Fan de hockey, de Britney ou… de tueurs en série. Fini le temps où on levait le nez sur les fans et leurs groupes. Ceux-ci font désormais l’objet d’études sérieuses et surtout variées, suscitant de plus en plus l’intérêt. Pour cause : avoir des idoles rend heureux. Donne un sens à la vie. Et en a même sauvé certains de la pandémie. Explications, analyses et témoignages, en trois temps. [Read on]
February 2003, Durban, South Africa: The ICC Cricket World Cup was in full swing and ahead of India’s much-hyped clash with England, I found myself in the business lounge at the Kingsmead Hilton. The location of the hotel is fantastic as it’s right across the road from the stadium. Indeed, you can see right into the ground from the top floor lounge while sipping a cool drink. Anyway, as I sat there, I noticed a young man, sporting an India fan jersey, beavering away on a PC in the corner. So I wondered over, “Hi, I’m Arup, who are you?” “I’m Raks Patel”, he replied with a raffish grin. “I’m with the Bharat Army.”
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DURING MY DAYS in middle school in the rural Midwest, I accompanied my friend Beth to several of her father’s Civil War reenactments. Along with them, I learned how to sew my own costumes, frontload a musket, and fire a cannon. Thrilled by all this, I went on to join every reenactment enclave I could weasel my way into. Over the years, I have posed as a 19th-century explorer giving tours of Frenchtown with a terrible accent, taken a turn as a Victorian prostitute dragging tourists through a haunted brothel, and led Boston visitors down the Freedom Trail dressed in full colonial attire. Through it all, I came to learn the joys of what Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer have dubbed “superfandom” — a mode of fervent, participatory cultural consumption.
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So it turns out I’m one of the top Kylie Minogue listeners on Spotify. I found this out one morning recently, when I sleepily opened the streaming app to start my day with the pop star’s new single, “Dancing.”
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Being a fan is a matter of life and death. The day of Ticketmaster’s presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Reputation tour, one fan wrote on Tumblr, “When I die[,] I want Ticketmaster Verified Fan to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.” It’s a sentiment that was liked or reblogged by more than 1,000 others.
Verified Fan is a major piece of fandom outreach by Ticketmaster, once one of the most maligned corporations in the world, and this isn’t exactly the sentiment it’s meant to engender.
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It’s a different story for traditional celebrities, who often all but vanish after massive scandals. Movie star Mel Gibson kept a low profile for nearly a decade after a video surfaced of him in 2006 making anti-Semitic remarks. YouTube fans are more likely to defend their beloved stars because the online personalities are more connected to their audiences, Fraade-Blanar said.
“When you’ve made something a part of yourself, whether it’s a Yankees shirt or subscribing to a certain YouTube celebrity, you have a huge incentive to make that thing look good,” she said. “Because when they look bad, you look like a fool for following them.”
Hard-core fans can help determine how YouTube’s performers will fare after a controversy. Logan Paul’s legion of subscribers apparently don’t have an issue with his suicide forest video, and for now they’re keeping him afloat.
Engagement in the participation age has evolved. Over the past few years, new online tools and platforms have emerged which have enabled communicators to more directly convey their stories, listen to their audience, and interact in more authentic ways.
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In 2015, when Netflix debuted Bloodline, I didn’t think I was taking much of a risk by investing my time. Here was a moody crime drama set amid the lush visuals of the Florida Keys, starring Sissy Spacek, Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler, Broadway legends Sam Shepard and Norbert Leo Butz, and ‘90s cult icons Linda Cardellini and Chloë Sevigny. What about this show doesn’t sound like a winning formula? Everyone, of course, would watch this show with me, I thought. It would be A Thing to watch Bloodline.
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