keep pushing the envelope to stand out from the crowd.
In the case of politics, Coulter and her ilk used to get attention by slinging caca far beyond what most people were willing to sling. But by continually clowning and saying outrageous things (and becoming famous and wealthy by doing so), the Coulters of the political cesspit created an environment in which everyone on the far right was going where no one had ever gone before. Thus, because of their own success, the caca slingers had to keep upping the ante just to get noticed at all, until now Coulter actually complains that she can't even get anyone to notice when she says something outrageous, much less to get mad and fight back:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/06/why-isnt-anyone-outraged-by-ann-coulter-anymore.html
[font size = "+1"]Ann Coulter Wants to Know Why She Doesn’t Make You Mad Anymore[/font]
Nobody is paying attention to Ann Coulter, and she does not like it.
“They’re ignoring me now!” Coulter wails <
emphasis added>, sitting in a conference room at the National Press Club in Washington as a large crowd filters in to hear her promote her new book,
¡Adios, America!.
“I haven’t been on CNN yet, because I was made up, my hair was done, I was mic’ed up, I was walking to the set,” where Don Lemon was anchoring, she said. “He was doing a full hour on the Doogans or whatever their name is,” she said, referring to the Duggars. Given the interest in one Duggar son's confession of molestation, the network ended up bumping her segment. “The next night, ‘We’re going to do all Doogans again.’ And then the next week, it’s the cop who yelled at a girl in a bikini! And then it’s Bruce Jenner!”
This is the lament of a woman who became a national political celebrity by stoking outrage — who rose up alongside the cable-television networks and conservative talk-radio, needling liberals and flattering conservatives with a potent mix of hilarity, bombast, and the occasional dash of racism. This is the lament of a woman who has written an outrageous book, one immaculately designed to piss off half of America, or more. This is the lament of a woman living in a time of outrage, outrage that spreads viruslike on Twitter, television, and Facebook. This is the lament of a woman who has found herself unable to capitalize on that outrage.
This is perhaps the nation’s foremost political performance artist, living in a very strange time. Coulter arrives at the Press Club flanked by two oversize bodyguards, who serve to underscore her supermodel leanness, as does her expensive-looking cocktail dress. For the past few weeks, she has been on the road — she normally splits time between Los Angeles and New York — doing meet-and-greets and talking to anyone who will sit down with her about her new book, a jeremiad against immigration and immigrants.
SNIP
Where popular music and Hollywood celebrity are concerned, the envelope that keeps getting pushed is the extremely sleazy sexualization of young female pop stars and starlets. The only way to become a really big star is to attract media attention, and the easiest and most effective way to do that is to be more outrageous than anyone else. But when so many people are using that tactic, you have to keep coming up with something more extreme than anyone else has done or is yet willing to do.
A young woman like Jennifer Lawrence can get to the top by lucking into a vehicle that is
sooooooo popular that
anyone who starred in it would automatically become the focus of media attention and fan interest (and even worship). In fact, that is precisely how Miley got her start. Her fame rested on the fact that she starred in a TV show that could be turned into a monster hit by the Disney machine:
SNIP
Hannah Montana has become the most popular show on television among pre-teen girls ages 9 to 14 and is consistently watched by more kids ages 6 to 11 than any other TV series. The Hannah Montana soundtrack, which features Cyrus performing eight songs, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart several weeks ago and is still holding its own in the top five. There are Hannah Montana fan clubs, web sites, mobile phone clips, branded apparel, and a movie isn't far behind.
But if you think the success of Hannah Montana is due solely to Cyrus' charm and talent, you've been watching too many Disney movies. Like her predecessors, Hillary Duff (Lizzie McGuire) and Raven Symone (That's So Raven), the twangy-voiced Cyrus was plucked from the ranks of minor actors by Disney and anointed to be its newest star. While she certainly has musical talent and charisma, she's also the product of a winning formula for creating shows that tweens love and make stars out of its leads.
"Disney has become a hit machine and all cylinders are clicking," says Jason Maltby, president of New York-based MediaShare, a New York based ad buying firm. "Its successes breed more successes and provide a platform for new shows like Hannah Montana <emphasis added>."
The formula starts with a simple concept: an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation. "It has to have an aspirational quality," explains Disney Channel Worldwide President Rich Ross. The idea for a show about a teen girl leading a double life as a pop star had the right fantasy quotient for the target audience. "Celebrity is huge for kids because of the sense of empowerment. Especially with all the reality shows now on TV," says executive producer Steven Peterman.
SNIP
Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Wilson became superstars the same way because of the massive popularity of
Harry Potter, and Kristin Stewart did so because of
Twilight.
But besides wanting to shed her good little girl image as fast as possible so that she could try other music and performance styles, Miley's ventures into the outrageous was at least partly conditioned by evidence in the careers of other young stars that such behavior attracts media attention and thus could help her promote her brand. But in her case, her behavior catapulted her so far so fast that she knew immediately she had hit on a winning formula. I suspect the striking contrast between the sweet, innocent persona she was originally known for and the extreme persona she adopted had a major influence on the media and public fascination and thus on her rise to superstardom.
The same sort of "fall" is a large part of what made Britney Spears into a superstar. The public just loves to tut-tut over the spectacle of a "good girl gone bad." Notice that you see and hear much less about Britney now that she isn't making a spectacle of herself by behaving outrageously and flashing her unclad nether parts for the paparazzi. Sure, she isn't as young as she once was, but having aged a bit, she has also matured some, so that she can't be counted on to behave outrageously enough to draw the cameras. Now she just seems tame compared to the behavior and appearance of people like Nicki Minaj and the Kardashian bunch. When someone "breaks the internet" almost every darned day, how else can a person attract attention than by pushing the envelope even further?
Miley is quite clever about manipulating the media to polish her brand and to maintain her center-stage position. It's not easy to stand out in such a crowded field, and like Ann Coulter, et al., a performer like Miley has to keep upping the ante to prevent the cameras and the spotlight from moving on.
If you have ever seen Miley on talk shows, you would have noticed that she is actually very smart and articulate and that she is devoted to a lot of the same causes that we champion on the left. You and I would probably like her as a person apart from her ridiculous public persona. But in order to maintain her stardom at the level she wants, she has to keep feeding it the fuel that rocketed her to the top in the first place: public shock and outrage--and above all, prurient interest.
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