“Fandom is a collective subculture composed of fans of wide range of media whose shared interests serve as the basis of their communal identity.” (Kington, Candie Syphrit 2015)
I can relate to this quote as for many years I have been fan of many things, from TV shows, to films, but one of my popular shared interests is music. In this seminar we discussed what we were fans of ourselves.
I am a huge fan of one direction and everything that has to do with the boys. I first became a fan of the boyband when I was 15 at first I didn’t know one direction but it was when everyone in my secondary school were fangirling about them and they continued to show the school a music video and then I found their music catchy and ever since I have made a fan account where my icon was my favourite member Niall horan and I would talk about what was going on in the boys personal lifes and if the boys were doing something exciting. for the first couple of years all I did was obsess over them for example I brought all CDs, annuals, books and posters. Alongside this, I would try and attend their concert and buy their merch.
One direction was the first band where I felt special. when I was listening to the band I found I was able to relate to the lyrics, for example, the song little things (from the album take me home) touched me in a way I felt emotional yet happy and I felt as if they cared even when they dont know me, the lyrics that got me the most were “I’m in love with you and all these little things.”
As my love grew for one direction my love also grew for the fandom. I was surprised to see how supportive they were because I knew the media didnt put the one direction fandom in a good light. “The issue was, however, that music fans were practising in the “wrong” ways. They were supposedly expressing their subservience or manipulated status: being enchanted, buying commodities, chasing celebrities, and ignoring the utopian possibilities of serious music.” (Mark Duffett 2015)
However, when being in the fandom I see more positive than what the media sees for example when I got hate from other fandoms they backed me up and stopped the hate. The fandom would also support other things that don’t even relate to one direction, for example, they raise money to charities when it’s the boys birthdays.
There are few problematic elements, it can be very competitive and if you wasn’t here at the start you wasn’t classed as a ‘real’ fan.Friendship groups form within the fandom which then can lead to arguments with each other when they each want the most attention from the band members,this means the fandom can transform from a pleasant and enjoyable environment into a nasty one quite quickly.
Mark Duffett (2015) Fan Practices, Popular Music and Society, 38:1, 1-6, DOI
The Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 June 2015, pp. 211-228(18)
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