FROM WARHOL TO YOU TUBE CELEBRITIES

«It’s been six months since a sobbing plea on YouTube rocketed the then-19-year-old from Internet cult status to internationally-recognized icon. Yes kids, I said “icon.” A decade or so from now, we’ll look back at this point in online community’s juvenilia,  and it’ll be Chris we’ll look to for context. For proof, look no further than the “Leave Britney Alone!” cameo appearance in the recent pop culture movie spoof, “Meet the Spartans.”

Chris (Crocker) and his regularly-posted YouTube commentaries are the next generation of Andy Warhol’s cult of personality, in which small gestures become monumental. Unlike Warhol, the 20-year-old Chris belongs to a media-saavy generation that instinctively knows how to work a camera.  Like other YouTube celebrities, Chris uses this young medium to become his own media outlet of which he’s not the product, but a mirror or a lens.

MSNBC
march 21 2008