Written Analysis 3

I would not say that any theories regarding Heroes in Popular Culture really apply to Miley Cyrus. But the concept of The Cult of the Celebrity definitively does in every aspect of that concept. The Cult of the Celebrity is a pop culture term describing someone who receives celebrity status for no apparent reason or maintains celebrity status just because they already are a celebrity.

            When we observe Miley Cyrus as a celebrity one could stay that yes she did initially become a celebrity as a child through her Disney sitcom show Hannah Montana.  I do believe that her initial status as celebrity does not apply to the Cult of the Celebrity. However, her prolonged status as celebrity seems to be a product of her ability to be seen by the masses. In regards to her current celebrity status which is boosted by the fact that she is already a celebrity she is truly a famesque. A famesque is a term coined by writer Amy Argetsinger of The Washington Post which is used to define celebrities whose fame is mostly due to one’s attractiveness, family, or personal life.

            After researching both the concept of Heroes and the Cult of the Celebrity, I have found that most of the time celebrities can stay in perpetual state of fame by just simply doing whatever they want as a long as they are seen by the media. And heroes are people who never wanted fame but received it for a brief time because of an act of courage and most often are forgotten quickly. 

The theory of the culture industry regarding Miley Cyrus.

The theory of the culture industry is a popular culture theory which states that culture is a product produced according to the rules of consumer capitalism in attempts to profit off of the masses by repressing culture from certain groups and creating art from whatever sells. The theory was developed by Frankfurt School critical theorists such as Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse. 

This theory applies to Miley Cyrus in a few ways.  In her early career during her performances in the tv show/sitcom Hannah Montana which was mainly targeted at a demographic consisting of pre-teen to early teen girls. Hannah Montana in general was heavily manufactured by Disney and made them an incredible amount of money. Now later on in life when Miley could no longer be seen as Hannah Montana she shows up at the VMAs and gives a truly outlandish but at the same time historical performance. This sky rocketed her music career. She was starting to fade as many child actors do and suddenly she grabs 15 more minutes of fame and turns that into something everyone talks about. Ether positively or negatively, everyone talked about it. Which in turn created a market for Miley which then created more sales based off of sheer publicity. 

After studying pop culture theories I can now say that there is certainly a concrete reason why we regard these as theories.  Pop culture is intangible, its more of an idea itself than a person, place, or thing.  I believe pop culture is relative on an individual level meaning that everyone can see their own version of pop culture. It kinda goes hand and hand with the whole Reality is perspective thing.

3 Pop Icons

I chose three real life popular icons for my analysis. They are John Lennon, Barrack Obama, and Morgan Freeman. John Lennon was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of rock group the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. Barrack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office.
Morgan Freeman is American actor, film director, and narrator. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus, and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby.

I chose these three icons for my analysis for a few reasons. The reasons why I chose John Lennon are; his music, his life, and controversy. His music because the music that was produced by him and the rest of the Beatles is simply timeless and I really believe he will be immortalized throughout time because of this and the story of his life. I chose Barrack Obama not because of political alignment but because he is the first African American to become President of the United States of America and because of all the good he has done and is still doing for different communities around the world. I chose Morgan Freeman because his narrations are timeless just like John Lennon’s music. Also, because of his performance in Shawshank Redemption which is a motion picture that has won countless awards and will carry his voice throughout time.

These Icons all mean the same thing to me personally. Which is I see them as pop culture icons that will never fade as exactly that. I believe these icons will stand the test of time and be revered as icons indefinitely.

Pop culture to me

1) According to Google, Popular culture is defined as the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture. To me Popular culture is any widely considered truth about our society today.

2)An understanding of Popular Culture is beneficial in a business setting because one can speak to and seem relevant to what is important to the general populace.

3)I would consider any type of meme an example of popular culture. I choose this image as my artifact because it uses a very popular meme of the dos aquis guy with the widely agreed truth that people post to social media every time they go to the gym.