Comments on: Beyond celebrity obsession

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:06:47 +0000

Yep, I totally agree. Talking about celebrities is probably one of the biggest wastes of time known to man. It was quite shocking about Michael Jackson though. I think that one hit everybody by surprise.

By: Conversational Black Holes | Taylor Davidson

Conversational Black Holes | Taylor Davidson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:52:52 +0000

[...] Searls, Beyond Celebrity Obsession: According to Don Norman, a black hole topic is one that is essentially undiscussable: “Drop the [...]

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:57:48 +0000

I wonder if this event will increase awareness of mindless celebrity obsession. Most people have never met this man. They saw him only by electronic means – TV, radio, newspapers, and later in his life, websites. And most of what they know was carefully crafted by PR people.

Gen Y Americans were raised in this environment, but I imagine some have higher immunity because of it.

By: @hfromspace

@hfromspace — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:49:09 +0000

Agreed: obsessing over celebrity is a colossal waste of time. You’re spot on there. To say that the act itself is unhealthy because it’s unproductive, sure, I can agree to that too.
But this thing about how we’ll see a growing distance between coasting and producing? I don’t think I know what you’re talking about here. Firstly, not sure what you mean by distance. Are you saying there will be a greater distinction between coasting (i.e. celeb suck) and producing (ie actual quantifiable productivity)? Because I’m pretty sure there’s a huge distinction already. Or are you saying something more along the lines of: one or the other will develop into the larger happening?
If the latter then I don’t understand how: “This improvable millieu presents us with choices that become more stark as the millieu itself grows” [sic] equates to seeing “a growing distance between coasting and producing”.
How does the increasing starkness between choices cause a growth of distance between obsessing about celebrity and actual productivity?

By: Bill Seitz

Bill Seitz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:32:07 +0000

The obsession isn’t terribly surprising.

http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/z2005-01-31-MonkeyStatusPorn

But it would be nice to move past it…

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:30:21 +0000

Jon,

The “story” is bullshit. I suspect that mediafetcher.com and “Global Associated News” are bullshit as well.

For what it’s worth, I’m not an actor, don’t drive a BMW, have never been in Fullerton, and have been for most of the last week in rural Maryland.

Strange and sad when fake stories scrape the bottom of the non-celebrity barrel (where I am glad to be).

All to game Google AdSense, I’m sure. “SEO” at its shittiest.

By: Jon Miles

Jon Miles — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:45:24 +0000

Hi Doc,

I’m sorry to hear about your car accident – http://doc.searls.mediafetcher.com/news/top_stories/actor_traffic_altercation.php

Seriously though, the Black Hole topic of MJ is also like a tree. What I’ve found interesting were some of the branches, most notably the preponderance of celeb deaths that turned out to be hoaxes. I did some digging as to where some of these came from, one for Rick Astley was a fake AP wire in paper form, but by far, the weirdest branch on this black hole topic comes from the Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand that seem to consume famous people at a blistering pace.

Turns out you don’t have to be Nataline Portman to get in on the fun.

http://twodragons.com/pages/blog/219/natalie-portman-has-died-(and-you-can-too)

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:09:43 +0000

thom, I'm not writing MJ off as a "mere celebrity." Nor am I saying that his music didn't touch people's hearts (and much more.) I also agree with the rest of what you said. If you go back to what I wrote in the first place (about celebrity obsession), and at what Jon Taplin wrote (referring to Pew report that "Fully 93% of cable coverage studied on the Thursday and Friday following his death was about the King of Pop"), you'll see an attempt to pry apart real grief at the death of a celebrity and an unhealthy obsession with celebrity itself. The "industry of mourning that exaggerates it all" is at high ebb right now. This says something not just about that industry, but about those whose base interests it feeds. For what it's worth, the cultivation of celebrity is much of what drove Berry Gordy's Motown machine in the '60s and '70s. Read about The Funk Brothers, or watch Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The Funk Brothers had approximately zero celebrity and were paid $10 per session for more number one hits than the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Elvis and the Rolling Stones combined. In their case the ratio of music/celebrity was 100/0 -- at least until that movie came out. By the way, I happen to be at a wedding gathering right now (a big family retreat at a hilltop manor house in eastern Maryland), and I just checked the iPod on which music for the wedding is compiled. Of the 250 songs listed, I see one Michael Jackson ("Rock with you") and seventeen Motown (Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Supremes, Temptations...) Oddly, no Jackson 5s, another Motown group.

By: thom m

thom m — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:16:18 +0000

MJ had TONS of hits. You can’t have a wedding or a dance club without spinning MJ…Just trying to write him off as mere celebrity fascination doesn’t take into account why people cared in the first place. Sure, he wound up making choices that most (or none) of us would make, but he also made music that touched people’s hearts. There’s truth at the core of the mourning, it’s the industry of mourning that exaggerates it all.

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:53:44 +0000

Len, you’re right. Jon Taplin is right. Any ten original Motown hits exceed the sum worth of Michael Jackson’s whole oeuvre. Madonna’s too, for that matter. The ratio of personality/music was 1/99 with Motown (at least when it was still in Detroit) and 99/1 with Jackson. And I say that with absolute respect for Quincy Jones and even for Jackson’s own very real contributions to dance, performance and music video. His music was good in some cases and ordinary in many more. His Thriller album was, and deserved to be, a classic. “Billy Jean” is definitely hummable and may be the best-produced single ever. All that said, however, it’s his weirdness that made him the tabloid attention-suck that he was in life and epitomized in death.