When he said this, I’m sure Mr. Warhol wasn’t thinking about the current reality TV craze that makes instant celebrities out of unknowns. Nor was he talking about manufactured pop icons whose careers are manipulated by the media (Fabio, anyone)?
So what did he mean?
I always thought it was sort of pop icons / fads. People that (for any number of reasons) are huge celebrites for a short amount of time. Anyone from New Kids On The Block to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Billie Mayes (he’s almost done, right?)
Popular culture devours then casts people aside. Yet there is a never ending parade of empty people who think fame will make them whole. People are cheap. Fleeting fame is even cheaper. The conveyor belt of celebrities never stops.
It was true when Warhol said it and the rise of reality TV celebrities and trash celebrity magazines are just a natural progression. It shows that he was right about it becoming a faster, more encompassing and more disposable.
One of my college roommates wrote a dissertation about Warhol and I heard more about him than any engineering student should have.
Warhol, as we all know, was obsessed with celebrity. He supposedly coined the term “superstar.” He thought that the time from the rise to fame to the inevitable fall was getting shorter and shorter. Eventually, this time would be ridiculously short, only fifteen minutes long. Of course, this was sarcastic. Clearly, this was not even close to an original concept. In the 50’s, for example, pundits made the same observation about pop songs and their performers.
Quite a while after he made the quote, he said that he made it purposefully ambiguous. You can read it two ways: if and when one becomes famous, the fame will only last for only fifteen minutes or there will be a fifteen minute span of time where everyone on Earth will simultaneously be famous. I think he made that up after the fact though.
Haj
He later said: “I’m tired of that quote. I never use it anymore. My new one is ‘In fifteen minutes, everyone will be famous’.”
…I think.
I always thought that it meant that everyone will have a shining moment and it will be at the peak of our lives. It will last for about 15 minutes and then our lives are downhill from there.
I think too much…doh!
What makes think he wasn’t talking about pop idols manufactured by the media? Before there was Fabio there was Fabian, after all. (Ask your mother.)