15 minutes of fame is short-lived media publicity or celebrity of an individual
or phenomenon. The expression is credited to Andy Warhol, who included
the words "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" in the
program for a 1968 exhibition of his work at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm,
Sweden. Photographer Nat Finkelstein claims credit for the expression,
stating that he was photographing Warhol in 1966 for a proposed book. A crowd
gathered trying to get into the pictures and Warhol supposedly remarked that
everyone wants to be famous, to which Finkelstein replied, "Yeah, for about
fifteen minutes, Andy." The phenomenon is often used in
reference to figures in the entertainment industry or other areas of
popular culture, such as reality television and YouTube.
It is believed that the statement was an adaptation of a theory of Marshall
McLuhan, explaining the differences of media, where TV differs much from other
media using contestants. An older version of the same concept in English
is the expression "nine days' wonder", which dates at least as far back as the
Elizabethan era. Interpretation
German art historian Benjamin H. D. Buchloh suggests that the core tenet of
Warhol's aesthetic, being "the systematic invalidation of the
hierarchies of representational functions and techniques" of art,
corresponds directly to the belief that the "hierarchy of subjects worthy to be
represented will someday be abolished," hence anybody, and therefore
"everybody," can be famous once that hierarchy dissipates, "in the future,"
and by logical extension of that, "in the future, everybody will be famous,"
and not merely those individuals worthy of fame.
On the other hand, wide proliferation of the adapted idiom "my fifteen minutes"
and its entrance into common parlance have led to a slightly different
application, having to do with both the ephemerality of fame in the information
age and, more recently, the democratization of media outlets brought
about by the advent of the internet. In this formulation, Warhol's quote has
been taken to mean: "At the present, because there are so many channels by
which an individual might attain fame, albeit not enduring fame, virtually
anyone can become famous for a brief period of time."
There is a third and even more remote interpretation of the term, as used by
an individual who has been legitimately famous or skirted celebrity for a brief
period of time, that period of time being his or her "fifteen minutes."
John Langer suggests that 15 minutes of fame is an enduring concept because it
permits everyday activities to become "great effects." Tabloid journalism and
the paparazzi have accelerated this trend, turning what may have before been
isolated coverage into continuing media coverage even after the initial reason
for media interest has passed. Derivative phrases
The age of reality television has seen the comment wryly updated as: "In the
future, everyone will be obscure for 15 minutes." The British artist Banksy has
made a sculpture of a TV that has, written on its screen, "In the future,
everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes," which was later used in the
lyrics of Robbie Williams' song "The Actor" from his 2006 album Rudebox.
A more recent adaptation of Warhol's quip, possibly prompted by the rise of
online social networking, blogging, and internet celebrity, is the claim that
"In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people" or, in some
renditions, "On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people". This
quote, though attributed to David Weinberger, was said to have originated
with the Scottish artist Momus. The Marilyn Manson song "I Don't Like
the Drugs", released on his 1998 album Mechanical Animals, alludes to the term
in the line "We're rehabbed and we're ready for our fifteen minutes of shame",
as part of the song's theme of unrepentant escapism through drugs.
See also Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes
Fad Famous for being famous
Internet meme It girl
One-hit wonder Reality show
World famous in New Zealand Big in Japan
15 Minutes The dictionary definition of nine day
wonder at Wiktionary Notes
References Guinn, Jeff and Douglas Perry. The
Sixteenth Minute: Life In the Aftermath of Fame. New York, Jeremy F.
Tarcher/Penguin. ISBN 0739455427. Patterson, Dale. Fifteen Minutes of
Fame: History's One-Hit Wonders. Red Deer Press. ISBN 9780889954816.
External links Quotations related to Andy Warhol at
Wikiquote