‘in the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes’
In this blog I’ll talk about the class of May 8th about the topic ‘celibrity culture’. In class a quote by Andy Warhol from 1968 was used as an example for the upcoming/current celebrity culture.
In class two interpretations of this quote were given:
- Anyone can be famous, worldfamous, for 15 minutes. It’s temporary. Only for those 15 minutes. This could be explained by the current ‘internetculture’. The internet is worldwide, so if you or your photo gets on the internet, it’s there for everyone to be seen. Though than you have to see the concept of ‘being famous’ of ‘being known’. But of course everyone can think of certain ‘celebrities’ who are famous for being known… You know.. Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian.
- It would be justified for anyone to be famous for 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter who you are, you deserve, as anybody, to be famous. Everyone deserves to be famous.
You could say this point of view is exploited in the real-life series and talent shows you see so much nowadays. That concept is utilised (‘uitgemolken’) to the max. It differs though, some of those people are only famous for those 15 minutes and then you’ll never hear or see of them again. But some of those actually become ‘celebrities’, for example the ‘cast’ of Jersey Shore.
I think you can say Andy Warhol made a pretty accurate prediction, or like, it came true.
You can even say it’s gone further then fifteen minutes. Even that time is nowadays too long. I’ve found the example of 15 seconds of fame. A site where you can upload a movie clip of fifteen seconds where you can show your talent. You can even win prizes. I’ve never heard of that site, so I’m not sure how famous you can get in this case.. But maybe that’s me. That’s another thing.. I believe famousness is more separated now, as in, in different groups you have certain kinds of celebrities.












