Celebrity Status and Societal Impact: A Study of Powerless Elite

This essay delves into the concept of celebrities as a 'powerless elite' in contemporary society, exploring the factors that shape their careers and influence. It examines how media, fan bases, and talent contribute to celebrity status, drawing on the perspectives of Graeme Turner and C. Wright Mills. The essay uses the lives of Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé as case studies to illustrate the complexities of celebrity culture, including the impact of addiction, negative media coverage, and public image. It highlights how celebrities navigate fame, power, and the pressures of maintaining their status. The analysis considers the role of endorsements and public perception in shaping a celebrity's influence, ultimately questioning whether celebrities are truly a powerless elite or possess significant power in society.

Essay:
Celebrities are a
'powerless' elite
1

Celebrities are a 'powerless' elite
In present era, celebrities in society are powerful people who are recognised in the eyes
of the public and media. Due to the development of technology, celebrity’s influence can now be
accessed or represented globally, reaching audiences outside of his/her country (Turner, 2013).
They are able to convey message to the society in an effective manner as they have a large fan
following and reputed image in the market.
There are important factors that make up a celebrity and it influences their career. These
factors include retaining a fan-base, gaining attention of the public, natural talent or quality
which are recognised by agencies/companies. These factors assist them in advancement or
promotion in their career. In this aspect, Graeme Turner had stated:
“Among our compensations for the loss of community is an avid attention to the figure of
the celebrity and a greater investment in our relations to specific versions of this figure. In effect,
we are using celebrity as a means of constructing new dimensions of community through
media.” – (Understanding celebrity, 2014, Graeme Turner)
Statement provided by him is completely true and justified because celebrities are a
medium to get connected with the society via response or reacting with the world. They are
connected with people mentally and physically on many platforms (through media, networks,
word of mouth) and creates an understanding which is both positive and negative in relation to
the celebrity (Mills, 1999). As a result, celebrities gain both fame and power. Along with this,
they create influences or movements which heavily can impact culture and personalities.
“They are objects of desire and emulation, or they are provocations for derisions and
contempt; they are genuine down-to-earth people or they are complete phonies.” -
(Understanding celebrity, 2014, Graeme Turner).
Statement provided by him completely true and justified because celebrities are a
medium to get connected with the society via response or reacting with the world. They are
connected with people mentally and physically on many platforms (through media, networks,
word of mouth) and creates an understanding which is both positive and negative in relation to
the celebrity. As a result, celebrities gain both fame and power. Along with this, they create
influences or movements which heavily can impact culture and personalities.
2

“They are objects of desire and emulation, or they are provocations for derisions and
contempt; they are genuine down-to-earth people or they are complete phonies.” -
(Understanding celebrity, 2014, Graeme Turner).
This is a powerful underlying statement which demonstrates the true definition for any
superstar. It is because, many of the celebrities convey their emotions through words or art;
which connect them to the audiences and it makes people become more and more interested in
them. According to the Alberoni, celebrities are relatively insignificant phenomenon. It is
because; they are opposed to substantive individuals are considered to be powerless elite
(Redmond and Holmes, 2007). However, in some situation, celebrity culture is considered as
indicative of powerful elites and established institutions. Present study focuses on two different
singing personalities who had incredible talent and had earned tremendous fame. However, one
of the celebrity was weakened due to her social life and one had attained leading image and still
considered to be icon in music industry. These celebrities are Amy Jade Winehouse and
Beyonce.
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer and songwriter. She was famous for her
eclectic mix of musical genres and deep expressive contralto vocals. Her singing talent in soul
and jazz defined the music industry for its uniqueness, appearance and connectivity to the
missing link that society had missing (Sackley, 2014). This area was one of the main driving
forces which tapped into people’s feeling and appreciation of her abilities, despite the shortfall of
jazz/soul singers. With the event of technology, broadcasting and media helped the singers rise
her from a public figure to stardom with an increase of presence and popularity. Her debut
(Frank in 2003) album was a big hit and it was also nominated for the Mercury Prize. In 2006,
her album Back to Black had won five 2008 Grammy Awards. This had also created a record for
highest awards won by a female artist in a single night. Along with this, she was first British
female who had won five Grammys.
According to the Hasan (2011), Winehouse has stylish and bold image in the society. In
addition to this, she had created a trend of beehive hairdo in society. Guy Trebay (Style reporter
of The New York Times) had discussed about multiplicity of her influence even after her death.
Just like her best music, her personal style was also a knowing collage (Hasan, 2011). She had a
great image and by virtue of it she had joined various campaign. However, Amy Winehouse's
3

struggle with addiction to drugs and alcohol. During the time of her success she had developed
her reputation as an unstable party girl. She was often found too drunk to provide complete
performance in her club or on TV. In addition to this, she had also started tumultuous
relationship with the music video assistant Blake Fielder. He had introduced her to the hard
drugs (Johnson, 2013). Various time in public they had created dramatic scenes and fistfights due
to their arguments. However, in private their life was centered with drug and alcohol
consumption, physical abuse and self harm.
This topic has become one of the most popular topics worldwide. The singer was caught with
possession of drugs with her husband and was admitted to the hospital, reportedly for heroin,
ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol overdose.
Despite of this fact, media coverage is also a main factor to be considered for powerless
celebrities. According to the Wright Mills
“If there are no common ideals and standards among them that are based upon an
explicitly aristocratic culture that does not mean that they do not feel responsibility to one
another.” - (The Power Elite, 1956, C. Wright Mills).
This statement is conveyed to celebrities in groups or as a partner (Mills, 1999). If this
statement is linked to life of Amy Winehouse, then it can be noticed that her husband was also a
drug addict who was famed in a musical celebrity group. Both their addiction damaged their
reputation as a superstar (Oleinik, 2014). However, negative media coverage was also a factor
which conveyed the situation negatively affecting the people that follow the celebrity as their
idol as well as people who disliked the singer. The media had created added pressure and stress
to a celebrity and send a message across to the public which can most certainly ruin their careers.
“The great gap now existing between the underlying population and those who make
decisions in its name, decisions of enormous consequence which the public often does not even
know are being made until well after the fact.”- (The Power Elite, 1958, c. Wright Mills).
This statement develops a strong influence of a celebrity on the public. In this aspect,
main factor that is required to be considered is that, Amy Winehouse was also suffering from
4

depression not only from the drugs, but also by added pressure and stress created by media
through, to creatively come up with ideas to succeed with her career and improving her image
and icon. Life and career were focus of critically acclaimed documentary Amy. This
documentary was released in July 2015 and it was directed by Asif Kapadia. In accordance with
The Hollywood Reporter, this documentary was a missed opportunity for the celebration of her
life and talent (Gnanapragash and Sekar, 2013). According to them this movie was misleading
and even it contains some basic untruths. Overall a celebrity does not need to represent
themselves as perfect, despite all the negative reviews or fans, rumors and history. One important
reminder is that since the death of Amy Winehouse, the entire public opinion on the matter of the
star’s drug use was completely shifted and everyone began to share the singer’s compassion and
love of her success as a talented young singer (Johnson, 2013).
Another influential personality who had attained worldwide recognition is Beyoncé. She
is also an American singer and songwriter. She had performed in various singing and dancing
competitions as a child and rose to the fame in late 1990. Before the fame and recognition,
Beyoncé was just an ordinary person who was involved in various activities surround singing
which was demonstrated in school competitions (Zhou and Whitla, 2013). By her incredible
talent, she had gained one of the longest fame in the history and is still leading in the music
industry. She started her career as lead singer of R&Bgirl-group Destiny's Child. Beyoncé
became more famous when the group labeled “Destiny's Child” braking new records and
introduced a more independent style to represent strong dominant females (Ji, 2014). The media
spent a lot of attention on this particular group due to the strong emotional performances of the
group dominated all other competition. However, the stardom of Beyoncé became more global
due to her leadership of the group and added towards her global status as a singing artist due to
her leadership of the group.
She had also worked in various films in starring roles such as Dream girls (2006), The
Pink Panther (2006) and Obsessed (2009). For her acting in Dream girls, she was also nominated
for Golden Globe. In 2010 she had created record by wining six Grammy Awards in 2010. Her
songs such as “I'm a survivor and say my name” had gained world popularity as there were
increasing number of people who could relate to this emotionally, but also give people reasons to
become part of that movement of being independently strong as a person (Croteau and Hoynes,
5

2013). Although being part of a group meant that everyone needs to follow and pursue the same
dream. Beyoncé had a lot more than what the group could offer and therefore the reason to
disband the group and let her grow her dream on a larger platform.
As Beyoncé became a soloist in the music industry, her desire to showcase her talent in
singing, abilities in performance and writing style of her songs became one of the strongest
contenders in the music industry (Jewkes, 2015). The multi-talented singer became a celebrity
due the popular song “Crazy in Love” which featured another popular rapper Jay-Z. The
combination of the 2 singing artists created a new audience of fans, popularity for gossip and
worldwide media coverage of events that followed.
Celebrity Beyoncé even supported charities in order to remain positive in the public
media and influence others due to her several abilities as a singer and performance artist.
Celebrities of this magnitude usually focuses on much more of the media and music events in
order to prolong her name and fame (Boyland and Halford, 2013). The release of
autobiographies from celebrities are also another too which creates revenue, influence people to
follow in the footsteps in or are just generally interested in their success.
Beyoncé had worked with the Pepsi since 2002 and in 2004 she had also appeared in
Gladiator. In 2012, she had signed endorsement deal with the Pepsi on which open letter was
provided by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPINET) for reconsideration of deal
because product contains unhealthy ingredients. It is because, public will consume the drink as
Beyoncé has large fan following and it can hazardous to their health. However, NetBase shows
that Beyoncé campaign was most popular endorsement in 2013 and it had gained 70% positive
response of audience (Beyoncé Knowles Biography, 2015). This aspect shows that celebrity has
great influence on the society and they are in position to promote negative as well as positive
through increasing technology and media. Furthermore, their lifestyle is also followed by general
public without having thought of its future consequences.
Despite the success of a celebrity, they also can find it extremely difficult to maintain
their previous normal lifestyle. For example they cannot go to a shop alone due to high risks of
attack and extreme media cameramen who are willing to go extra lengths to pursue a story could
in fact endanger them (Johnson, 2013). These situational examples are some of which can add
further stress throughout their time in fame which can result in depression or other mental or
6

physical problems or react differently in the public eyes (Potter, 2013). This aspect shows that
celebrities are not leading personalities that can create significant influence on the society in the
long run. In addition to this, there life is directly affected the judgment of media, critics and
public. They have to make changes in their living style in order to maintain this success and fame
else they will have to face drastic consequences (Turner, 2013). Story of Amy Winehouse
depicts this aspect only as she was drug addicted and have several personal issues and this had
ruined his professional life. Due to the increasing pressure of media, she did not get time for
recovery from her addictions and as a consequence she had faced tragic death.
As per the viewpoint of Driessens (2015), life, career and success of celebrity is directly
affected by public response. It is because; media plays significant role in developing their
attitude. Individually, they cannot have huge influences as they are powerless Elite. They can
deliver message through their art in an effective manner but they cannot develop power from this
fame and art (Driessens, 2015). However, there are several exceptional celebrities who lead the
society and industry but still they do not have complete power. In addition to this, impact of
celebrity is overshadowed by upcoming talent and art and consequently there leading is for
limited time period. With the new talent influence of celebrity is reduced and their fame is also
reduced. Although they are remembered, in way of their talent and art but with the passage of
time it is replaced by artwork of other artists.
In accordance with the present study, it can be articulated that celebrities are influential
but they are also affected by their surroundings. The media and their response for a celebrity
plays an important part of influencing and moving global cultures. However, the influencing and
cultural part can take a longer duration for this to succeed if that is the true intent of the celebrity.
Celebrity status would always create fan based groups. However, this fame is also supported by
anti-fan groups, this is the mentality of people worldwide and an expected result of popularity.
Such talent and abilities will always be recognized among celebrities however they can expect a
suffocating environment due to constant observation of media and being in the public eyes. One
negative word or speech, pulling a facial expression or reacting in a certain manner could
damage their reputation that could result in their career ending. This relates directly to the
powerless elite; the control and power will become limited whilst in the lime-light or fame.
7

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Boyland, E.J. and Halford, J.C., 2013. Television advertising and branding. Effects on eating
behaviour and food preferences in children. Appetite. 62. pp.236-241.
Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W., 2013. Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences:
Industries, Images, and Audiences. Sage Publications.
Driessens, O., 2015. Expanding celebrity studies’ research agenda: theoretical opportunities and
methodological challenges in interviewing celebrities. Celebrity Studies. 6(2). pp.192-
205.
Gnanapragash, T.J. and Sekar, P.C., 2013. Celebrity-Aided Brand Recall and Brand-Aided
Celebrity Recall: An Assessment of Celebrity Influence Using the Hierarchy of Effects
Model. IUP Journal of Brand Management,10(3), p.47.
Jewkes, Y., 2015. Media and crime. Sage.
Ji, N. J., 2014. The impact of indiscriminate media coverage of a celebrity suicide on a society
with a high suicide rate: epidemiological findings on copycat suicides from South
Korea.Journal of affective disorders. 156. pp.56-61.
Johnson, M., 2013. The aesthetics of diaspora in colonial fields of power: Elite nationalism, art
and the love to die for. Ethnos, 78(2), pp.175-199.
Mills, W. C., 1999. The Power Elite. Oxford University Press.
Oleinik, A., 2014. Michael Urban, Cultures of Power in Post-Communist Russia: An Analysis of
Elite Political Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xi, 216 pp.
$85.00. Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 48(4), pp.503-505.
Potter, W.J., 2013. Media literacy. Sage Publications.
Redmond, S. and Holmes, S., 2007. Stardom and Celebrity: A Reader. SAGE.
Sackley, N., 2014. The Power Elite. Reviews in American History. 42(1). pp.121-126.
Turner, G., 2013. Understanding celebrity. SAGE.
Zhou, L. and Whitla, P., 2013. How negative celebrity publicity influences consumer attitudes:
The mediating role of moral reputation. Journal of business research, 66(8), pp.1013-
1020.
Online
8

Beyoncé Knowles Biography. 2015. [Online]. Available through
<http://www.biography.com/people/beyonce-knowles-39230>. [Accessed on 3rd
February 2016].
Hasan, L., 2011. Amy Winehouse: Career Shadowed by Manic Depressio. [Online]. Available
through <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_MindBodyNews/amy-winehouse-career-
shadowed-addiction/story?id=14145112>. [Accessed on 3rd February 2016].
9