Celebrity Machine
Celebrities are powerful machines. In the world of fame and fortune, celebrities seldom live an average lifestyle and find it difficult to escape the world of material wealth and the public eye. Because of the lavish celebrity existence, most celebrities remain faithful to the business-side of their careers to ensure they are making the most money and constructing a large fan base. Once celebrity-hood begins, human qualities are extracted and the celebrity becomes commodified—molding into an object that is working for the purpose of the business world, to produce consumers and sell their brand. The celebrity machine is overpowering, with the capability of producing the most loyal consumers as well as bringing new consumers into the mix along the celebrity’s journey. Through tactics such as branding/self-representation and reinvention, celebrities have the power to control their consumers.
According to Karl Marx commodities are reduced to materiality.
So far as it is a value in use, there is nothing mysterious about it, whether we consider it from the point of view that by its properties it is capable of satisfying human wants, or from the point that those properties are the product of human labor (42).
Celebrities are values in use. They are far from mysterious and they satisfy human wants. For example, movie star celebrities sell themselves as entertainment and produce consumers through the human labor that goes in to creating a film for the audience. The actor puts labor into learning a script and effectively acting it out. The labor then transfers into all the complexities of filming, involving human labor not only from the actor but from various properties that help create the celebrity commodity. In Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, Marshall writes,
To use a Marxian metaphor to describe the vacuity of the sign of the image lacking materiality and productivity, the celebrity sign is pure exchange value cleaved from use value. It articulates the individual as commodity (xi).
When the actor has put forth sufficient labor into the making of a film, it is released to the public for immediate consumption and therefore, the celebrity machine is officially commodified.
Another very popular example is the Madonna-machine. Tetzlaff suggests that “the core of Madonna’s appeal lies in her aura of power” (242). Madonna is the ultimate celebrity commodity, producing consumers that will buy into her brand for the length of her celebrity journey and continuously attract fresh, new buyers because of her marketing strategy. Madonna’s method of reinvention has given her a power so intense that makes me wonder when her flair will ever flicker to an end. “From the beginning, Madonna’s self-representation in promotion and publicity material portrayed her as defiantly independent, a woman who challenged and overcame gender restrictions” (Tetzlaff 245). Madonna’s unique approach to musical style has produced millions of consumers who have been successfully buying into her brand for the last 25 years.
Urban Machine
Dissecting all the possible machines present in today’s media, especially the Madonna-machine, it is evident that the celebrity machine is one that consumers cannot pull themselves away from. Guattari discusses the power of machines in “Regimes, Pathways, Subjects.” He states,
People have little reason to turn away from machines, which are nothing other than hyperdeveloped and hyperconcentrated forms of certain aspects of human subjectivity, and empathetically not those aspects that polarize people in relations of domination and power (113).
People consume machines, especially the celebrity machine, because they are fulfilling a desire.
Country musician, Keith Urban, is a celebrity machine that has become so glorified by human desire that he has created his own machine, the Urban-machine. Like Madonna, Keith Urban has used his talent to transform himself into a hot commodity in the market of music. His career began in 1991 with the release of his first album in Australia. Four of his singles reached the charts, and then he moved to the Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue his career even further. Keith found odd jobs around Nashville playing his guitar for more famous country artists, such as Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson. In 1997 he released an album with his three-piece trio The Ranch, but in 1998 Keith opted out of his band to pursue a solo career. Using strategies to ensure a successful commodification of his music and himself, Keith made these business decisions to boost his career.
In 1999, Keith released a solo, self-titled album, with several singles hitting the charts. In 2001, the Country Music Association honored Keith Urban with its Horizon Award, designating him a talented artist with a bright future. That same year, the Academy of Country Music named him Top New Male Vocalist. Six years and more than 10 million albums later, Urban remains the only Horizon Award winner in history to go on to win the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, a title he has captured three times. Check him out on Wikipedia to see the results of his album sales and chart positions, not to mention the numerous awards he has won since the beginning of his career.
Keith Urban is an example of a struggling artist who found his niche. With hard work and dedication, he is now a worldwide force recruiting an incredibly diverse fan base. Urban’s fan diversity also results from his title as a successful crossover artist. Although he is a country musician, his style enters the realm of the pop and rock genres as well. Like Madonna, Keith uses this reinvention strategy to produce as many consumers as possible. It is also worth looking at his physical appearance throughout the decade of his rising career:
Although he is aging like a normal human being, his appearance has changed pretty drastically since 1991 to accommodate his changing style of music.
(Urban fact #1: Keith Urban used to spell his name with all lowercase letters. Could this be a reinvention strategy?)
(Urban fact #2: Keith Urban also posed for Playgirl magazine in April 1991. Is this an effort to produce even more consumers?)
Monkeyville: Expanding the Urban-machine
Like most artists, once their music has been exposed to the public in an effort to expand their brand, fan clubs are created. Keith Urban’s team of supporters created keithurban.net to promote him even further. The website provides all the possible Keith Urban information in existence (with the exception of steamy celebrity gossip). Listing his tour dates, appearances, sharing videos through KU Tube, downloads, KU Online Store, and so much more convert Keith Urban into a powerful celebrity commodity. This website gives fans and non-fans alike the opportunity to experience the Urban-machine.
Within keithurban.net, to take it a step even further, diehard fans have exclusive access to his unique fan club, Monkeyville. For a special price of $24.99 per year, Urbanites can gain access to exclusive photos, videos, community message boards, and more. Currently there are 49,080 members devoted to Monkeyville through monetary means. (Urban Fact #3: The fan club is currently making $1,226,509 every year in membership fees alone – with the exception of new members constantly signing up to be a part of the Urban-craze.) Within Monkeyville, members also have the chance to be a part of the Keith Urban Street Team. This elite group of volunteers is assigned projects every so often to promote Keith. For example, when his Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing album debuted in 2006, Keith’s Street Team Monkeys were sent on a special assignment to create as many marketing tools as possible to endorse album sales before and after the album was released. Anything from standing outside with giant posters at the busiest intersection in one’s hometown to decorating school lockers for classmates to see are among the millions of unique ideas that Keith’s street teamers have devised to help their favorite artist succeed.
In addition to living at the mercy of Keith Urban, his music, his lifestyle, his brand, etc., his fans through Monkeyville also collaborate to do work on several community service and volunteer projects every year in Keith’s name. For example, all media lovers out there know that Keith has been married to A-list celebrity actress, Nicole Kidman, since 2006. They are currently expecting their first child together, due sometime in July. Monkeyville members have been discussing via the message board gift ideas for the baby. However, one fan came up with the idea of rather than sending Keith and Nicole baby gifts (since they clearly have enough money of their own to provide for their child) his fans have decided to send donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital – Keith and Nicole’s favorite charity. This is a great concept and clearly identifies the power that Keith holds over his fans – the power to produce consumers who will not only continuously buy into his brand, his music, and fan club, but will buy into outside properties that define Keith.
(Urban fact #4: Monkeyville members have compiled a Monkeyville dictionary consisting of words, phrases, and Keith-isms. For example: 1 - “Angry Monkey: the way a true and loyal monkey feels if someone doesn’t give Keith his much deserved recognition.” 2 – “Devoted: The total giving of oneself to Keith Urban. Usually associated with purchasing anything with Keith Urban’s name or face on it. Also associated with frequent flyer miles, road trips, charities, and emotional connections made by total strangers. For a demonstration just log in to keithurban.net.” 3 – “Urban-cheerleader: Anyone who votes obsessively for Keith for any award, poll, etc.; Calls/E-mails radio stations to request the new single; Tells friends, co-workers, or complete strangers about Keith’s music, in hopes of ‘converting’ them.”)
Keith Urban: hot commodity à Urban-madness à obsessed consumers
It is no doubt that Keith Urban’s fans (consumers, I should say) are infatuated with not only his music and celebrity status but with all the factors that go in to making Keith Urban exactly who he is in the public eye. Marshall writes, “The celebrity exists above the real world, in the realm of symbols that gain and lose value like commodities on the stock market” (6). Right now Keith is on fire. As a stock market figure, he is one hot commodity. In fact, he is so hot that other artists have been dying to team up with him on tours, album collaborations, and more.
Recently, Keith Urban toured throughout the United States with Carrie Underwood. Although Carrie Underwood is a country artist as well, this gave both artists the opportunity to combine their fans and create even more consumers. Nelly Furtado has also been craving fusion with Keith. Furtado’s fans will have the chance to listen to Keith and potentially crossover to his music genre. Alicia Keys, an R&B performer, sang with Keith during the Live Earth concert in 2007. These collaborations not only provide extreme entertainment within the music world but boost record sales and popularity for the musicians.
In 2005, Keith Urban and John Fogerty performed an invitation-only performance in Los Angeles for County Music Telvision’s Crossroads. This concert show fuses different generation and genre artists together to create a free-flowing sound for its audience. Check out this YouTube clip from CMT Crossroads – Keith Urban and John Fogerty perform “Bad Moon Rising.”
This concert was a great way for classic John Fogerty fans to see a new-age guitar prodigy follow in the same musical footsteps.
My Urban-obsession
I am a full-blown Keith Urban consumer. I started buying his albums in high school and joined Monkeyville in 2004 (when it only cost $19.99 per year). I have committed myself to his music, style, life, and brand because of his power in the industry. Every year I re-subscribe to his fan club because of the sense of unity within. Keith’s power as a commodity gives me power as a consumer. A few years ago I was crowned an “elite member” of Monkeyville because of my activity and dedication to his club.
In addition to his fan club, I have spent countless dollars and hours attending concerts and meeting him. I always tell myself that if I can physically get to a Keith Urban concert I don’t care how much it costs because it’s all about Keith! Part of the problem is that Keith Urban fans are so devoted to him that they will spend any amount of money to see him, or do whatever it takes to show Keith how much they care. If that isn’t power, I don’t know what is.
My obsession for Keith manifests in many different ways. Not only am I benefiting him as an artist by purchasing his albums, going to concerts, paying membership fees for Monkeyville, but my money is also going to all the other organizations that sponsor Keith. To take it a step even further, the money that I spend in transportation costs to go to his concerts (eating, drinking, fuel) does not necessarily benefit Keith but is helping businesses surrounding the Urban-machine.
Last October on Keith’s 40th birthday, I decided to get a tattoo of him on my left upper leg. Obviously this tattoo means more to me then just the obvious, but spending $150 on a Keith Urban tattoo is a consumer-obsessed way of showing my devotion to him and his music.
After I got the tattoo, I made it my life’s goal to show it to him. It turns out when I came to study abroad in Melbourne, I bought tickets to see Keith at the Point Nepean Music Festival (John Fogerty performed, too! And Keith and John played a few songs together.). To make a really long story short, I achieved my goal. I was in the front row and yelled up to him, “Keith! I have you tattooed on my body!” I got his attention, and before I knew it, he was jumping off the stage to come and find me. Take a look at the video of this experience! It starts when Keith acknowledges me by saying, “What’s that baby?”
This experience was an eye-opener and further shows the power that this man has over his consumers.
(Urban fact #5: I’m pretty sure I scared the shit out of Keith Urban when I pulled my pants down in front of him and the entire music festival.)
(Urban fact #6: As I was being escorted off the state, Keith’s band mates lovingly played Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On.”)
(Urban fact #7: I used to have my hair cut like Keith’s…thank God it grew out!)
(Urban fact #8: Keith Urban makes me do crazy things, for example, such as creating an “I’m Keith Urban’s Greatest Fan” video for a fan club contest - scary. And no, I didn’t win.)
Encore
The nature of the celebrity as a commodity produces a pretty powerful response in consumers. Tezlaff writes,
“Postmodernism applies commodity fetishism to aesthetics, emptying the use value of symbols in the search for exchange value, but it also aesthetizes the realm of commodities, turning economic exchange into spectacle for mass consumption” (248).
Celebrities have the ability to construct their consumers into money-spending machines at the mercy of the celebrity machine. Several properties go in to creating the celebrity machine. Every part works together to generate an icon of influence and authority. Madonna is a celebrity commodity icon; her career represents every element of the nature of celebrity as well as how those properties affect and produce her consumers. Keith Urban is no Madonna, but his power over his consumers is so incredible that I felt the need and desire to get him permanently branded on my skin.
The End. But, watch this…
WORKS CITED
Guattari, Felix. “Regimes, Pathways, Subjects.” Soft Subversions. New York: Semiotext(e), 112-130.
Marshall, P. David. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. University of Minnesota Press: 1997.
Marx, Karl. “The Fetishism of the Commodity and the Secret Thereof.” [Das Kapital] Karl Marx Capital: An Abridged Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999: 42-50, 491.
Tetzlaff, David. “Metatextual Girl: -> patriarchy -> postmodernism -> power -> money -> Madonna.” The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 239-263.
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