most popular heather in america

December 2, 2005 6:19 AM

There has to be a word that means "popular because it is popular".

Like Delilo's Most Photographed Barn in America.

The closest I found is "bandwagon effect" which has to do with people adopting some action after learning new information. This is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the acquisition of more cachet (or whatever) because the thing is already popular. It has to do with the thing, not the people making the thing popular.

posted by raaka to writing & language (42 comments total)

"celebrity"
posted by docgonzo at 6:28 AM on December 2, 2005

Hyped?
posted by londonmark at 6:30 AM on December 2, 2005

Trendy or fashionable?
posted by leapingsheep at 6:30 AM on December 2, 2005

"Paris Hilton"?
posted by antifuse at 6:32 AM on December 2, 2005

Kitsch.
posted by shepd at 6:46 AM on December 2, 2005

zeitgeist?
posted by badlydubbedboy at 6:53 AM on December 2, 2005

Fad?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:53 AM on December 2, 2005

There's a phrase from economics that means something for which becomes more in demand simply because its price goes up. Can't remember exactly what it is...
posted by footnote at 6:56 AM on December 2, 2005

antifuse beat me to it.

"Paris Hilton" is the word you're looking for.

eg) That barn is so Paris Hilton!
posted by chota at 6:57 AM on December 2, 2005

leapingsheep got it, trendy is exactly what you're looking for
posted by yonation at 7:09 AM on December 2, 2005

I love that Paris Hilton is you Americans first "It Girl" and so she's the first name you think of for this phenomenon, but we Brits have had them for ages. The phrase "It Girl" has always meant that - a girl famous merely for being famous - and has been co-opted by the British media beyond it's remit: "It-whatever"
posted by benzo8 at 7:10 AM on December 2, 2005

antifuse beat me to it.

"Paris Hilton" is the word you're looking for.

eg) That barn is so Paris Hilton!

That's HOT!
posted by Gooney at 7:17 AM on December 2, 2005

Another vote for trendy.
benzo8, the original "It Girl" was Clara Bow, of Brooklyn. (Someone older than me and other than google want to back that up?)
posted by whatzit at 7:18 AM on December 2, 2005

Paris is far from our first, benzo8. That term is actually archaic in American parlance.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:19 AM on December 2, 2005

Darn you whatzit!
posted by Pollomacho at 7:20 AM on December 2, 2005

Are you kidding benzo8? Long before Paris Hilton was a glimmer in her daddy's eyes, we had the Gabor sisters. An entire family of women famous simply for being famous.

And decades before them, we had Clara Bow, the original It Girl.
posted by adamrice at 7:23 AM on December 2, 2005

"Faddy," perhaps?
posted by cerebus19 at 7:23 AM on December 2, 2005

becomes more in demand simply because its price goes up

You're probably thinking of a Giffen good, but the distinction between "demand" and "popularity" is probably important; Giffen goods are by definition inferior goods.

(Demand going up means more people buy them, not that more people want them; if you're thinking about things being more desirable because they're more expensive, that's just conspicuous consumption at work.)
posted by mendel at 7:24 AM on December 2, 2005

Are you kidding benzo8?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was being kinda tongue in cheek to lead the "It-Girl" answer.
posted by benzo8 at 7:38 AM on December 2, 2005

That's it, thanks mendel! Not exactly what we're looking for here, unless you add giffen good + conspicuous consumption, as you suggest, but that'd be more of a concept than a word.
posted by footnote at 7:49 AM on December 2, 2005

Actually Paris became famous by being a rich party girl. So much the worse for us that we think such lame credentials are worthy of fame. The Gabors were actresses that gained fame beyond their acting talents for their glamour and style. None of them were famous for just being famous. I'm not even sure such a claim makes any sense. How do you become something you already are?

I'd go with "trendy" if you mean to be at least a little derogatory, "fashionable" if you want to be neutral (or even complimentary).
posted by oddman at 8:09 AM on December 2, 2005

becomes more in demand simply because its price goes up

IANAEconomist, but Veblen goods seem to fit the bill.
posted by Opposite George at 8:14 AM on December 2, 2005

"Famous for being famous" = Angelyne.
posted by kindall at 8:24 AM on December 2, 2005

Actually Paris became famous by being a rich party girl. So much the worse for us that we think such lame credentials are worthy of fame. The Gabors were actresses that gained fame beyond their acting talents for their glamour and style. None of them were famous for just being famous.

Ah, but even when we leave out actresses, Paris Hilton was not by any means the first of her genre.

Getting back to the question, the Merriam Webster definition for trendy doesn't seem to be quite what raaka is asking about. I like "hot," myself.
posted by JanetLand at 8:38 AM on December 2, 2005

faddish?
posted by wheat at 8:53 AM on December 2, 2005

Faux-trendy. Vox Populist.
posted by FreezBoy at 8:54 AM on December 2, 2005

Faddish and trendy are both wrong; they mean only that something is popular at the moment, not that it is popular only because it's popular. The iPod is faddish and trendy, but it is also (I gather, not owning one) a worthwhile thing to have. I don't think there is a single word to convey what you want, but "famous for being famous" is more common than "popular because it's popular."

(I've never understood this obsession with having a single word for things. "Ice cream" is two words; so what? Does that make it a less useful term than, say, Russian morozhenoe?)
posted by languagehat at 9:00 AM on December 2, 2005

I don't know about a simple adjective, but in Sociology we talk about the Matthew Effect, which was so named to Robert K. Merton (not particularly good wikipedia article).

The name comes from a quote in the bible from the gospel according to Matthew:

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (Matthew 25:29)

This applies most obviously to money (it takes money to make money), but the concept is also used in the study of networks. People with more connections meet people through those connections, which means they know even more people, which means they meet people etc. etc. Internet sites linked from a lot of places are well-known and as a result of being well-known get linked to more places which makes them more well-known etc. etc. This matthew effect is one part of what creates power-law (i.e. small world) network structures.

For the purpose of understanding popularity, the effect is the same whether we're talking about the popularity of a person or a sweater. Once the sweater becomes popular, lots of people see it and it's commonly sold, more people wear it because it's popular and you can buy it anywhere, which means lots of people are wearing it and more people start selling it, which means lots of people buy it, etc. etc.

Just another example of the Matthew Effect, though the term might or might be useful for whatever you're writing.

Sorry for all the not quite great Wikipedia links. No time to do better research.
posted by duck at 9:12 AM on December 2, 2005

eg) That barn is so Paris Hilton!

I'd rather go for "That Paris Hilton is so barn!"
posted by XiBe at 10:10 AM on December 2, 2005

Regis?
posted by kirkaracha at 10:28 AM on December 2, 2005

The word is "popular".
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:35 AM on December 2, 2005

I've never understood this obsession with having a single word for things.

I've never heard of this obsession. Sounds interesting. Is there a word for it that I can use to google for more information?
posted by Pigpen at 10:40 AM on December 2, 2005

"In", as in the in crowd, or the in thing?
"In" and "out" suggest the threshold effect, although I think "popular" carries no implication of worth (often the opposite) and will do.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:55 AM on December 2, 2005

"In" does sound dated, but you must reallize that the word you're looking for is always changing, and will only be in fashion for a brief time.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:58 AM on December 2, 2005

Hung on its own petard.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:59 AM on December 2, 2005

Well entrenched?

(No implication about how it got there, but it's likely to stay even if better things come along.)
posted by metaculpa at 12:19 PM on December 2, 2005

There has to be a word that means "popular because it is popular"

Then invent one, because a word solely to describe this concept does not presently exist.

Really everything is just popular because its popular. Do you think people would care if I made the Statue of David today if it never existed before? (Which people?) Would people care if Christianity was invented yesterday instead of 2000 years ago? (Which People?) Shakespeare is a fad. Many people in the world could care less about these three things today, not because they are uncultivated or even necessarily ignorant of these things, but because they have their own traditions to deify and celebrate. China has its own Davids and Shakespeares. African ethnic groups have their own sacred religious myths.

This will probably make people uncomfortable because they like to think our icons and traditions have some sort of underlying greatness or math-like reality apart from our own conservatism but I see no compelling reason to believe this. This may be why such a word for your concept doesn't exist, because your concept is just an over-detailed way of looking at the concepts that already fall under 'popular', 'trendy' and 'faddish'. That barn might as well be the Mona Lisa
posted by dgaicun at 12:30 PM on December 2, 2005

Hahaha pigpen. Nice.
posted by limeonaire at 12:46 PM on December 2, 2005

I don't think such a thing exists, there would be no beginning. Things don't just spring up from the public consciousness. Why is Paris Hilton popular? She's a good looking, horny socialite. Why was Tamagotchi popular? It was an addictive, portable game. Sometimes fads develop when there presence among the media becomes larger than what they are, but things have some intrinsic value beyond being popular. Except Jimmy Fallon.
posted by geoff. at 12:56 PM on December 2, 2005

In relation to a person, you might use "professional celebrity"
posted by bargex at 1:06 PM on December 2, 2005

A simple word for a more general idea is self-reinforcing mechanism, often used in engineering or science to describe a phenomenon that once begins is hard to slow or stop; a classic example would be the greenhouse effect. A more casual synonym is roughly the snowball effect. I think network effect is really the closest, though -- when something becomes more useful the more popular it is, like a common computer protocol or file format (with more precise definitions by Metcalfe and Reed). See also (back to economics) cluster effect, sort of the formalized version of "nobody goes there anymore; it's too popular".

In marketing, there's also the concept of influencers, also known as "alpha *" (e.g. alpha girls). These are people who are both early adopters and socially connected, such that they influence others to buy the product.
posted by dhartung at 2:43 PM on December 2, 2005

self-fulfilling doesn't have to combine with prophecy
posted by rob511 at 2:46 PM on December 2, 2005