Celebrity Culture (3rd edition)

Haven’t we all seen a Black Panther movie and listened to at least a few Harry Styles tunes? Who hasn’t seen a Taylor Swift video? Or can’t name an incident or two involving the Kardashians? Popular fascination with the rich and famous is an inescapable part of contemporary consumer culture. Celebrity Culture is a comprehensive yet accessible survey of the pervasive phenomenon. This new edition of the textbook is fully revised and updated, incorporating up to date examples and case studies and adding additional features, including a timeline, questions, and in-depth case studies. Whilst recognising that celebrities have existed for centuries, Cashmore argues that celebrity culture in the 21st century is a novel and unique phenomenon driven by rampant consumerism, advertising, and the media. Cashmore describes the evolution of a new kind of fame, the growth of consumerism, the rise of the paparazzi, the fluctuating value of sex scandals, the transmutation of blackness, the metamorphosis of the British royal family, the emergence of influencers, the appeal of celebrity couples, the increased visibility of queer culture, the transformation of politics, the reconstruction of talent and the attempts of theories to grasp celebrity culture’s magnetism. Celebrity Culture will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience throughout the social sciences and humanities.