• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, June 15, 2016

What’s happening to all the icons?

David Bowie. Prince. Muhammad Ali. These have been the biggest, but don’t forget about Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, Lemmy Kilmister — all of whom were legends to their fans and friends alike, and all of whom (plus many more) passed on in 2016.  

These were all people who created iconic images in a pre-Internet world, touching the lives of millions in many different ways. In pre-Internet days you had to be a force. To be seen, you had to get on TV — no small feat, since there were fewer options available and a finite amount of airtime to work with. To create a media storm you really had to be something special.  

These days, anyone with an iPhone and a creative spark can get online and go viral in minutes. Just throw on a Chewbacca mask, laugh like the Joker on nitrous oxide, and it’s off to your 15 minutes of fame.

Prince and Muhammad Ali stood for things that transcended their status as musician and sports figures, respectively. They fought for equal rights, regardless of whether it be gender, race or for artistic freedoms. Who are today’s icons, and how will they stack up in years to come?

Madonna is still around and still has influence, as does Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson from the sports world. But what about the next generation?   Is the future left to Taylor Swift and Beyonce?  What about Kanye and Donald Trump? Does Derek Jeter still qualify, or will Mike Trout eventually become an icon?  What about Steph Curry and Lebron James?  

Most of these people are massively influential, and trust me when I say that Kanye and Trump are crazy, so I hesitate to call them icons. But whether you agree with any of them or not, you can’t argue that they’re iconic. The media has given all of these people platforms from which to mold millions of minds, and they take it and they run with it!  But what truly makes for an icon?

An icon is defined as a person or thing regarded as a symbol of something.What do all of these aforementioned people represent? Are they icons of music, fashion, or sports — or are they icons of something greater, like Muhammad Ali or Prince?  

I think the Internet has created the ability for anyone to become famous, but in doing so it has created another layer of iconic status.There are those who may be singularly iconic in terms of what they do, such as sports or music or acting. Then there’s a higher tier of icon: those who truly stand for something greater than the sum of their parts. In the case of Muhammad Ali it was equality and being the original G.O.A.T – the greatest of all time. In the case of Prince, it will be artistic freedom and creativity on a level unmatched by almost anyone ever again.  

I remember when I was in high school and I had a history teacher who asked a question about icons. He asked how we remember people like John F Kennedy, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, James Dean or Marilyn Monroe. All of these icons were taken in their prime, so the lasting images we have of them are of young, healthy, powerful people.  

I will always remember Prince as the man on stage with a guitar. I will always remember Ali as the man standing over his opponent on the mat, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.

But how will our post-Internet icons be remembered, in an age of oversaturated media coverage and a celebrity-obsessed, paparazzi-plagued culture?  What will be their respective legacies?  They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I wonder what thousand words will be said of the figures of today?