Introduction

Abstract

This book presents a sociological study of the conditions of fame in the world of contemporary popular music. Against the background of important transformations and a general decline of the popular music industry in recent years, the book specifically develops a case-study approach to investigate the rise to fame of global pop sensation Lady Gaga. While this book is not the first to deal with the fame and career of a pop star, the reasons to undertake an analysis of the origins of the fame of Lady Gaga could not be further removed from the examinations of old that focused on famous people in the world of pop music and other forms of popular culture now dating back to relatively ancient times. In plain truth, the contemporary conditions of fame are of a different and relatively unique nature as any question on the rise to fame in the present day is centrally marked by critical transformations in popular culture, especially the popular music industry, on the one hand, and the virtually banal pervasiveness of an obsession with fame that marks our current celebrity culture, on the other. It is not without cause to remember that the comedy segment, “Hey, Remember The 80s?” on the popular TV show Saturday Night Live was already funny in the 1990s.