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Popular culture is everywhere, from adolescents to adulthood. Popular culture impacts us and lives on through different forms of media, memory and nostalgia. However, it is important to note that culture making is a social process: all meanings of self, of social relations, all the discourses and texts that play such important cultural roles can circulate only in relationship to the social system, in our case that of white, patriarchal capitalism. In this essay I will focus on 3 popular culture icons: Tupac, Eminem and Britney Spears. These people were chosen as they share many similarities as well as differences in their career span, as well as the fanbase that they have obtained over the years. The concept of aging artists and interest/disinterest of their work will be explored.
Tupac was an icon of the 90’s hip hop/rap scene. During his time, Tupac was constantly in the media limelight, from this he made millions from sales of his albums and was always highlighted for the gangster life he had lived. So, what made Tupac? Tupac fit into the typical stereotype of a hip hop artist in the 90’s, extremely ‘vulgar’ music, that in most cases showcased themes of violence and sexism, young black male, and ties related to gangs which could often be showcased on media and/or through the artists music. Hip hop is a tough space to get into, especially when artists have ties to gangs, as this can lead to serious implications. Tupac Shakur was murdered on 13th September, 1996. Holland argues that the hard edge of hip-hop culture is a prime example of a new kind of black identification; giving up on the idea of being a ‘person’ first and then a ‘corpse’, some black performers have embraced the culture of death as a way to move their bodies out of space and into time. This is especially interesting as today, more than 16 years after his death, Tupac is still well known and a pop culture icon of the 20th and 21st century.
Tupac’s audience grew up without him aging. The music lived on while he lay a corpse in only people’s memories, his image remembered through his music. More recently, at 2012 Coachella, fellow rap artist Snoop Dogg performed on stage to 75,000 people with a hologram of Tupac. Google search results for ‘Tupac hologram’ exceeded 50 million, there were hundreds of stories across multiple media forms showcasing ‘virtual2Pac’s’ impact on everything from music to entertainment, ethics, technology and intellectual property (Digital Domain, 2014; Brunt, 2015). This spectacle gave audiences the feeling that they were watching him in real time on the stage with Snoop Dogg, a feeling of nostalgia for many fans that would have been in the crowd, and an essence of what could have been for fans that did not have the chance to see him perform live prior to 1996. Through this performance immense media coverage occurred and 2Pac’s album sales increased 500%. (Brunt, 2015). This is an example of pop culture icons living on after death. Tupac today is immortalized in the music industry partly because he passed away at such a young age, fans have not had to watch him grow and have never had the disappointment of him aging, his image remains the same to his fans who will continue to love and support his music. Because he has been immortalized in the industry and is still highly recognized even after death his legacy has moved on to the next generation with many people born after the year 2000 listening and loving his music.
In comparison to Tupac, Eminem was also big on the rap scene in the 90’s. He did not fit into the stereotypical rapper, especially for the 90’s. As a white male jumping into the rap-scene, he was among the first to make it big in a dense ‘black male’ genre. Today, in 2019, Eminem is still highly regarded as one of the best male rappers to ever live. He has inspired many white artists to pursue a career in rapping. He has achieved both critical and commercial success and has challenged social structures of race in the United States and beyond. Eminem has been on the scene for over 20 years. Through his music and challenging social structures of a genre, a hint of postmodernism has occurred. Postmodernism and popular culture engage with postmodernity as a space for social change and political transformation, this transformation can be seen through Eminem’s work and continuity that has occurred from it.
At 47 years old, Eminem is well past what most artists would call their prime. In 2018, he released his 10th album ‘Kamikaze’. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 434,000 equivalent album units, including 252,000 traditional album sales and a career-high 225.5 million streams (Rolli, 2018). This was the biggest drop in the music industry of 2018. Fans were not expecting an album drop, which therefore escalated sales and streams. Eminem is a living example that age does not defy success rate, he has made his mark in the industry, secured a fanbase and has risen up through generations. It is possible that his sudden resurfacing back into hip hop/rap has helped with album sales as individuals were excited to see something come out from an artist in their memories of ‘the good old days’. Similar to Tupac, a feeling of nostalgia has given Eminem a long-lived career, although he may not be rapping at 60 years, old Eminem has been a part of many generations’ lives, because his music is so greatly remembered, today’s popular culture ageist ideas will barely be present and hardly noticeable. As the audience grows older with the artist, reflection of their work will be enough, new albums won’t be needed as the work is already legendary, loved and valued, it gives people something to reminisce, a realization will occur that everyone grows old you can’t escape the inevitable.
Britney Spears differs from both these artists. Britney Spears was one of the top female pop artists of the early 2000’s. Spears relies heavily on social media to stay relevant with postings on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, combined with comments on her webpage, BritneySpears.com. Through this interaction it seems to be that she hopes to spread her brand and ‘get with the times’, however it’s a bit of a fizzle as it does not gain much attention outside of her own publications. Britney’s fan base has declined over the years, and her new music and self have become extremely irrelevant today. This irrelevancy stems from the image that Spears had created of herself during the late 1990’s/early 2000’s. The 2000’s were rather a bland time for music part of the problem was that the musical landscape had grown cluttered. Most of the styles of music and subcultures that have ever existed are still with us, this being part of the reason that fandoms never really change, and if they do shift to another artist/band, etc., its often one in the same. The years 1998-2009 were the peak of Britney Spears, there were frequent top-100 songs and popular video clips, in which her image could be easily portrayed as almost a sex symbol for those times, dancing provocatively, scandalous outfits and inappropriate lyrics.
Going on 37 years old, Britney now has less of a genuine following with many ‘liking’ tweets or posts, ironically because Britney Spears has become a bit of a meme over the years. Her whole aesthetic has been tarnished due to aging as it no longer fits her stance. Footage can even be shown from a couple Las Vegas shows in recent years of Spears dancing around poles, attempting to climb on props and dance seductively. These videos have left many people cringing as the image of past Britney just doesn’t reflect nicely with her whole mother figure she has going on ‘sex sells’ doesn’t seem to be working for her anymore. Britney is a prime example of popular culture’s obsession with youth culture, being rather ageist. Her prime years have led to things such as shows in Vegas and judging on American singing contests, however, many believe this is just because she’s well-known from her prime and people that the public would like to see on the judging panel are actually performing live around the world with continuous Billboard 100 Hits now. Majority of Britney’s audience have grown up with her, grown out of old habits and ideas of aspirations of who they want to become, so the facade of Britney has now become awfully tacky. The music of this artist is old and good to reflect back on if you’re a fan, however it didn’t make as much of a statement or have people as connected to the lyrics, music and overall background that is evident with Tupac or Eminem. The concept of nostalgia is key to many aspects of the 90’s, nostalgia, for better or worse, never went out of fashion, it remains uncannily contemporary, however to be a part of someone’s nostalgia and have true meaning is hard to come by and is something many artists have failed to accomplish.
To conclude, by comparing these three artists we can see that there are nostalgic ties with each person. Popular culture’s obsession with youth culture has led to disappointment of some fans, however the idea that most people within popular culture focus or care more about youth culture isn’t entirely true. Deceased artists can still have great impacts on viewers lives through their lyrics, how they lived their lives and their attitudes. This can be expertly shown through Tupac Shakur. Artists are able to go MIA for years and still come back and have best-selling albums in their 40s. Eminem has proved this. If you have a solid fan base and multiple hits, not a one hit wonder artist, then you can more than likely have a great impact on the popular culture sphere. Although Eminem challenged many social implications on his journey, he is still one of the greatest and well-known rappers of all time I think for being so different yet diverse and true to himself, and his music fans appreciate him and will continue to appreciate his work through the years. Thirdly, artists like Britney Spears show that you can be significant over 5+ years in popular culture’s media, yet still be irrelevant 10-15 years later. Creating a brand for an artist can be one of the hardest things to do, and in Britney’s case has turned out horribly. Her hits are something to look back on, and fans can and will be sad that there is no longer music produced like it used to be by the artist, any new music by the artist won’t be taken seriously or well as too much focus has been put looking back into past success and/or sponsorship deals with companies (which were also result of past success), any attempt to create new content will seem unauthentic.
Popular culture will continue to live on, memories of all celebrities will not. Popular culture’s obsession with youth culture is unrealistic, artists grow old, become uninspired and stop making music, movies, etc. A lot of people accept this and fans can find someone or something else to like as time goes by whilst still reflecting on past artists or fandoms. Artists with large fan bases often financially don’t need to continue their career into old age, and retire earlier than most. This just links with fans having to move on and reflect past work, but not dwell on it too hard. Nostalgia is a widespread structure of feeling in Western modernity, and it always will be moving forward. Fans need to expect the inevitable and learn how to cope or move on from their favorite artists’ work. The notion of an ageist popular culture needs to be removed or at least reconsidered, as for artists or anyone for the matter. If you want to be remembered, do something to make people remember.
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