Heroes and the Cult of Celebrity

Theories of heroes and the cult of the celebrity are very prominent in my pop culture subject, 80’ hair and metal bands. Bands of this genre often would make music that was heroic in nature. Many people then associated the words of the music with being heroic. The bands themselves wore heroic costumes. The 80’s hair band “Kiss” wore heroic style costumes and makeup. Some people would consider it heroic as the costumes were most likely meant to portray themselves as iconic and mythic. 

As with any other popular culture genre in our history, many of them have come and gone. New things become popular as others dissipate, never to be heard of again. With the 80’s hair band genre, they have been elevated to celebrity status. Many of the popular 80’s hair bands are still popular today. The hair and clothing styles may have become unpopular but the music and the pop culture of these bands are still very popular. Many of the band members are celebrities still today. Bands like Metallica, AC/DC, and Kiss have seen tribute bands attributed to their successes, even if most of the bands are not currently making new music. Some of the popular band members have made reality TV shows as a result of their celebrity. For example, Gene Simmons had a reality show called “Family Jewels”. Ozzie Osbourne and his family partook in a reality TV series called “The Osbournes” which ran from 2002 to 2005. 

Because of their celebrity and popularity as band members, these icons were able to continue their celebrity status far after their music careers had ended. This has a lot to do with the way we celebrate and hold these celebrities close to us. They will always remain popular to those they were popular to - even if it is not in the same context. This is a great example of the cult of celebrity.