HOME | CHECKOUT | ABOUT | FAQ | CONTACT US |
 
Welcome Guest [create an account] or log-in:
email
password

Chapter 8 Music, Fans and Fandom

DOI: 10.23912/978-1-908999-52-8-2251

ISBN: 978-1-908999-52-8

Published: May 2013

Component type: chapter

Published in: Music, Markets and Consumption

Parent DOI: 10.23912/978-1-908999-52-8-2009

10.23912/978-1-908999-52-8-2251

Abstract

Fans and fandom have been studied in a variety of different contexts, from soap operas to novels. Although there is a lot one can learn from studies about the characteristics of fandom and the behaviour of fans in general, research into music fans and fandom remains relatively scarce, with only a handful of works in the fields of popular music, marketing and consumer behaviour. Yet understanding music fans is crucial if one is to comprehend the production and consumption of music. For so many avid music consumers, the pleasures derived from music allows them to make sense of their everyday lives and experiences (Willis, 1990), ‘letting other people know who we are, or would like to be, what group we belong to, or would like to belong to’ (Shankar, 2000: 28). Music consumption is a very rich source of symbolic resources that can be drawn on by music fans to construct their individual and social identities. The purpose of this chapter is to explore fans and fandom in the context of music consumption and production. It builds on the earlier discussion in Chapter 7 on music consumption, where the frame of the music ‘fan’ was introduced. The chapter begins, therefore, with an attempt to provide a historical context for fans and fandom, and then outlines our understanding of fans and their behaviours and motivations. This is followed by an overview of fandom, its intensity and social organization. The chapter concludes with some observations on the material productivity of fans.

Sample content

Click here to download PDF

Contributors

  • Dr Daragh O’Reilly, University of Sheffield (Author)
  • Dr Gretchen Larsen, King’s College London (Author)
  • Dr Krzysztof Kubacki, Griffith University (Author)

For the source title:

  • Dr Daragh O’Reilly, University of Sheffield (Author)
  • Dr Gretchen Larsen, King’s College London (Author)
  • Dr Krzysztof Kubacki, Griffith University (Author)

Cite as

O’Reilly, Larsen & Kubacki, 2013

O’Reilly, D.D., Larsen, D.G. & Kubacki, D.K. (2013) "Chapter 8 Music, Fans and Fandom" In: O’Reilly, D.D., Larsen, D.G. & Kubacki, D.K. (ed) . Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers http://dx.doi.org/10.23912/978-1-908999-52-8-2251

References

lvermann, D.E. and Hagood, M.C. (2000) 'Fandom and critical media literacy', Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43 (5), 436-446.

Atton, C. (2001) '"Living in the Past"?: value discourses in progressive rock fanzines', Popular Music, 20 (1), 29-46.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143001001295

Baym, N.K. (1998) 'Talking about soaps: communicative practices in a computer mediated fan culture', in: Harris, C. and Alexander, A. (ed.), Theorizing Fandom: fans, subculture and identity, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pp. 111-129.

Baym, N. (2000) Tune in, Log on: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Becker, H. (1982) Art Worlds, Berkeley: California University Press.

Bennett, L. (2011) 'Music fandom online: R.E.M. fans in pursuit of the ultimate first listen', New Media Society, 14 (5), 748-763.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811422895

Cavicchi, D. (1998) Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning among Springsteen Fans, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cavicchi, D. (2007) 'Loving music: listeners, entertainments, and the origins of music fandom in the nineteenth century', in: Sandvoss, C., Gray, J. and Harrington, C.L. (ed.) Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, New York: New York University Press.

Clerc, S. (2000) 'Estrogen brigades and "big tits" threads: media fandom on-line and off', in: Bell, D. and Kennedy, B.M. (ed.), The Cyberculture Reader, London: Routledge.

Cosgrove, L. (2009) '"The Downward Spiral: Live at Webster Hall" fan-produced DVD',nin.com, available at: http://ninblogs.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/the- downward-spiral-live-at-webster-hall-fan-produced-dvd/ [Accessed 30 April 2013].

Cowie, J. (2001) 'Fandom, faith and Bruce Springsteen', Dissent Magazine, 48 (1), Winter.

De Vries, P, (2004) 'Listen to the fans', Music Educators Journal, 91, 25-28.

https://doi.org/10.2307/3400045

Doss, E. (2004) Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith and Image, Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.

Duffett, M. (2003) 'False faith or false comparison? A critique of the religious interpretation of Elvis fan culture', Popular Music and Society, 26 (4), 513-522.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0300776032000144959

Duncombe, S. (1997) Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture, London: Verso.

Fishzon, A. (2012) 'Confessions of a Psikhopatka: opera fandom and the melodramatic sensibility in Fin-de-Siècle Russia', The Russian Review, 71, 100- 121.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9434.2012.00644.x

Fiske, J. (1992) 'The cultural economy of fandom', in: Lewis L.A. (ed.) The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, London: Routledge, pp. 30-49.

Frith, S. (2002) 'Fragments of a sociology of rock criticism', in: Jones, S. (ed.) Pop Music and the Press, Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, pp. 235-246.

Garrity, B. (2002) 'Online fan clubs emerge as potential profit centres', Billboard, 114 (33), 17 August, 1-2, 3c.

Grossberg, L. (1992) 'Another boring day in paradise: rock and roll and the empowerment of everyday life', Popular Music, 4, 225-258.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000006243

Guzetti, B. and Yang, Y. (2005) 'Adolescents' punk rock fandom: construction and production of lyrical texts', Yearbook - National Reading Conference, 54, 198-210.

Harrington, C.L. and Bielby, D.D. (2010) 'A life course perspective on fandom', International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13, 429-450.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877910372702

Harris, C. (1998) 'Introduction theorizing fandom: fans, subculture and identity', in: Harris, C. and Alexander, A. (ed.), Theorizing Fandom: fans, subculture and identity, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pp. 3-8.

Harrison, T. (1992) Elvis People - The Cult of the King, London: HarperCollins.

Hills, M. (2002) Fan cultures, London: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203361337

Horton, D. and Wohl, R. (1956) 'Mass communication and parasocial interaction: observation on intimacy at a distance', Psychiatry, 19, 215-229.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049

Hunt, N. (2003) 'The importance of trivia', in: Jancovich, M., Reboll, A.L., Stringer J., Willis, A. (ed.) Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 185-201.

Kibby, M.D. (2000) 'Home on the page: a virtual place of music community', Popular Music, 19 (1), 91-100.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000000064

Jenkins, H. (1992) '"Strangers no more, we sing": filking and the social construc- tion of the science fiction fan community', in: Lewis, L.A. (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, London: Routledge, pp. 208-236.

Jenson, J. (1992) 'Fandom as pathology: The consequences of characterization', in: Lewis, L.A. (ed.), The Adoring Audience: fan culture and popular media, London: Routledge, 9-29.

Kerrigan, F. and Dennis, N. (2011) 'The secret jazz fan: a tale of sublimation featuring film and music', Arts Marketing: an international journal, 1 (1), 56-69.

https://doi.org/10.1108/20442081111129879

Lebrecht, N. (1997) When the Music Stops... Managers, Maestros and the Corporate Murder of Classical Music, London: Simon & Schuster.

Löbert, A. (2012) 'Fandom as a religious form: on the reception of pop music by Cliff Richard fans in Liverpool', Popular Music, 31 (1), 125-141.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143011000493

MacDonald, A. (1998) 'Uncertain utopia: science fiction media fandom and computer mediated communication', in: Harris, C. and Alexander, A. (ed.), Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity, Cresskill, NJ : Hamption Press, pp. 131-152.

Parker, B. (1994) Building a Classical Music Library, Minneapolis, MN: Jormax Publications.

Pullen, K. (2000) 'I-love-Xena.com: creating online fan communities', in: Gauntlett, D. (ed.) Web Studies: Rewiring media studies for the digital age, London: Arnold, pp. 52-61.

Queralt, M. (1996) 'Communities', in: Queralt, M. (ed.), The Social Environment and Human Behavior, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, pp. 222-258.

Rau, M. (1994) 'Towards a history of fanzine publishing: from APA to zines', Alternative Press Review, Spring/Summer, 10-13.

Rhein, S. (2000) 'Being a fan is more than that: fan-specific involvement with music', The World of Music, 42 (1), 95-109.

Shankar, A. (2000) 'Lost in music? Subjective personal introspection and popular music consumption', Qualitative Market Research, 3 (1), 27-37.

https://doi.org/10.1108/13522750010310442

Stevenson, N. (2009) 'Talking to Bowie fans: Masculinity, ambivalence and cultural citizenship', European Journal of Cultural Studies, 12, 79-98.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549408098706

Stever, G. (1991) 'The celebrity appeal questionnaire', Psychological Reports, 68 (3), 859-866.

https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1991.68.3.859

Stever, G. (2011) '1989 vs. 2009: a comparative analysis of music superstars Michael Jackson and Josh Groban, and their fans', Journal of Media Psychology, 16 (1).

Storey, J. (1996) Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Théberge, P. (2005) 'Everyday fandom: fan clubs, blogging, and the quotidian rhythms of the Internet', Canadian Journal of Communication, 30, 485-502.

https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2005v30n4a1673

Tulloch, J. and Jenkins, H. (1995) Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek, London: Routledge.

Waksman, S. (2011) 'Selling the nightingale: P.T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, and the management of the American crowd', Arts Marketing: an International Journal, 1 (2), 108-120.

https://doi.org/10.1108/20442081111180331

Wall, T. and Dubber, A. (2009) 'Specialist music fans online: implications for public service broadcasting', The Radio Journal, 7, 1, 1-32.

Williams, C. (2001) 'Does it really matter? Young people and popular music', Popular Music, 20 (2), 223-242.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143001001428

Willis, P. (1990) Common Culture, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Available

Chapter 8 Music, Fans and Fandom [Details]Price: USD $7.99*Licences / Downloadable file

Published in Music, Markets and Consumption

Chapter 8 Music, Fans and Fandom [Details]Price: USD $7.99*Licences / Downloadable file
Paperback edition [Details]Price: USD $65.00Copies / Delivery by post
Terms and conditions of purchase | Privacy policy