Thursday, 24 March 2011

Michael Jackson and Celebrity Status

By Melia Parker

In his article Is celebrity a new kind of status system? Milner (2010) discusses the idea discusses how the designation of celebrity status fits into common notions of status systems. Milner (2010 p.380) argues that modern theorists “exaggerate” when they claim that a system wherein celebrity status exists cannot be explained with ideas about traditional status systems. Milner forms a counter argument to the idea that “in the past fame was due to real and sustained accomplishments, but…this is no longer true,” (2010 p.380) by drawing on historical examples of celebrity that can be compared to current day ones. He argues (Milner 2010, p.383) that visibility and status, virtual intimacy, and fashionability of the idea of a particular celebrity, and stability of level of fame create many similarities between modern celebrities and royalty in past centuries.

Milner’s (2010) article made me consider the idea of status as we discussed it in class relating to very old graves, and what commonalities current-day high status graves have with one another and their older counterparts. Both the elaborateness of graves as well as the use of the gravesites as places of pilgrimage are clear commonalities for very high status burials. Some celebrity burials are particularly elaborate. For example, Jimi Hendrix has a stone gazebo structure around his grave, Jim Morrison has a stone statue of his head, and Bob Marley is buried in a mausoleum in Jamaica (pictured at right), and Princess Diana is buried on a small Island.

However, many celebrity graves aren’t much different structurally from those surrounding them. They are clearly made with fine materials (e.g. marble headstones, or Michael Jackson's gold-plated coffin), but their special "celebrity" status is not necessarily conveyed here. With these graves, the celebrity status is conveyed not by the grave itself but by people’s actions at the grave. Streams of visitors, piles of flowers, letters, cards, and other gifts characterise a celebrity grave, but these things leave little to no archaeological record. When comparing these graves to some wealthy graves that archaeologists have found, it seems that perhaps attitudes toward the dead have changed dramatically. Today it seems that the high status graves are of value more to those on the outside of the grave than those on the inside. Perhaps this is due to current notions of the afterlife which dictate that what we have in the physical world cannot be taken with us into the afterlife.

Michael Jackson fans create an impromptu memorial for the deceased musician (at left).

Valued at a reported $25,000, the casket made by Batesville Casket Company in which Michael Jackson was buried was gold plated and lined with blue velvet. The casket remains at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California where it was buried in its own enclosure in a tomb area of the park called the “Great Mausoleum”.


Sources

Milner, Murray. 2010 Is celebrity a new kind of status system? Society 47:379-387.

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