Blogebrity

Momus, coiner of “famous for 15 minutes,” makes me a self-serving segue

[Yeah, I messed up that headline; typed "minutes" out of habit. Momus said "famous for 15 people."]

Wired columnist Momus was just an unsuccessful musician until:

The first sign that my blog wasn’t going to repeat the comfortable failure of my records came the day I discovered that I couldn’t add any more friends to the LiveJournal system; you’re limited to 750. Next I noticed that some of my daily entries — like the one advising Americans to move abroad when Bush got re-elected — were getting between 100 and 150 comments.

As my blog’s readership grew, my life began to change. Magazine editors commissioned me to write paid pieces, based on what they’d read online. I found myself being asked to pitch book ideas. I got invited onto radio shows to discuss the blogging phenomenon with other “celebrity bloggers.”

Being interviewed, I found a phrase I’d formulated back in 1991 coming back often to haunt and taunt me. “In the future,” I’d written, echoing Warhol, “everyone will be famous for 15 people.”

Chris Pirillo quotes the NYT quoting Momus when he introduces my talk with him on the Chris Pirillo Show:

A few people break through that noise and become, in this case, Internet Famous. Another name for Internet fame might be Blogebrity. And of course, famous people wouldn’t be famous without snarky reporting to perpetuate the myth.

Damn it, am I snarky?

This entry was posted by Nick Douglas on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Announcements, Feeds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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