What makes an icon?

Sufficient media coverage.

Icons are winners of popularity contests. Wide 'Brand' recognition and distortions of value systems raise appeal. Desires to emulate what we prize or escape what we are, creates a following that labels individuals as icons.

Icons are very generational and are usually based on positive name recognition......so I supposed it depends on who you ask.

An icon is someone who has popular public recognition for some ideal
they embody. Eg Madonna, Michael Jackson are considered iconic in
pop music because they're known for pushing the envelope. Elizabeth
Taylor was iconic during the 1940s 50s, and 1960s as a popular box
office draw etc. But more since because, as a human being, she was
devoted to charity as a caring, compassionate person. She's known
as an icon for helping being awaremess to the AIDS epidemic.

"icons" have to embody SOME ideal,....AND "be popular",....as the BASE of their "icon-ness". Then its a question of "does it stick" as a cultural imprint AFTER several generations have passed,...does history record it in a way meaningful to those in the more DISTANT future.

Usually its about how many people know you. Being in movies helps...

Real answer - short term perspective .

Whatever virtues, or perceived virtues, or outright FALSE virtues,....are assessed.........IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME and detached perspective,.... "Icons" become MYTH,...HEROES,....GREAT "MEN" of HISTORY,....or VANISH from history and the mind of man.

"ICONS" is a short view, short attention span, designation ; a short term way point until TRUE cultural value can be assessed by history.

ICONS "matter to me" ,...the still living "MEs", a buch of em still shuffling about on the earth..........before history renders judgment.

p.s. WHO was the greatest thespian of 125 BC western civ ?

Who was the greatest philosopher,....or poet,.....?
( now we are even having a discussion. )

catch my drift ?

pixels. ( - heh) sorry.

consistency in action

Endurance!!!

We live in a very, very sick culture. We value the transitory beauty of movie stars, the speed and power of athletes, and the "counter-cultural" appearance of rock stars far more than we value the scientists, the writers and those fighting in the trenches for social justice. We are a People Magazine culture; we are star-studded and starry-eyed; we are a civilization in rapid decline.

There's nothing evil about taking a little enjoyment from the escapism of Hollywood or the gridiron... a little diversion from real life can be healthy. Doing it to the extent many Americans do, however, blinds us to what's really important in this world.

What "makes an icon" in America is marketing, beauty, physical prowess and luck. Things like intelligence, vision and a deep commitment to making the world better for everyone rarely command icon status. We're paying a horrible, unaffordable price for investing in these false idols. The final tab is coming due as we speak.