Tuesday, September 13, 2016

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-C.Wright Mills' Take on Celebrities

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

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C.Wright Mills' Take on Celebrities--Part 1
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities


In his 1956 book, "The Power Elite," a sociologist named C. Wright Mills wrote the following in reference to the role that Celebrities apparently play in U.S. society:

"...With the elaboration of the national means of mass communication, the professional celebrities of the entertainment world have come fully and continuously into the national view. As personalities of national glamour, they are at the focal point of all the means of entertainment and publicity...The institutional elite must now compete with and borrow prestige from these professionals in the world of the celebrity.

"But what are the celebrities? The celebrities are The Names that need no further identification. Those who know them so far exceed those of whom they know as to require no exact computation. Wherever the celebrities go, they are recognized, and moreover, recognized with some excitement and awe. Whatever they do has publicity value. More or less continuously, over a period of time, they are the material for the media of communication and entertainment. And, when that time ends--as it must--and the celebrity still lives--as he may--from time to time it may be asked, "Remember him?" That is what celebrity means..."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=9#ixzz0zMP3AO00

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C.Wright Mills's Take On Celebrities--Part 2
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
In his 1956 book,"The Power Elite," C.Wright Mills wrote the following about the role that Celebrities apparently play in U.S. Society:

"The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency and skill than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States. It is carried to the point where a chattering radio and television entertainer becomes the hunting chum of leading industrial executives, cabinet members, and the higher military. It does not seem to matter what the man is the very best at; so long as he has won out in competition over all others, he is celebrated. Then, a second feature of the star system begins to work: all the stars of any other sphere of endeavor or position are drawn toward the new star and he toward them. The success, the champion, accordingly, is one who mingles freely with other champions to populate the world of the celebrity..."

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C.Wright Mills' Take On Celebrities--Part 3
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

In his 1956 book, "The Power Elite," New Left sociologist C.Wright Mills indicated the role that Celebrities apparently play in U.S. society:

"This world [of Celebrities] is at once the pinnacle of the prestige system and a big-scale business. As a business, the networks of mass communication, publicity, and entertainment are not only the means whereby celebrities are celebrated; they also select and create celebrities for a profit. One type of celebrity, accordingly, is a professional at it, earning sizeable income not only from working in, but virtually living on, the mass media of communication and distraction.

"The movie stars and the Broadway actress, the crooners and the TV clowns, are celebrities because of what they do on and to these media. They are celebrated because they are displayed as celebrities. If they are not thus celebrated, in due time--often very short--they lose their jobs. In them, the panic for status has become a professional craving; their very image of self is dependent upon publicity, and they need increasing doses of it. Often they seem to have celebrity and nothing else. Rather than being celebrated because they occupy positions of prestige, they occupy positions of prestige because they are celebrated. The basis of the celebration--in a strange and intricate way--is at once personal and syntheetic: it is their Talent--which seems to mean their appearance value and their skill combined into what is known as A Personality. Their very importance makes them seem charming people, and they are celebrated all the time: they seem to live a sort of...high life, and others, by curiously watching them live it, celebrate them as well as their celebrated way of life..."

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