The other day I ended up watching the ceremony where Miley Cyrus received her star on the Walk of Fame. While I watched it I thought: why do I still pay attention to this? I can’t remember the last time I discussed a Walk of Fame ceremony with someone. A few years ago these tributes seemed much more important than they seem now. And yet, here we are, writing about them.
Now that Karol G, Pedro Pascal, Lisa Kudrow, Nicole Scherzinger and even Linkin Park will also have theirs, it is clear that the Walk of Fame no longer only certifies careers, rather than consecrating them. Miley had been one of the most important pop artists of her generation for more than a decade before her name ended up embedded in a Hollywood sidewalk.
A lot has rained in the last 20 years. Attention no longer goes to a single place and prestige is distributed among dozens of different showcases. Television long ago lost its monopoly on popular culture and the Internet distributes our attention between the Met Gala, the Tiny Desk, Coachella, the covers of Rolling Stone or an actor eating hot wings on Hot Ones. None of those milestones alone determine who a star is, but they all help build that image.
And yet, the Walk of Fame continues to resist and we continue to watch. Also because these ceremonies continue to give rise to memes. There is the viral image of Jennifer Lopez with a supposed “ft. Pitbull” engraved on his star, a nod to the rapper’s role in his commercial resurrection with ‘On the Floor’, or the video of Mariah Carey posing with her children on his license plate. Today the news is rarely the star. It is everything that happens around.
It is also curious that some of the greatest artists have never wanted to be part of the Walk of Fame. Madonna turned down her nomination in the ’90s and Prince never showed much interest. None of them needed a star to prove who they were. And the system itself is not as romantic as it seems: there are nominations, a committee that decides and someone has to pay for the installation of the star. The myth loses a little shine when you know the details. The funny thing is that it still works.
It will be because the Walk of Fame is one of the few physical symbols of pop culture that we have left. At a time when success is measured in views, followers, and week-long trends, there’s still something special about a career being summed up in a name carved into the ground. It doesn’t change anything. But it’s hard not to look at who will be next.
