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What is a fan?
How should fandom be understood?
Fandom in an age of digital media
Introduction
We must stop talking amongst ourselves. We
need to start listening to ‘the fan’. (Michael
Rapino, 2006)
Kim Jong-il was obsessed with Elvis Presley.
His mansion was crammed with his idol's
records…He even copied the King's Vegas-
era look of giant shades, jumpsuits and
bouffant hairstyle. (Tom Newton Dunn, 2011)
What is a fan?
Fans are NOT:
◦Insane / diseased.
◦Misguided religious zealots.
◦Consumerists (or only consumers).
◦Exclusive to one type of identification.
What is a fan?
Fans ARE:
◦A connected, dedicated and continually engaged fraction of the audience.
◦Clearly identified to themselves (“I realized I was a fan”).
◦Often in fan clubs.
What is a fan?
Fans ARE:
◦Interested in various objects.
◦Captivated by the pleasure they get from a performance.
◦‘In love’ = building a fan community.
Understanding fandom
Even if they go off you eventually, you’ll always stay in
their hearts somewhere, because it’s almost as if we’ve
been through something together that is unforgettable.
Music frees people and it unifies people and that’s
what’s so incredible about it… Singing is – pow – the
full explosion of emotion… Music is a very personal
thing and it does free people, at least mentally. They
hear music and believe that they are free and that
anything is possible. Of course, it isn’t. That’s the power
of music. (Morrissey, 2006)
Understanding fandom
THE KNOWING FIELD – Bert Helliger (2001):
Representatives are chosen for essential family members and
are placed in physical relationships to one another... The
representatives are not asked to “play a role” or to participate
in a psychodrama... One of the phenomena that occurs is that
the representatives begin to feel movements, feelings and
reactions that seem foreign to their own personal lives.
Understanding fandom
Emile Durkheim’s sociology of religion - the
mechanism of effervescence:
◦ WHOLE TRIBE >> TOTEM >> EACH WORSHIPPER
= a circuit of perceived energy.
◦ Sacred / profane replaced by the continuous pull of intimacy
Understanding fandom
“It’s a high that you just don’t get from anything else.”
- Tom Jones on live performance
This unusual surplus of forces is quite real: it
comes to him from the very group he is
addressing. The feelings provoked by his speech
return to him inflated and amplified, reinforcing
his own. The passionate energies he arouses echo
back to him and increase his vitality. He is no
longer a simple individual speaking, he is a group
incarnate and personified.
Durkheim (1912)
Understanding fandom
It is like standing next to the tube [train] coming in on the underground; it’s just this sheer energy that comes rumbling up.
- Cerys talking about Tom’s voice
Understanding fandom
Some consequences of effervescent attachments:
◦ Source of energy to get through hard times.
◦ Quest for intimacy with star (fan mail, etc).
◦ Interest in star’s biography and earlier performances.
◦ Practices that extend pleasures (collecting, etc).
◦ Expressions of fan creativity in relation to star’s world.
◦ New shared values (protecting star, representing fan base).
◦ Social organization (fan clubs, meet-ups, taste cultures).
Understanding fandom
To enter the knowing field:
◦ 1. You must know that the artist has convinced other people by his or her performance.
◦ 2. You must feel emotionally connected to the artist’s performance.
Once BOTH assumptions are met, the
individual becomes fascinated.
Understanding fandom
If I actually name the day I became an Elvis fan, the
moment I became an Elvis fan was at the Leicester
convention... They played American Trilogy. Some guy
grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet. I felt this
adrenaline go through from the top of my head to the
bottom of my feet and it was just an astonishing feeling of
brotherhood, almost, in the room. Just this family, you
were in amongst this family.
(in Duffett, 1998)
Understanding fandom
Understanding fandom Hatsune Miku – virtual pop star:
Pre-digital model:
◦ Record companies decide what to promote.
◦ Broadcasting as gateway to mass exposure.
◦ Audiences pay directly for recordings.
◦ New fans seek out the grapevine.
◦ Fans promote artists by calling radio.
Fandom and new media
Digitial model (cult and new artists):
◦ Artists decide what to release.
◦ Broadcasting and Internet exposure.
◦ Free music as outreach / subscription.
◦ Grapevine of blogs and social media.
◦ Fans co-perform / participatory culture.
Fandom and new media
Questions
