Jamoni
Harris
COMM
123-001
October
9, 2019
The Price of Fantasy
How did an exclusive weekend music
festival reveal the devastating consequences of obsession with celebrity
culture? Netflix’s tell-all documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened
unravels the complicated relationship between mass communication, influencer
culture, and capitalist greed that culminated in the greatest pop culture debacle
in modern memory. The film’s open-ended style sheds an impartial light on all
the interviewees. From the Bahamians who were essentially made slaves
constructing the festival grounds to the employees who were complicit in
soliciting their labor and executing co-organizer and notorious fraudster Billy
McFarland’s hollow fantasy. However, by the end of the film, it’s clear not
everyone was burned equally by the empty ambitions Fyre had promised. It’s a
reminder of the harrowing reality that is as Adorno and Horkheimer (1944)
describe “the basis on which technology acquires power over society is the
power of those whose economic hold over society is greatest” (pp. 1). In this
case it’s the power of celebrity.
For many who were alive and breathing during
the peak of the Fyre Festival, this film offered an opportunity to relive, now
in graphic and enlightening detail, the truth behind the deception that led to
this epic cultural fail. You’re dragged through moment by moment. Lie after
lie. Delusion upon delusion. Until the very end with almost unparalleled
insight and perspective. The flashy, luxurious promo video that opens the
documentary feels surreal this time around. Almost as if our cellphone screens
weren’t inundated with these images just two odd years ago calling on us to
make a choice, many of us buying directly into this Instafantasy, and many more
still skeptical of the far-fetched promises this festival promised. As far as
popular culture goes, this film reveals the complex depth of America’s
obsession with celebrity and influencer culture.
Fyre’s initial success was attributed to how
quickly these very expensive event packages, and their subsequent imaginary
add-ons, had sold out. Fyre festival was able to go viral practically overnight
thanks to the help of powerful celebrity endorsements in the form of Instagram
posts and promotional videos featuring a beautiful island and the world’s top
supermodels, and many of our own intense FOMO. That featuring models equated to
instant success of the festival is telling of the state of contemporary
mainstream American culture. However, all these images in their seduction and
allure would prove to be nothing more than what Adorno & Horkheimer
characterize as the
“triumph of invested
capital…it is the meaningful content of every film, whatever plot the
production team may have selected.” (pp.2)
The illusion is quickly unraveled as a scene
cuts to confused models sitting around a fire while an unabashed McFarland and
co-organizer Ja Rule aggressively and unsuccessfully attempt at convincing them
to pointlessly jump into the water, proposing it as the “money shot” for the
festival. This was the first time any of us would see these cringeworthy
scenes, yet it made the entire thing make perfect sense now. This was the “hot
air” (pp.2) that Adorno & Horkheimer spoke of present from the very
beginning. Even the models, the essential catalyst to the festival’s virality,
were scratching their heads wondering what actually was going on.
“Us jumping after you?” one
incredulous model quipped, enunciating every word in disbelief upon hearing the
half-baked idea. It soon became clear he and Ja didn’t really have the clout.
At least not over them. One person bluntly stated “Guys, what’s the
purpose of what you’re trying to do?”
As the moments behind the promo shoot
awkwardly and irrelevantly faded away, the steam behind Fyre festival was
quickly picking up. Former employees spoke candidly of the operations behind
the festival such as housing and food accommodations, branding and
communications strategy, and practicability. A sinister ideology that overshadows
the rest of the film can best be characterized by Storey (2009) as “a certain
masking, distortion, concealment” (pp. 3), on behalf of one delusional Billy
McFarland. As warning sign after warning sign emerges, from the immediate
revocation of Escobar’s private island due to the fact that his name was used
against the owner’s wishes down to the very last day as a storm ravages the unfinished
Hurricane Matthew tent city that was marketed as luxury three-bedroom villas. A
simple, yet ominous motto: “We are a solutions-based team, we are looking for
solutions” was enough to muster all of McFarland’s accomplice-workers into
submission. Everything was just about selling more ideas and making more ideas
to sell. Whether they could be delivered upon was irrelevant to the
“solution-based” ideology.
What the film
revealed about contemporary American culture and the mass fixation on celebrity
and social influence in relation to satisfying capitalistic objectives is
secondary to the devastating consequences afforded to these forces when
combined with collective idealism, entitlement, and invested capital. We were
able to see the true price paid for a cultural fantasy that never existed. It
wasn’t the 6 years or tens of millions in restitution that McFarland would be
ordered to pay.
There were mixed
feelings from those interviewed about how things turned out. Some expressed
feelings of vindication in knowing McFarland went to prison. Others expressed
concern and worry for the man they knew and believed in. The Bahamians,
however, carried a silent burden. A familiar burden. They had already given up
hope that they would receive compensation for their labor, ready to just move
on rather than dwell on another painful memory. They never saw a dime in
profits of a scheme that would generate $26 million, including $250,000 per
post for top models to promote the event. When it’s all said and done, the true
price paid for cultural obsession is always beyond monetary.
Adorno,
T. and Horkheimer, M. (1944). Dialectic
of Enlightenment. pp. 1-12
Storey,
J. (2009). What is popular culture? Cultural Theory and Popular Culture,
pp. 1-16
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