Jim Morrisson - celebrity culture

By comparing and contrasting at least two theorists who are interested in ‘celebrity culture’, explain the popularity of one celebrity or star of your choice.

Celebrity plays an incredibly influential role in society

today, allowing yet another distraction for people as

they yearn to forget the drudgeries of their own lives.

Not only does celebrity psychologically satisfy society

and provide entertainment, it is also the core of a great

business in a hyper-capitalized world, overturning

billions in profit each year. Dyer (1986) explains

people’s obsession with celebrity to be “the meaning of

work and achievement, and definitions of sexual and

gendered identity”. Celebrity indefinitely identifies

each generation, and the people who closely follow those

at the forefront to identify themselves; separating,

dividing and elevating society which Weber (1986)

suggests is particularly relevant to those in ‘need’ of

spiritual methods of affinity. Various definitions of

1

celebrity exist, but the most common agreement is

attached to the “consequence of one’s possessing an

extraordinary ability or quality of some kind that sets

one apart from others who are not capable of similar

achievements or who do not have distinguishing features

that make them stand out” (Ryan, 2010:150).

Through analysis of The Doors’ front man, Jim Morrison’s

popularity, at a time when society wasn’t politically

just, many theorists will be challenged and adapted to

explain the reasons behind this. The Doors were

psychedelic rock purveyors from the mid-late 60s,

breaking their genre into the mainstream to further

result in numerous number ones, a place in the history of

music, various TV appearances and sold out tours to

thousands screaming girls. Where Adorno and Horkheimer

(1979) show celebrity to be a reason for cultural

decline, with public desire being to achieve their own

2

celebrity credibility, in turn allowing people to become

selfish and materialistic, Morrison preached the opposite

and was despised by many in power. He was the reason for

individual revolt and people’s endeavor for inner peace,

encouraging the youth to be themselves through writing

lyrics inspired by French existentialist philosophers and

poets including Nietzche, Plutarch and Rimbaud. In fact

the name of the band itself was taken from Blake: “When

the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things

as they truly are, infinite” (1991:132).

Charisma was an important component of Morrison’s

popularity, which will be explained through the works of

academic, Weber and his reasoning behind the evolution of

charisma into authority. Boorstin’s (1961) case of

celebrity’s superficiality will be challenged but put

into perspective with celebrities in current society.

Morrison’s conceived role by his fans was often compared

3

as ‘God-like’ for which Rojek (2001) will be referenced

to relate the similarity between the purpose of celebrity

and religion. It’s rare that the industry allows

celebrities like Morrison to not necessarily conform to

the dualities of media such as censoring lyrics for the

purposes of TV - this is because Morrison wanted the

audience to experience it all, not censored parts of his

art. The effect of and reasoning behind such rare

popularity is perhaps more fascinating than the reasons

behind people’s fascination with more current pop stars

today.

Morrison’s on stage presence and charisma was unarguably

nothing short of stoical valiance. Weber takes this

innate quality in celebrities further defining it as

‘charismatic domination’, where he defined charisma as “a

certain quality of an individual personality, but virtue

of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as

4

endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least

specifically exceptional powers or qualities” (1947:358).

Morrison was certainly no exception to this argument, and

his popularity was a direct result of people fascinated

by his riveting and mesmerizing stage presence and role

as a front man, challenging the talent of any other pop

stars at the time. Weber argues that this authority over

fans is an unstable form of leadership as followers can

just as quickly switch to the next charismatic individual

and is therefore dependent on relationship between

individual and fan. Wilson further reiterates this point

of charisma “denoting a quality not of the individual,

but of a relationship between believers and the man in

whom they believed” (1975:7). Compared to celebrity

today, Morrison back in the 60s was much more accessible

to the fans, whether it was interaction through the live

shows or opportunities for fans to sneak backstage, bond

between fan and celebrity was strong. This was a time

5

before social media and the Internet, where the only ways

to interact with celebrity was through letters,

appearances or live shows. However Ritzer argues Weber’s

case of charisma:

“Although Weber did not deny that a charismatic

leader may have outstanding characteristics, his

sense of charisma was more dependent on the group of

disciples and the way that they define the charismatic

leader. To put Weber's position bluntly, if the

disciples define a leader as charismatic, then he or

she is likely to be a charismatic leader irrespective

of whether he or she actually possesses any

outstanding traits.” (2004:134)

Celebrities are often argued to be leaders and

trendsetters by theorists such as Dyer (1986), and in

many cases considered as extraordinary and ‘God-like’

6

figures. Whether media created celebrity for the purpose

of expanding the range of its own business, is another

question. Boorstin reconciles this point that honour and

heroic qualities were always recognized, despite the fact

that media have now made celebrities average people who

are only recognized for their ‘well-knowness’ (1961: 57).

It is also important to note that Morrison wasn’t

politically seen as a good role model for society. A man

who encouraged Nietzche’s view: “to raise a new

sanctuary, the old sanctuary must first be destroyed”

(1991:321); wore leather pants; grew long hair and

encouraged alcohol and drugs should be questioned as to

how he would benefit society. He did however profit the

business through his tours and music, which allowed

people an alternative to other music that was pushed at

the time. They could listen to hypnotic guitar twangs and

meet like minded people revolting against the norm of

society’s rules and regulations which had already planned

7

your future of education, family, work and deathbed. It

was because Morrison preached change and gambles with

life, that he had a very dedicated following:

“The key is total acceptance. To go beyond good or

bad you have to destroy all your previously

established values. Forget the Ten Commandments.

Invent your own commandments. Become your own god,

create yourself, and develop your own personal set of

values. Destruction’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We’ve been programmed, brainwashed into believing it

is, which isn’t surprising, especially in a society

that values materialism as much as ours… There can’t

be birth without death. Even the Old Testament says

so: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but

whoever loseth his life shall find it.” But there’s

no guarantee after you’ve lost it, you’ll be able to

find it. That’s the risk – you have to risk dying to

8

really live. It’s an incredibly gamble. The stakes

are your life. You have to be willing to die for it.

If you lose, then it’s all over. But if you win – if

you win, then you’ll know. The unspeakable becomes

known. That’s the other side. It’s the doors of

perception cleansed.’ (1991:154)

The religious connotations of the above are important to

note the relevance of when analyzing the popularity of

Morrison. Rojek (2001) views the reasoning behind both

celebrity and religion to be similar. Putting Morrison

into context, he acted as a religious person to many of

his followers, acting to some extent as a role model to

those who wanted to be different, preaching through his

lyrics and encouraging his followers to be their “own

gods” (1991:133). Rojek claims that society’s

relationship with celebrity is an alternative to

religion; “post-God celebrity is now one of the mainstays

9

of organizing recognition and belonging in a secular

society” (2001:58). Morrison had the power to create

subcultural groups within youth by the style of dress and

interest in his music as they came together through their

like mindedness and his gigs, which Cohen discusses in

his introduction to ‘Delinquent Boys’ (1955); “One

solution [to status problems] is for individuals who

share such problems to gravitate towards one another and

jointly establish new norms, new criteria of status which

define as meritorious the characteristics they do

possess, the kinds of conduct of which they are capable.”

(1955:65-6). The strength of the youth uniting, further

strengthened Morrison’s popularity, which Hebdige’s

theory could be adapted to explain young people posing in

order to “pose a threat” to “challenge the symbolic order

which guarantees their subordination” (1987:18). Part of

Morrison’s authority and religious appreciation,

10

particularly by females, was partly due to being able to

provide an alternative to control:

“For the girls in my research, bodies were subjected

to rigid and sometimes hidden system of control…The

Catholic college the girls attended enforced

regulations regarding how the school uniform should

be worn, and emphasized, above all, modesty and

control. Music therefore became a vehicle for the

body’s release, especially in its expression through

dancing and also through the scream” (Baker,

2003:20).

Where this would suggest social discourse, other

theorists would argue that the power of society to

establish celebrity through buying records and attending

shows allowing them to appear in the Top 10, establishes

‘social leveling’. Evans further argues that the culture

11

is “the end point of a long process of democratization

and the development of a capitalist market society”

(2005: 14). However this may be more relevant to

celebrity today surrounded by various social media

outlets and appearances in all forms of media and the

creation of brands than to the popularity attributed to

Morrison. His fans in the literal sense didn’t directly

choose Morrison, as it is the norm now, through YouTube

or shows such as X Factor and Pop Idol (where the

audience vote for the winner). Without the existence of

Internet and lack of truly effective populist democracy

back then, the popularity attached to Morrison perhaps

was more real and attributed to his music rather than a

brand surrounding him and forced upon the fans.

Gray (2002) states that fame is part of an ideal of

acquiring subjective freedom, which is partly what

Morrison preaches, even through the name of his band, The

12

Doors, likened to the Blake quote, “the doors of

perception”. The extent of fandom surrounding Morrison

and big pop stars today is the same, from obsessive

behavior to posters on bedroom walls… but the reasoning

behind them are completely different dependent on the

messages preached from those stars. Music used to have a

big role politically and within the evolution of society

as acquiring freedom, which Gray (2002) claims as the

reasoning behind fame, but now that most things have been

‘accepted’ in Western society, there is nothing severely

politically unjust to revolt against. Adorno and

Horkheimer (1979) have argued that through the evolution

of popular culture, the result of cultural decline has

been achieved, where our obsession with celebrity has

culturally disadvantaged us in communicating with others

and focusing on our own lives.

13

Many of Morrison’s fans desired him and his life, the

general life of a rock star was deemed the ultimate way

of life by fans - who often attempted to live the life of

a rock star without being able to afford to do it, either

mentally or financially. In ‘The Culture Industry:

Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ (1979), Adorno and

Horkheimer adapt a Marxist perspective to celebrity, and

argue that popularity is the result of public’s desire to

achieve this status for themselves, which they claim is

proving societal deterioration and encouraging

materialistic attributes. However they also argue that

the purpose of celebrity was to tame the masses:

“The masses, demoralized by their life under the

pressure of the system, and who show signs of

civilization only in modes of behavior which have

been forced on them and through which fury and

recalcitrance show everywhere, are to be kept in

14

order by the sight of an inexorable life and

exemplary behavior. Culture has always played its

part in taming revolutionary and barbaric instincts.”

(1979: 1235)

Yet, Morrison did the exact opposite of ‘taming

revolutionary…instincts’, he encouraged them. Therefore

the popularity centred around Morrison must be put into

perspective, and not likened to current celebrity culture

which is far more obsessive and frightening now than its

past. Unlike Disney and other past celebrity cultures,

capitalists or the media didn’t initially push Morrison;

it was the demand from widespread fans that resulted in

his unprecedented success and something that couldn’t be

ignored by those in power. Politically speaking, if those

in power were to forbid society listening to Morrison,

there would surely follow a revolution amongst fans and

another Morrison would shortly follow in his footsteps.

15

Music was required for societal evolution in the past,

and his popularity was a result of various different

factors from individual freedom, to political revolution

and an appreciation for his poetry and music.

Boorstin (1961) attributes past celebrity to have

exhibited honourable morals in their endeavours for

higher good, which fits in line with the words Morrison

preached and sang. However he says current celebrity no

longer requires any real skill, and is simply put,

incredibly ‘self obsessive’. Celebrity nowadays and the

popularity attached to them is nothing compared to the

popularity attached to past celebrities such as Morrison.

The industry today seems to value image over substance.

Celebrity has increasingly turned into an industry, which

Turner suggests is formed through a celebrity’s identity

and “is a commodity traded by the promotions, publicity,

and the media industries that produce these

16

representations” (2004:9). Perhaps rather than looking at

relation between industry, capitalism and celebrity it is

necessary to focus on the surrounding factors such as the

Internet, social media and interaction between fan and

celebrity. Although social media can also make celebrity

more accessible, it is in many ways false and not as real

as it used to be. Music should be experienced rather than

watched on YouTube with marketing advertisements flashing

on the side pushing band shirts and CD’s selling for half

price at your local HMV. The impact of Morrison on his

fans that contributed to his popularity was far greater

and more meaningful than perhaps Justin Beiber

‘preaching’ about girlfriends and other simplistic

commodities of life to fourteen year olds today. As

Morrison wisely said, “knowledge is the end, but

experience is the means” (1991: 101).

17

Bibliography

Adorno, T. and Horkheimer, M. (1979) ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment As Mass Deception’, London: Verso

Baker S (2001) ‘Pre-teen Girls and Popular Music’, Continuum, 15 March, pp359-71

Boorstin, D. (1961) The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, Harmondsworth, Penguin

Cohen A.K. (1955) Delinquent Boys, The Subculture of the Gangs, London: Collier Macmillan

Dyer R, (1986) Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, London: Macmillan

18

Evans, J. & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2005) Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity, London: Open University Press

Gray, J. (2002) ‘Ulrika is a sign that we’ve got it all’,New Statesman, 28 October, pp28-30

Hebdige, D. (1987) Cut n Mix Culture Identity and Caribbean Music, London: Comedia

Ritzer, G. (2004) Sociological Theory, New York: McGraw-Hill

Rojek, C. (2001), Celebrity, Reaktion Books

Ryan, M. (2010) Cultural Studies, London: Blackwell

Sugarman, D. (1991) Wonderland Avenue, London: Abacus

Turner, G. (2004), Understanding Celebrity, Sage

Weber, M. (1947) Theory of Social and Economic Organization, New York: The Free Press and the Falcon's Bring Press

Weber, M. (1968) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, New York: Bedminster Press

19

20

21