Celebrity Influence Never Faded, but the Definition of ‘Celebrity’ Did Change Radically

There was a time when actors and celebrities were incredibly influential. Movie stars were relied upon, not to just act in films, but to sell products left and right. 

They could get together for a charity event and draw thousands of people, using their influence to get people involved in a cause, or paying attention to a tragedy. 

They could even influence your vote. Frank Sinatra endorsed Kennedy, adding a flare of cool to his campaign. In the 1990s, MTV launched “Rock the Vote,” inspiring many in Gen-X to get out and pull the lever. Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008 was considered to be a large factor in influencing a lot of women to put Obama in the White House. 

But then something happened. The internet became a thing, and with it, came social media, podcasts, and YouTube. 

I can remember when YouTube creators truly started becoming a popular thing. The “influencer” hadn’t quite been realized yet, but these creators were looked down on by the elite in Hollywood. As time went on, the influencer came into the mainstream, and they began to wield the power to grab attention and influence people, just like Hollywood celebrities. 

At the same time this was happening, Hollywood celebrities were also becoming social media regulars, and unlike these nobodies who were becoming famous by merely uploading content, the more Hollywood celebrities used the internet, the more they exposed their fakeness. Actors demonstrated bizarre behaviors and opinions that were just off-putting. They truly began to demonstrate their elitism, spouting off opinions that were disconnected from reality, and even finger-waging at people who didn’t agree with them. 

The Hollywood celebrity went from hero to zero over the course of a few years, their influence over the people waning quickly as a mix of over-exposure and disingenuous nonsense were exposed for everyone to see. 

Fast-forward to 2024, and the Kamala Harris campaign was wheeling out celebrities left and right, but despite the millions of dollars spent on endorsements, speeches, and performances, Hollywood just couldn’t move the needle. 

The title of “celebrity” had shifted. Now, the real celebrities weren’t actors in Hollywood. They were well-known, sure, but they were no longer thought leaders. In fact, their inclusion in things was often looked at as an annoyance, and even negatively effected a thing they were attached to. 

Now, the real celebrities, the well-known people who influence and lead, were the internet influencers that the elite once scoffed at. Moreover, these people weren’t even actors. They ran the gamut of professions and businesses. 

Joe Rogan is one of these new celebrities. He is followed by millions of people, and millions listen to his podcast. People from comedians to heads of state sit at his microphone to talk frankly about a variety of subject. Rogan is so influential, that attacks against him are almost a guarantee of loss of public standing.

Elon Musk, likely the most influential person in the world, is also one of these celebrities. Not only does his work change the world, his purchase of Twitter, and turning it into the free speech platform X, further solidified his status as the new mainstream celebrity. 

The Twitch streamer, Kai Cenat, is so influential that his mere presence can unintentionally create riots in New York City. Hollywood celebrities go to him and appear on his stream in order to endear themselves to the public. The Harris campaign approached Cenat in hopes that his influence could truly work to drive people to vote for Kamala, but Cenat refused to work with them. 

Then, of course, there’s Donald Trump, who is a celebrity when all things are considered, and whose popularity was such that he was elected president. While Trump would have been considered a classical celebrity, he shed that old form and embraced the new form of celebrity during his 2016 run, and only grew that celebrity from then on. 

While these people are all different in terms of what they do, the one thing they all have in common is realness. They’re not performing even though they’re in front of cameras all the time. They’re just being themselves, and moreover, they’re being honest with you. They don’t try to hide their thoughts between well-rehearsed lines and have PR managers that carefully craft their image for the public. 

Elon Musk posts his thoughts on X without a filter. Joe Rogan doesn’t hold back when it comes to his opinions and is willing to have his mind changed. Trump says the brutal truth, even when it’s bound to upset people. 

This is a far cry from the Hollywood celebrity, and that’s refreshing to the people who have been inundated with carefully crafted lies when the truth is right there on the internet. This is one of the reasons the Harris campaign failed so badly. They were attempting to use the old way of influencing people when the world had moved on. Harris paid celebrities millions of dollars to no avail. Trump appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and influenced millions without spending a dime.

The new celebrity may never appear on the silver screen, but the celebrity still does exist. This celebrity doesn’t require scripts, proper lighting, or teams of people working to make them look a certain way to the public. They fire from the hip, and speak honestly. They don’t demand you agree with them, but they do like a good dialogue.

The world has changed, but in a way, it’s still the same. 

I think it’s safe to say we’ve entered a new age for society. It evolved right in front of us, and will only continue to evolve as new generations come. This new world is rapid compared to the old one, but it’s more honest thanks to the unfettered spread of information on platforms like X, and podcasts like Rogan’s. A narrative or a lie can quickly be destroyed as information is released, and the people are exposed to it. 

This new world is less likely to enjoy curation, and values honesty more than well-rehearsed words and elitist opinions. It’s thanks to this new world that Trump was elected again. 

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