The Evolution of Fandom and Its Effect on Celebrities
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This study has dealt with the evolution of fandom and its effect on celebrities. In order to elaborate, this study has explained the notion of fandom. In addition, a brief history of fandom has been discussed along with a discussion on how the concept of fandom has been developed over the past years.
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THE EVOLUTION OF FANDOM AND ITS EFFECT ON CELEBRITIES 1
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Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................2 What is fandom?..............................................................................................................................2 History and evolution......................................................................................................................2 Fandom: Black, white or gray?........................................................................................................3 Blackpink fans and racism...............................................................................................................4 Effect of fandom on celebrities........................................................................................................5 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6 Reference list...................................................................................................................................7 2
Introduction Fandom is a newly emerged fan culture that both positively and negatively affect the celebrities and their lifestyles. On the other hand, fandom can be seen from a perspective of being group of consumers that help in promoting the celebrities by showering a huge amount of love towards them. This study focuses on the concept and evolution of fandom over the past years and on how it has been affecting the celebrities. For that reason, fandom has been discussed as a concept along with a discussion regarding its history and evolution. On the other hand, the role of fandom has been analysed on the ground of whether it is good for the society or not. A case study of a recent hazard caused by fans has been illuminated in order to see fandom in its current form. Moreover, both the positive and negative effects of having fans have been discussed in the study. What is fandom? Fans are those who identify themselves with being the admirers of any particular celebrity or any movie or book. These fans can belong to any country or region and can admire their respective idols individually until they form a shared community for themselves to worship their idols together. Fandom is that social community or subculture made by fans who share a common feeling for any particular idol (Bennett, 2014). From a different perspective, the existence of fandom has been created by the mostly engaged mass media consumers. In opinion ofChin and Morimoto (2013), fans create a certain kind of cultural and social practices that allow them to associate with the idols they admire. Thus, it can be said that it is one of the important element of participatory culture which is a type of broadly expanding cultural production. The most important thing about fandom is that they are so strong a community that they can highly affect the reception and production of any celebrity figure. History and evolution People of this generation assume that fandom is a product of this century and thus is a modern concept. In reality, the origin of fandom can take them back to the times when there was no internet around us. It is true that the official term of fandom came a bit later but the fan communities were there when fans used to admire contemporary poets like Byron and more. 3
According toDixon (2013), the term fandom came from the term fanatic who generally means mad. In the beginning, the word fan used to be associated with admirers of sport personalities. As a result, the print media used to be used by them to show their fandom through writing fan fiction or fan magazines and more of that sort. Finally in 1903, the term fandom appeared for the first time in an article calledFandom puzzled over Johnsonian statements. Gradually, the concept of fandom started to be grown over the period of time and became an independent community or subculture of fans. Like the word kingdom, fandom has also their strong hold both on the society and on the production of any popular figure. This is so because, the evolution of fandom has enabled the fans to collaboratively create and follow own code of language and thus effects the production as well. Now, the fans with the help of being associated with fandom and ships can both make and break a public figure because of having a great power of interpreting the media subjectively (Parry, Jones and Wann, 2014). Online media and especially social media platform has been one of the turning point for the fans to stay connected both with other fans and with the idols they worship. Fandom: Black, white or gray? Fandom can never be termed as a totally bad or a goods subculture. It can be explained through comparing it with religious groups. This implies that like any other communities, fandom can sometimes be beneficial for the society and sometimes not. For example, if a celebrity or a sports persona has many national fans then the whole world can become aware of the existence of the popularity of that person through the promotion campaigns made by their fans. On the other hand, it has also been noticed that celebrities get judged by the world on the basis of what kind of fans they have. According toLee (2016), fandom is good for the fans psychologically as it gives them a purpose or a character to follow. On the other hand, fandom gives the opportunity to form bonds with other human beings in the ear of virtual reality. On the contrary, the obsessive or mad side of the fans has the ability to negatively affect the conscious of the fans themselves. In opinion ofHighfield, Harrington and Bruns (2013), the evolution of fandom has been increasing so fast that it has become an obsession for so many people. For example, it has been seen that many fans scratch celebrities with their nails when 4
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they meet them because of the obsession they have for them. In addition, fandom related criminal activities have been increasing day by day. On the other hand, there are many fandom communities who are involved in charitable works where they help the poor and the needy with the money they collect from fandom concerts and more of that sort. Moreover, the community spirit is what makes the notion of fandom a sub social structure which can be beneficial for social communication and cultural interchange. Blackpink fans and racism Blackpinkis an all-girl band or group of singers belonging from South Korea that includes four girls namely Lisa, Jisoo, Rose and Jennie. The group has first appeared in 2016 and has numerous Korean fans. The band has gained its popularity after being involved in the famous k- pop act that has snatched the highest rank in theBillboard hot 10list of 2018 (Lyan and Levkowitz, 2015). One of the unique features of this group is that there is a non Korean member in their group that shows their respect to regional and cultural diversity (Otmazgin and Lyan, 2014). Unfortunately, the group has suffered a lot from their fans and haters for allowing a Thai artist in their group. One of the group members, Lisa has recently received hateful remarks for her racial identity by some netizens. In order to be more specific, one particular netizen has remarked that Lisa appears to be a Russian elf girl because of putting so much make up on but actually she is just an ordinary Thai girl. As a reaction, fans of this band has started many campaigns in the favour of Lisa and the band in order to protest against the racism that has been a burning issue in Korea right now. In this regard, this can be stated that this band like any other celebrities has fans worldwide and this has become a positive factor of them. This is so because the fans of Thailand, along with Korean fans of this band have reacted against tendency of Korean people of being racist (sbs.com.au, 2018). On the other hand, they have received racist and misogynistic comments onYouTubeby two Americans. This has also been taken care of by their official fandom group namelyBlinkas they collaboratively reported against that particularYouTubevideo. Thus, in this case, the fandom has been beneficial in fighting against a deep rooted social evil called racism while being identifying their selves with the diverse group members of the above mentioned band of singers. 5
Effect of fandom on celebrities It has often been seen that fans dedicate all of their times in worshipping their idols. This has become more relevant in the digital age where the fans are able to be associated with the public figure they admire (Hills, 2013). On the contrary, notion of haters has become prominent in this age where a group of people try to insult a certain public figure just because they are not their fans (Harman and Jones, 2013). For example, fans of Taylor Swift forms a hater group to show hatred towards Lay gaga. They do so in order to show how loyal they are to their respective idols and this in a way becomes a challenge for the celebrities (Marcus, 2015). In addition, people fight with each other in the virtual media by sharing hateful comments against different fandom that hampers a harmonious social atmosphere. In this regard, this can be added that fans represent the celebrity and the vice versa and as a result, the celebrities face hateful remarks for the comments that their fans share publically. From a different perception of fandom, this can be mentioned that fans have a tendency of interpreting the lifestyle of the celebrities so that they can follow their trends. For doing that, the lives of the celebrities have become a subject of scrutiny that has ended up in publicizing each and every minute detail of the public figures (Cohen, 2014). This scrutiny has developed a serious pressure on the celebrities to appear in a certain way. For example, one particular actor has been famous for his Casanova type of roles in the movies and he has gained his fans on the basis of that image. Now, if that actor tries to do some different role or appears to be totally different person in his real life then some fans start getting disappointed. The reason behind this behaviour is that fandom and individual fans build an imaginary bond with their idols without even knowing them and or even seeing them in person (Lothian, 2013). Thus, when their imaginations shatter they cannot be able to accept the fact that they have never been close to that celebrity in reality. From a different point of view, fandom has numerous positive effects on the celebrities. Fans are sometimes so creative that they deny to accept the dominant reading of a text and use own creativity to interpret them (Redmond, 2016). For example, there are fans to create fan fictions or fan theories on Harry potter and this leads the series to a different level altogether. Another positive factor of the existence of fandom is that they are a part of the participatory culture that has been seen as being regenerative. This is so because fans are involved in a kind of collective 6
social and cultural interaction that enables them to understand other social beings and the celebrities in a more mature way (O'Donovan, 2016). On the other hand, the reception and the production of the celebrities have been highly effected by their fans as they contribute to the promotion of the celebrities. It can be said that fans are a type of PR team of the public figures who do not even demand money for promoting a certain celebrity. Moreover, being seated at the top, the celebrities are always aware of what they doing and what they should do. This is o because they know that many people follow them and they have the power to either motivate them in various ways or to disappoint them with their life decisions. Thus, fandom has been helpful in reminding the celebrities about the social responsibilities they carry with themselves. Conclusion This study has dealt with the evolution of fandom and its effect on celebrities. In order to elaborate, this study has explained the notion of fandom. In addition, a brief history of fandom has been discussed along with a discussion on how the concept of fandom has been developed over the past years. Both the good and the bad sides of fandom have been analysed in order to perceive in a more critical light. An example of a fandom group has been mentioned in the study in order to describe their role in the reception of the popular Korean girl bandBlackpink. It has been found that the fandom has been developed more in the age of internet that both has positive and negative effects on the society on the lives of the celebrities. These effects have been identified along with the challenges and opportunities that have been brought up by the existence of fandom today. 7
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Reference list Bennett, L., 2014. Tracing textual poachers: Reflections on the development of fan studies and digital fandom.The Journal of Fandom Studies,2(1), pp.5-20. Chin, B. and Morimoto, L., 2013. Towards a theory of transcultural fandom.Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies,10(1), pp.92-108. Cohen, J., 2014. Current research on fandom, parasocial relationships, and identification.Media and social life,12(3), p.142. Dixon,K.,2013.Learningthegame:Footballfandomcultureandtheoriginsof practice.International Review for the Sociology of Sport,48(3), pp.334-348. Harman, S. and Jones, B., 2013. Fifty shades of ghey: Snark fandom and the figure of the anti- fan.Sexualities,16(8), pp.951-968. Highfield, T., Harrington, S. and Bruns, A., 2013. Twitter as a technology for audiencing and fandom: The# Eurovision phenomenon.Information, Communication & Society,16(3), pp.315- 339. Hills, M., 2013. Fiske’s ‘textual productivity’and digital fandom: web 2.0 democratization versus fan distinction.Participations,10(1), pp.130-153. Lee, H.K., 2016. Transnational cultural fandom. InThe Ashgate research companion to fan cultures11(2), pp.207-220. Lothian,A.,2013.Archivalanarchies:Onlinefandom,subculturalconservation,andthe transformativeworkofdigitalephemera.InternationalJournalofCulturalStudies,16(6), pp.541-556. Lyan, I. and Levkowitz, A., 2015. From Holy Land to ‘Hallyu Land’: the symbolic journey following the korean wave in Israel.The Journal of Fandom Studies,3(1), pp.7-21. Marcus, S., 2015. Celebrity, past and present.Public Culture,27(1), pp.1-5. 8
O'Donovan, R., 2016. ‘To boldly go where no psychologist has gone before”: effects of participation in fandom activities on parasocial relationships.Journal of Applied Psychology and Social Science,2(1), pp.41-61. Otmazgin, N. and Lyan, I., 2014. Hallyu across the Desert: K-pop Fandom in Israel and Palestine.Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review,3(1), pp.32-55. Parry, K.D., Jones, I. and Wann, D.L., 2014. An examination of sport fandom in the United Kingdom:Acomparativeanalysisoffanbehaviors,socializationprocesses,andteam identification.Journal of Sport Behavior,37(3), pp.251-267. Redmond, S., 2016. The passion plays of celebrity culture.European journal of cultural studies,19(3), pp.234-249. sbs.com.au,2018,K-Popartistsspeakoutaboutracism,Availableat: https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2017/02/23/k-pop-artists-speak-out-about-racism [Accessed on: 29/1/2019] 9