had developed a "massive industrial enterprise" that "peddled a new intangible—fame".[5] Hollywood "image makers" and promotional agents planted rumours, selectively released real or fictitious information to the press, and used other "gimmicks" to create public personas for actors. They then "worked [to] reinforce that persona [and] manage the publicity". Publicists thus "created" the "enduring images" and public perceptions of screen legends such as Rock Hudson, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly. The development of this "star system" made fame "something that could be fabricated purposely, by the masters of the new 'machinery of glory'".[5]
In 1976,
In the 1980s and 1990s, entertainment publicity tactics became "more subtle and sophisticated", such as using press releases, movie junkets, and community activities. These promotional efforts are targeted and designed using market research "to increase the predictability of success of their media ventures". In some cases, publicity agents may create "provocative advertisements" or make an outrageous public statement to "trigger public controversy and thereby generate 'free' news coverage".[5]
Socio-psychological theories
According to
Caillois states that "[since] only one may be first, [a person may] choose to win indirectly through identification with someone else" and that the triumph of the superstar as the most popular actor or musician is in part due to the actions of "those who worship the hero". He says the public believes that the concept of "the manicurist elected beauty queen, the sales girl entrusted with the heroine's role in a super production, the shopkeeper's daughter winning the Tour de France, and the gas station attendant who basks in the limelight as a champion toreador" represents the possibility from the public's perspective that they too may become wealthy and successful.[8] For example, Levine points out that Lars Ulrich, the drummer for Metallica, was a service station attendant before becoming a wealthy rock star and that Harrison Ford was a cabinet maker before becoming a rich and famous actor.[9]
Caillois calls superstars' huge incomes and accolades "disguised lotteries" and a "special kind of game of chance". For example, the grand prizes for literary competitions "bring fortune and glory to a writer for several years". Caillois notes that a superstar cannot merely be successful at some activity—they must also be richly rewarded. He says that the "material reward of the superstar is a necessary ingredient (for the glory of the star) for the identification of the public with the star, or whether it is the excellence or the private life of the star which is of more importance". He states that superstars' extravagant incomes play an important psychological "compensating mechanism" role for the public.[8] According to Madow, "Fame is a 'relational' phenomenon, something that is conferred by others. A person can, within the limits of his natural talents, make himself strong or swift or learned. But he cannot, in this same sense, make himself famous, any more than he can make himself loved. [...] Fame is often conferred or withheld, just as love is, for reasons and on grounds other than 'merit'. This means that regardless of how strenuously the star may try to 'monitor' and 'shape' it, the media and the public always play a substantial part in the image-making process."[5]
Economics of "superstars"
In 1981, Sherwin Rosen examined the economics of superstars to determine why "relatively small numbers of people earn enormous amounts of money and seem to dominate the fields in which they engage" Rosen argues that, in superstar markets, "small differences in talent at the top of the distribution will translate into large differences in revenue".[10] Rosen points out that "sellers of higher talent charge only slightly higher prices than those of lower talent, but sell much larger quantities; their greater earnings come overwhelmingly from selling larger quantities than from charging higher prices".[11]
Microeconomist Alfred Marshall explains that technology has greatly extended the power and reach of the planet's most gifted performers. He referenced classical opera singer
Some scholars argue that superstardom plays a useful role in society. Caillois cites Rawls, who states that the "premiums earned by scarce natural talents serve to cover the costs of training and to encourage the efforts of learning, as well as to direct ability to where it best furthers the common interest".
On the other hand, it has been argued that "compensation systems that resemble prizes [lotteries] can also create perverse incentives by discouraging cooperative behaviour and may encourage some contestants to disrupt the performance of competitors".[14] As well, Frank and Cook (1995) called into question "the way the winner-take-all markets operate, with their damaging features". They argue that the "winner-take-all payoff structure [of competition for superstardom] generates a spiral of individual and social occupational waste, since it leads both to increasing (monetary and non-monetary) reward inequalities and to overcrowding in the markets and occupations prone to an overestimation of one's chance to succeed". As a result, they argue that "when excess numbers of contestants are induced to invest in performance enhancement in order to raise their individual odds of winning, these investments will be mutually offsetting and socially inefficient; end consumers may get more valuable products but the social costs are excessive".
Other meanings
"Superstar" art museums
A small number of major art museums, including
Cultural institutions such as art museums play a "gatekeeping" role for consumers, helping to screen and grade cultural artefacts and artworks, thus "reducing information and search costs" for consumers. Moreover, by channelling resources to a limited group of visual artists, cultural institutions also "enhance superstar phenomena within the visual arts".[citation needed]
Superstar CEOs
See also
References
- ^ John Nyren, The Cricketers of my Time, Robson, 1998, p.57.
- ^ "Vancouver brothers sculpted game of hockey 100 years before Canucks vied for cup - The Hockey News". thehockeynews.com. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ O’Brien, Glenn (June 1977). "Andy Warhol". 4 June 2010. Interview Magazine.
- ^ "Super Star (Hybrid Tea Rose)". www.countrygardenroses.co.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ a b c d "?". Archived from the original on March 23, 2002.
- ^ BarbieCollectors (22 December 2008). "1976 Superstar Barbie Doll Commercial Full Length High Quality". Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 2 April 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ Johansson, Sofia. "Editorial" (PDF). Communication and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster.
- ^ Blackwell Publishers: 33. Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
- ^ Michele Boldrin; David K. Levine. "Who wins and who loses?". dklevine.com.
- Alan B. Krueger, Princeton University and NBERApril 12, 2004
- ^ Paul Seabright and Helen Weeds (2006). "Competition and Market Power in Broadcasting: Where Are The Rents?" (PDF). essex.ac.uk.[permanent dead link]
- National Archives.
- ^ Pierre-Michel Menger. ""Statistics in the Wake of Challenges Posed by Cultural Diversity in a Globalization Context"" (PDF). Centre de Sociologie du Travail et des Arts Paris, France. gouv.qc.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
- ^ a b c "?". Archived from the original on 2004-08-16.
- ^ a b c "?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-19.
Further reading
- Hamlen, William A. "Superstardom in Popular Music: Empirical Evidence." Review of Economics and Statistics 73 (1991): 729–33.
- Koutsobinas, Theodore. The Political Economy of Status: Superstars, Markets, and Culture Change (Edward Elgar Publishing; 2015) 264 pages; on the societal impact of luxury consumption and status markets, and the media's fascination with superstars.
- MacDonald, Glenn M. "The Economics of Rising Stars." American Economic Review 78 (1988): 155–67.
- Rosen, Sherwin. The superstar effect – "The Economics of Superstars", American Economic Review, 71 (1981).
- Salganik, Matthew J., Peter Sheridan Dodds, and Duncan J. Watts. "Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market." Science 311 (2006): 854–56.
- Pattni, Anandi. 'Superstars: People who are good to me' Vanity Fair 157 (2007): 185–89.
- Grinin L., "People of Celebrity" as a New Social Stratum and Elite. In Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations: Cultural Dimensions (pp. 183–206). / Ed. by Leonid E. Grinin and Andrey V. Korotayev. Moscow: KRASAND, 2009 Работы на иностранных языках 2009г (in Russian). Retrieved 7 December 2010.