Fan Communities and Cultures

Nancy Baym in her interview with Bandzoogle, discusses how the introduction of social media has impacted fan communities. She states that even before “social media” was introduced there were already “online fandoms”, but that they were confided to smaller groups online, like web broads or mailing lists (Baym). Either way the introduction of social media or social networks has allowed fans to gain “more power and influence” because there are more ways for fans to interact with each other and the artists (Baym). Baym states that a downside of social media is it has “decentralized fandom[s]”, by this she means that before within the small fan communities there were “in group identities and norms”, but now in larger fan communities its difficult to manage (Baym).

“Those sites can be useful for information sharing and foster fan-to-artist/artist-to-fan communication, but they’re lousy for fan-to-fan communication. In that sense it’s a step backwards for fandom.” Nancy Baym

I don’t necessarily think that fan-to-fan interaction is “lousy” but that the size fandoms has made it difficult for there to be one culture. For example within the 1975 fandom there is a certain style of dress as well as taste in music, but it is not true for every single member, therefore the culture and norms are not as unified as they were in the past.

Music fandoms interact on multiple platforms from Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Facebook and more. Through these platforms the fans have a larger influence on the artists as well as the industry. Their influence can be seen from making a trend on twitter to simply giving their input on projects.

The cultures that come about within each music fandom stem from the artist, therefore the interactions the artists has with the fans transcends to the fandom. This occurs because the fans tend to idolize the musician, which means they will agree or act accordingly to the artist. When I talk about “fans” in the fandom, I am referencing to the “true fans” or the fans that very invested in the artist. This can result in the fans listening to music their favorite artist does to dressing like them and even acting like them. There aren’t just cultures and norms that fall in line with everything the artist does, but with what the majority of the fan-base likes.

The Miley Cyrus fandom is an example of a community that is highly influenced by the artist, but is influential. Since she is such a big advocate for LGBT+ rights, vegan, a nudist and is known for widely sharing her opinions, she is an example of an artist using their fame to further other ideas. Below are examples of the outfits people wear to her concerts, further showing the influences artists have over their fans.