A celebrity (often referred to as a celeb in popular culture) is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.
Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. There are a wide range of ways by which people can become celebrities, from their profession, appearances in the mass media, beauty or even by complete accident or infamy. Instant celebrity is the term that is used when someone becomes a celebrity in a very short period of time. In some places, someone that somehow achieves a small amount of transient fame through hype or mass media, is stereotyped as a B-grade celebrity. Often the stereotype extends to someone that falls short of mainstream or persistent fame but seeks to extend or exploit it. In the 21st Century, the insatiable public fascination for celebrities and appetite for celebrity gossip has seen the rise of the gossip columnist, tabloid, paparazzi and celebrity blogging.
The rise of international celebrities in acting and popular music is due in large part to the massive scope and scale of the media industries, enabling celebrities to be viewed more often and in more places.
Regional or cultural celebrities
Each culture and region has its own independent celebrity system, with a hierarchy of popular film, television, and sports stars. Celebrities who are very popular might be unknown abroad, except in cultural groups, such as within a diaspora. In some cases, a country-level celebrity might command some attention outside their native country, but not to the degree that they can be considered a global celebrity. For example, singer Lara Fabian is widely-known in the French-speaking world, but only had a couple of Billboard hits in the U.S., where as singer Celine Dion is well-known in both communities.
Subnational entities or regions, or cultural communities (linguistic, ethnic, religious) also have their own 'celebrity systems',especially in linguistically or culturally-distinct regions such as Quebec (a French-speaking province in Canada) and Wales (a constituent country of the UK). Regional radio personalities, newscasters, politicians or community leaders can be considered as local or regional celebrities.
A local celebrity can be more of a household name than a national celebrity and may often experience the same type of attention from the public as a national celebrity albeit in the confines of their particular region. For example, while journalist Lin Sue Cooney is a well known television reporter in Arizona, she is little known outside the Southwestern US.
Another example of celebrity can be merely cultural or unique to a particular diaspora. Tehran Ghasri has a Iranian television program accessible by Iranian satellite. His program is mostly in Persian, restricting his viewers to those around the world who speak that language. Though his limited celebrity may be deemed "worldwide" it only reflects a tiny fraction of people worldwide.
English-speaking media commentators and journalists will sometimes refer to celebrities as A-List , B-List , C-List , D-List or Z-List . These informal rankings indicate a placing within the hierarchy. However, due to differing levels of celebrity in different regions, it is difficult to place people within one bracket. A Nicaraguan actor might be a B-list action film actor in the US, but be an A-list star in the Czech Republic. An objective method of placing celebrities from any country into categories from A-List to H-List based on their number of Google hits has been proposed, but while this method is quantitative, it only works for individuals with distinctive names, e.g., Jason Mewes, not Kevin Smith.
It's hard to measure someone's fame. Even worldwide celebrities might still be obscure to certain people in isolated countries like North Korea, villagers without access to international news media or people who are simply uninterested in celebrities. Certain phenomena have however been called "definitive proof that someone is really famous. " Usually these are things only famous people get access to or are featured into. Examples are appearing on the cover of Time Magazine , being spoofed in Mad Magazine , having a wax statue made of you in Madame Tussauds , receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , in the 1980s and 1990s appearing as a puppet in the satirical puppet show Spitting Image , being "special guest voice" or a reference in The Simpsons , being honoured with a bronze statue of yourself, having a street or building named after you.
Niche market celebrities
Just as one may become a regional or cultural celebrity, one may also become a celebrity in their niche market and have limited fame apart from it.
One may argue that all celebrities are niche market celebrities, some niches are simply much bigger than others and many celebrities gain fame apart from their niche market as well. The highest level of professional athletes, for example, are well known even among people who do not follow sports.
Certain celebrities are famous even to people who are not familiar with the niche market. Pablo Picasso 's style and name are famous even to people who are not interested in art. Harry Houdini is the archetypal illusionist, people who don't use computers know who Bill Gates is, the most famous scientist is Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig von Beethoven are the most famous classical composers and if someone has to name a famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti might as well be the first name to come in mind. And globally almost everybody knows the name and face of the current American president, even if one isn't that interested in politics. Since World War II America's role in international politics has been so massive that every American president immediately becomes world famous as a result.
The same phenomenon is true for fictional characters. If one has to name a famous wizard Merlin or Gandalf will be first to come in mind. Mickey Mouse is perhaps the most famous cartoon character and fictional mouse in the world. The most famous movie monsters are King Kong and Godzilla, the archetypical detective is Sherlock Holmes and most people's idea of a spy is James Bond. In many cases, the character is more well known than the name of the creator. Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman are superhero celebrities while the comic book artists and writers who created them are well known only within fandom circles. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Bob Kane are examples of figures whose celebrity status is limited to a certain genre fandom rather than the general public.
Careers that produce celebrity
Some professional activities, by the nature of being high-paid, highly exposed, and difficult to get into, are likely to confer celebrity status. For example, movie stars and television actors with lead roles on prominently scheduled shows are likely to become celebrities. High-ranking politicians, businessmen, national television reporters, daytime television show hosts, supermodels, successful athletes and chart-topping musicians are also likely to become celebrities. A few humanitarian leaders such as Mother Teresa have even achieved fame because of their charitable work. Some people have achieved fame online and thus are Internet celebrities.
While some film and theatre directors, producers, fashion designers, artists, authors, trial lawyers, scientists, journalists and dancers have achieved celebrity status, celebrity is not necessary to success in these fields and in general they are less noted than actors of equal professional importance to the business.
Ensuing political career
Celebrity may offer advantage in attaining high-ranked political offices that are elected among the public. This offers a lateral entrance, in contrast to the career ladder approach of starting at minor positions and gradually ascending. Actors in India and the USA have thus benefited from their celebrity, and so to a lesser degree have sports celebrities. Businessman-celebrity has given less advantage.
Celebrity families
Another example of celebrity is a family that has notable ancestors or is known nationally (or internationally) for their wealth and/or influence. Examples would be the Barrymore family, Chaplin family, Osmond family, or the Jackson family.
Celebrity as a mass media phenomenon
In the 1970s, academics began analyzing the phenomenon of celebrity and stardom. According to Sofia Johansson the "canonical texts on stardom" include Daniel Boorstin's The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961) and articles by Boorstin (1971), Alberoni (1972), and Dyer (1979) which examined the "representations of stars and on aspects of the Hollywood star system." Johansson notes "more recent analyses within media and cultural studies (e.g. Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Giles 2000; Turner, Marshall and Bonner 2000; Rojek 2001; Turner 2004) have instead dealt with the idea of a pervasive, contemporary, ‘celebrity culture’."
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