This chapter explores why celebrity culture appears to have become ubiquitous in the twenty-first century and whether this signals the further democratisation or the commodification of culture. The discussion examines the place of celebrity culture in Western society, beginning with a survey of competing definitions, including Chris Rojek’s previous formations of celebrity as either ‘ascribed’, ‘achieved’ or ‘attributed’. Using historical evidence and revisiting the work of Daniel Boorstin, it is argued that we are ‘living’ celebrity more than ever before. The chapter traces the rise of celebrity to supply-side factors (for example, the increase in media outlets which represent celebrity to the public) and demand-side explanations (such as celebrity as a substitute for organised religion and celebrity as a coaching device for ‘other-directed’ personalities). While recapping the arguments over the functions of celebrity, the ‘cult of celebrity’, ‘celebrity as simulacrum’ and the ‘dark side’ of celebrity, the second half of chapter draws on sociological work to suggest that a new a celebrity (Rojek’s ‘celetoid’)—encouraged by the rise of social media and new video cultures—is replacing previous forms of celebrity due to their potential to the cultural industry as ‘floating signifiers’ of consumption.