DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0118
Stands firm about what she will and will not record. Williams' article closes em-
phasising her strong will:
Joan Baez sings what she wants to sing, she'11 have you know. She is nothing
if not independent. She is uncompromising because she is good enough to
get away with it.
Celebrity means compromise with the demands of the media. Baez has however
an "image" of steadfast refusal to compromise her principles. Nevertheless her
principles and that which fans take to be her principles are not always one and
the same. For instance a well-to-do Standard of living (but not an extravagant
Hollywood lifestyle) is, for her, acceptable, but not for the fan who is dismayed
to see Baez arrive at a concert in a hired limosine. Being prohibited from speak-
ing her mind on political topics is not acceptable to Baez, regardless of the media
coverage.
From all of the above I take the word "celebrity" to be rather unsuitable to
describe Baez' position, especially with regard to those young people whom she
has motivated to take part in social action. The term star is not quite so inap-
propriate because it does not necessarily imply the Willing compromise and
clamouring for media attention inherent in the word "celebrity".
V Questions about Stardom
A. Word-usage
Just what is a "Star"? The word, when we consider the association with the
celestial bodies of the same name, is repleat with connotations:
— that which resides in the heavens, is "above us" casting lights down below
— that which appears upon the horizon and disappears again after a time, but is
nevertheless immutable
— that to which one can aspire (peraspera astra)
— a fixed point by which one can set one's course (the north star)
There is a tension between the notion of unbreachable distance and the desire to
"reach for the stars". Just how much these conotations have to do with the
phenomenon of the profit making "star System" in the twentieth Century is
debateable. But certainly part of being a "star" in these times is the combina-
tion of high visability (through the mass media) and separateness from the
masses (many can know about a star but the star can not know all those that
know her). Unlike the term "celebrity", where the essentials are "well knowness"
113
phasising her strong will:
Joan Baez sings what she wants to sing, she'11 have you know. She is nothing
if not independent. She is uncompromising because she is good enough to
get away with it.
Celebrity means compromise with the demands of the media. Baez has however
an "image" of steadfast refusal to compromise her principles. Nevertheless her
principles and that which fans take to be her principles are not always one and
the same. For instance a well-to-do Standard of living (but not an extravagant
Hollywood lifestyle) is, for her, acceptable, but not for the fan who is dismayed
to see Baez arrive at a concert in a hired limosine. Being prohibited from speak-
ing her mind on political topics is not acceptable to Baez, regardless of the media
coverage.
From all of the above I take the word "celebrity" to be rather unsuitable to
describe Baez' position, especially with regard to those young people whom she
has motivated to take part in social action. The term star is not quite so inap-
propriate because it does not necessarily imply the Willing compromise and
clamouring for media attention inherent in the word "celebrity".
V Questions about Stardom
A. Word-usage
Just what is a "Star"? The word, when we consider the association with the
celestial bodies of the same name, is repleat with connotations:
— that which resides in the heavens, is "above us" casting lights down below
— that which appears upon the horizon and disappears again after a time, but is
nevertheless immutable
— that to which one can aspire (peraspera astra)
— a fixed point by which one can set one's course (the north star)
There is a tension between the notion of unbreachable distance and the desire to
"reach for the stars". Just how much these conotations have to do with the
phenomenon of the profit making "star System" in the twentieth Century is
debateable. But certainly part of being a "star" in these times is the combina-
tion of high visability (through the mass media) and separateness from the
masses (many can know about a star but the star can not know all those that
know her). Unlike the term "celebrity", where the essentials are "well knowness"
113