I’ve already written extensively for this class about Lil Peep’s death (which I think is one of the more interesting recent celebrity deaths in terms of what it did for his image), and since that’s what I would’ve written about, I’ve decided to take a different approach and attempt to articulate a couple of questions and/or hypotheses related to celebrity deaths.
- Q: Many of the stars discussed in the readings posthumously glowed-up. Superstars in life, they became legends in death. But where is the line? How do we know who might become more than they ever were and who might experience a more modest glow-up? H: Superstars are rare in life, as is enormous wealth. Shocking deaths are less rare but they are shocking. When an immensely wealthy superstar is one of the loudest voices in the loudest generation at the time of his/her shocking death, he/she becomes immortalized, vaulted to almost godlike heights.
- Q: Many now-legendary individuals have died unrecognized. Is legend-status or even just fame still attainable for those that die unrecognized in today’s fast-paced celebrity culture? H: Today’s culture isn’t slowing down for a thing. Even becoming a celebrity seems to require some form of previous recognition and the only unknown-to-celebrity jumps we see anymore tend to reside in globally witnessed tragedies. Even posthumously becoming a B-list celebrity like Peep takes a lifetime loyal, even cult-like following and peer recognition. The inevitability of life moving on and more information flying in to replace the information about us as soon as we die could be playing a major role in our constant self-promotion (via social media, etc) and partially explain rises in anxiety and depression among young people.