In popular culture, 15 minutes of fame refers to a sudden state of celebrity that is believed unlikely to continue long enough to affect the new celebrity's life for the better.
The expression is a paraphrase of Andy Warhol's statements, in 1968 that
- In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.
and in 1979
- ...my prediction from the sixties finally came true: "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes."
Warhol's statement was based in his interest in fame and famous people. His view of the media was that they could enable any person to become famous.
The rise of real life television shows has given new meaning to Warhol's "15 minutes" quote.
Becoming bored with continually being asked about this particular statement, Warhol deliberately tried to confuse interviewers changing the statement to
- In the future 15 people will be famous.
and
- In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.
It may be true that the rise and fall of short-term celebrities is faster with modern communication, but celebrity was often short-lived even when communication was much slower.
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