Fame in Conversations- Mandy Dollar

The obsession with celebrities has come to an all-time high in the past few years. With the launch of entertainment news programs such as E! and Entertainment Tonight, and entertainment magazines, such as Star and US Weekly adding fuel to the pop culture fire, it is almost impossible for people, American’s especially, to remain celebrity-free in their lives. The real test comes once one observes how their friends and others incorporate celebrities into their social lives on a day to day basis. On two different occasions with two different groups of people, I actively incorporated famous people in our conversations while paying particular attention to reactions and the direction in which our conversation decided to go as a result.

For my first “encounter” I decided to document a conversation at my workplace. I work at WXPN, which is a member supported radio station that also acts as a music venue. We are surrounded by big name musicians, such as The Foo Fighters, Damien Rice, Sean Lennon (John’s son) and Elvis Costello, every day. We also support new, indie-bands and artists who are on the rise and are usually well known months, even years after they arrive at our station. Some examples would be John Mayer, Norah Jones, Beck, Ben Folds, and more. So, as you can imagine, in this environment, celebrities are commonplace and “namedropping” is considered taboo. On April 10, I was sitting with a group of co-workers for lunch and we were discussing an upcoming event that we are scheduling for the summer. The conversation began with the logistics of the event (such as dates and time schedules) and then went into who would be performing. One colleague, in joking, suggested one artist for the event who happens to be dating another celebrity, which I pointed out. The rest of the group rolled their eyes in disgust, laughed it off, and commented on the artist and his/her significant other briefly. The conversation then turned to another topic and was dismissed.

I suspected that this would be the case when dealing with this type of conversation in my workplace. The people involved in this conversation where all males, not including myself. One male was 30, another was 23, another was around 40 years old, and another was in his 60s. In our situation, the idea of “celebrity” and the excitement behind this concept has, for the most part, worn off. Sure, there are those artists that would still warrant a reaction from these people, but the artist would have to be of a certain caliber (Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, for example) in order for any of them to have a real reaction, and even then, this may not be the case depending upon who you were to talk to (For example, one of my co-workers worked with The Rolling Stones for years. While I would be blown away to meet them, the excitement for him has worn off). I believe that when you work with celebrities on a daily basis, you eventually are able to see past the image and see that they are exactly like everyone else. Also, as I briefly mentioned earlier in my analysis that, in this industry, “namedropping” is extremely taboo and a person can actually be thoroughly disliked or chastised because of it. From their perspective, “knowing” a celebrity does not make someone more important or more interesting. On the contrary, it seems to most that if someone is a “namedropper”, they are shallow and desperate.

I understand that this is not the majority of people, whatsoever. So, for my second conversation, I decided to incorporate my housemates, none of which are in the entertainment industry. On April 12, 2007, I was sitting at home with my housemates. We were watching the news while eating dinner. We were talking about our day and what had happened in school, not really paying any particular attention to the news. We decided to change the channel to an entertainment news station, which was on VH1. The show had finished and the music video for the musician, Paolo Nuttini, was on. I immediately mention that he had been at the station a month ago. I noticed right away that the energy level in the room seemed to increase once I mentioned that I was connected to someone who was on TV. My one housemate, Elizabeth, stated that she loved his music and that she couldn’t stop listening to his record and began asking questions about him. My other two housemates were unaware of who he was and paid more attention to our conversation once they finished watching his music video on TV. After the video was over, they began asking about the rest of his record, where he was from, and what he was like, personally. However, I believe that their reactions would have been different if I had said that I met someone like Britney Spears or another “big name celebrity” who was more prominent in the media.

What I realized about my housemates, co-workers, and others through these observations is that people’s investments in celebrities and pop culture are directly related to the rest of the commitments they have in their lives. For example, my housemates, who are all involved in other non-entertainment industry fields of occupation (one is a pre-med student, one is in grad school in the sciences, and the other works full time), do not have enough time to dedicate to the ins and outs of the newest music trends or celebs. They watch these entertainment news programs as an escape from the stresses of their daily lives, in contrast to me and my work colleagues who are in “the industry” and who see these news programs as only a further continuation of our workday to an extent.

Another example would be myself. When I was in high school and even as an undergrad, I am sure I spent more time educating myself on pop culture. However, now I work and go to school full time, and even though my work involves famous people, it has taken on a different form. This just further proves that celebrities and the way in which we view them changes as our priorities in our lives change. Whether it be for entertainment, education, work, or just as an escape, one thing is for sure: the public’s fascination with famous people is not going to end any time soon.