Pop ubiquity: cameo performance as star management

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since the early 1990s, proto-punk rock musician Iggy Pop has regularly appeared onscreen in supporting and cameo roles. While a rock star’s presence across media is hardly novel, the brevity of Pop’s screen performances rests its meaning and value upon a rejection of conventional stardom, persisting through the peripheries of moving image media rather than building a marquee status. This article explains the economic and cultural logic of such appearances via the work of Pop’s manager, Art Collins, who focused on maintaining Pop’s status through a combination of decisively brief screen appearances and song licencing that augmented his existing persona. Using archival and textual analysis of Pop’s and Collins’s endeavours, I argue that Pop’s case lends insight into a managerial approach to stardom prevalent across entertainment media industries wherein stars are expected to maintain market presence across media contexts rather than pursue fame within a delimited cultural field. A growing managerial logic in entertainment media culture shifted the status of stars from workers contracted to autonomous industries to flexible labourers whose efforts are rendered in the service of self-branding. These developments made the cameo performance into an ideal labour strategy that maximises a star’s flexibility.