Wiz Khalifa is a hip hop artist who is highly active across a wide range of social media, mainly Twitter, Instagram and more recently, Vine. Through these media formats, we get to see a much more personal and real account of Wiz and his life. But before these networks existed, how did the public get to see the lives of the celebrities? It was mainly through the stars being managed by publicists who had certain images they want their clients to be portrayed as. But nowadays these publicists have much less control as the celebrities are embracing the rise of social media technologies.
Wiz Khalifa on Instagram. picture via instagram.com
Marshall (2010) describes the specular economy to be how the self is reconstituted through the screens of engagement and interactivity that serve to organize and shape our lives. Instead of receiving celebrity information through the world of spin and public relations, these new media forms allow us to see the presentation of the celebrities as the way that they want to be seen, not the way their record label or management teams control. And it seems that these celebrities want us to see them their own way, to see the real them, who they really are.
An example of Wiz Khalifa's Vine profile. Courtesy of youtube.com
As a user of social media myself, I find I follow mainly music artists whose music I really enjoy. An example of this is fun loving, stoner rap hip hop artist Wiz Khalifa. Wiz doesn't shy away from the fact that he loves smoking weed and drinking with friends. This is clear in Wiz's twitter page and his almost daily Vine videos. These new outlets let the people see who the artists really are, it gives them so much more freedom about their public persona.
Wiz and his weed. courtesy of instagram.com
Wiz and many other celbrities have been criticised for not being good role models and for not behaving the way a celebrity should. The rise of the specular economy has allowed the celebrities the have the freedom to portray themselves however they want. With instances like Wiz, this portrayal is the real Wiz Khalifa, the content comes straight from the source.
References
Marshal, P.D (2010) ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502.
Hello Tim,
ReplyDeleteIt still seems that your passion for all thing Hip Hop is still evident in yet another post, more significantly this post is a quantum leap forward in an earlier post I commented on, well done in that respect. Prior to reading this post I was not very well informed about Wiz, but I’m very appreciative you have brought him to my attention and provided a useful link to his Twitter. Perhaps more scholar reference could have been used but the image of Wiz and the YouTube clip along with the links seems to have made up for the minimal references, perhaps you could expand this in the final assignment? I would like to see it expanded. Cheers mate
Hey Tim,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks so much for introducing me to Wiz; he's excellent! I'm always happy to expand my music collection and this guy is excellent. I also love the way that social media allows celebrities to really 'be themselves' and really properly interact with their fans; you've got to wonder how famous musicians like Cobain, Lennon, or Mercury would've been like if they used social media?
One interesting point that would've been good to look at is the celebrities whose social media output isn't strictly theirs; by which I mean celebs who have people running their blogs, twitter, fb etc. Good examples of this can be found in a lot of older celebrities who aren't quite 'with' new technology, but I think a good one is One Direction. Part of 1D's success is the best-friends charm that the group gives off, and social media is absolutely crucial in keeping that image up; and you can't deny that it gives you a giant platform to do so.