Sad Day: Kim Kardashian Is More Popular Than Beyoncé
The “Kim Kardashian is famous for her sex tape” argument is tired, for sure. She’s a bonafide superstar, a savvy businesswoman with plenty of talent: among them reinvention and an unmatched ability to hold the world’s attention. And yet, it’s disconcerting that if you use Instagram followers to measure popularity, she is more intriguing than arguably the most beloved performer of our time, a woman who’s won 17 Grammy Awards and of whom Kim’s own husband famously said, “Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
This morning, Kim woke up to more followers than Beyoncé; 44,005,604 to B’s 43,935,648, making her the most followed person on the platform (only Instagram itself has more followers). TechCrunch has been monitoring the impending takeover for some time, reporting that “Kardashian West’s account is growing followers at a much quicker rate than Beyoncé’s,” and analyzing why that might be so: “Both women predominantly post photos of themselves and their families — especially their adorable daughters — on Instagram. The main difference: Kardashian West appears to update her account more often, and her photo captions are wordier and more personal.”
But there’s something else they don’t mention: Beyoncé hasn’t given an interview in nearly two years. After releasing a documentary that revealed everything (albeit, a controlled, polished, well-edited everything), Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream, on HBO in 2013, Beyonce went quiet. T: The New York Times Style magazine featured her on their June 2014 cover in a splashy portfolio photographed by Juergen Teller. The images were accompanied by a write-around (industry speak for writing a profile without actually speaking to the subject) that asked, “What does Beyoncé mean?” More recently, Beyoncé scored arguably the most coveted cover of all-time: Vogue’s September issue. Inside, another write-around, this time a “think piece” by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Margo Jefferson. And in between the two, she gave another New York Times reporter the run-around while promoting her new line of vegan food. “In an email, Beyoncé wrote “‘at first it’s the little things I noticed: I had more energy’ — though, sadly, not enough to deal with a reporter asking about it on the phone, as had been promised for more than a month,” wrote Courtney Rubin. “Beyoncé, a representative explained, has not answered any direct questions for more than a year.”
While it might seem like Beyoncé’s famous enough, loved enough, talented enough to never again need to grant an interview, there is one thing she’s not doing as well as she used to, and that’s holding the public’s undivided attention. Of course, she is probably up to something behind the scenes and when that drops, whatever it is, heads will turn and eyeballs will bulge. Until then, Kim’s the new Beyoncé. Don’t tell Kanye.
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