A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols. Status symbol is also a sociological term – as part of social and sociological symbolic interactionism – relating to how individuals and groups interact and interpret various cultural symbols.

What is considered a status symbol will differ among countries and cultural regions, based on their economic and technological development. Highly-valued status symbols may change over time. For example, before the invention of the printing press, possession of a large collection of books was considered a status symbol. After the advent of the printing press, books (and literacy) gradually became more common among average citizens, so the possession of books became less-rarefied as a status symbol. Another common status symbol of the European medieval past was heraldry, a display of one's family name and history. In some past cultures of East Asia, pearls and jade were major status symbols, reserved exclusively for royalty.

Barbara Morgenstern (born March 19, 1971) is a German electronic music artist who has released seven full-length albums and seven EPs.

Born in Hagen, Germany, Morgenstern describes herself as self-taught, although she had piano lessons as a child and jazz lessons at the school of music in Hagen. In addition to having played in a band, she decided on a career in music in 1991 after completing her schooling at the Ernst Meister Gymnasium in Hagen-Haspe.

From 1992 until 1994 Barbara Morgenstern lived in Hamburg, working on her own music as well as singing in an a cappella group. She took part in a six-week popular music course at the Hamburg Hochschule. In 1994 she moved to Berlin, where she initially played keyboards in a band, and from 1996 onward she concentrated on her own music.

In early 1997 Morgenstern released the cassette Enter The Party through Hausfrau Im Schacht, a mail order label set up by former bandmate Florian Dietz (a.k.a. Jo Tabu). Later that same year she released the EP Plastikreport, which she produced in tandem with Michael Mühlhaus, later to join Blumfeld. In the winter of 1998, she toured Germany with backing from Christian Obermaier and the aforementioned Mühlhaus on bass guitar, and in September of that year, she toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland with other Berlin-based musicians including Quarks, Jo Tabu and Fuschimuschi. The following month saw the release of her first full-length album Vermona ET 6-1 on the Monika Enterprise label. 1999 saw the release of a remix EP, Fan No.1.