Fame stopped requiring skill and started rewarding pure notoriety after 2003

Evidence

Hilton’s rise marked a shift in the cultural understanding of fame. In previous decades, notoriety still carried social penalties. … Poptimism made this new kind of fame possible. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 148

Categorization

• XREF: Supports the reader’s need to locate the exact mechanism (poptimism = moral obligation to respect mass taste) behind the omnivore monoculture. — connects to: Fame is treated as an earned given, not a legitimate goal — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 404