For want of a better word, I've used celebrities.
After listening to the radio this morning and hearing the news about the Queen's honours list I wondered when being Knighted stopped in the traditional sense and started being about people in the public eye in general.
There are two types of Knighthood in the British honours system - Knights Chivalry and Knights Bachelor. The entertainers who're knighted are Knights Bachelor, they rank below all Knights Chivalry.
Knights Bachelor pre-date Knights Chivalry, having been first created in the 13th c. It was awarding knighthoods for military acts that was the innovation, not the other way round.
There is no equivalent female rank to a Knight Bachelor, Dame is used as if it were equivalent but it is technically a higher rank.
There are certain senior orders of Knights Chivalry which remain reserved exclusively for members of the armed services, members of the civil service and members of the diplomatic corps.
Guess this doesn't really answer your question but a lot of chivalric orders have always been for non-valour acts or more specifically at the whim of the monarch.
The highest order, the Order of the Garter, started in the 14th century and was used to reward royal family members, foreigners when treaties were signed etc.
Plenty of the other orders were similar. While some orders have military sections a lot of these didn't convey the title of "knight". Those that did generally can be awarded for service to the crown or similary which didn't have to be about valour.
You've misunderstood what has happened, in that in the New Years Honours List, the Queen is honouring many people in their line of life or work in which they provide help to their community, society or breakthroughs in intellectual circles etc. Provide a contribution.
Like on the news earlier, one of the people who received an honour was a woman who set up a charity to care for sick hedgehogs. Another is a man called Gbolahan Bright, who founded Bright Futerz which provides counselling and mentoring to young people with behavioural problems, as well as the Bright Academy http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30633305 He's been awarded an MBE, being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. But no knighthood.
As you can see, many people included in the list are not getting a knighthood, but are being awarded various chivalrous rewards from the Order of the British Empire. Only the two highest ranks (Knight/Dame Grand Cross and Knight/Dame Commander) include a knighthood (allows Commonwealth citizens the ability to call themselves 'sir'), otherwise no knighthood is given.
Knighthoods can be given at a later date, such as with Paul McCartney, who was given an MBE decades ago, and then only in 1997 was he given a knighthood, in this case separate from the two highest ranks.
So what you're thinking are knighthoods, are in fact not. They're just people being recognised for contributions to society, and very few are actually going as far as being knighted (whether through being made a GBE or KBE) or through a dedicated knighting.
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So, who decides who gets on knighted? Is there a committee? Does the Queen need to approve all of them? Is there a published criterion?