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. With Expressions of music fandom in the digital era
Posted Under: Music
Carrie Brownstein says she’s gotten rid of her concert T’s and stickers and posters and the like, and that the faded LP jacket no longer works as a signifier of musical devotion. She writes:
But just because our walls are no longer covered in posters — and our outerwear is free of patches or buttons — that doesn’t mean we don’t want people to know that fandom courses through our veins. And it’s not just fandom we want to prove, but full-on expertise.
These days, we write blogs. We make our iTunes playlist public at the office. (“Dave, I didn’t realize you were such a Yes fan. Every album? Wow! And what’s with all the obscure Brazilian post-punk? Pray tell.”) We use song names in the subject lines of emails and hope the recipient gets the reference. We make mix tapes to be played at parties, we DJ, we download songs as our cell-phone ringtones, and we name our kids after Dylan and Beatles songs. Maybe these things constitute new forms of wear, tear and overuse.
Possibly so. Brownstein goes on to ask her readers for their views on how “we go about proving our love for a band or artist these days.”
But I guess what I see between the lines here is a shift from fandom in the form of devotion to and alliance with a particular artist or artists, to something more like showing off personal taste. A Sleater-Kinney T-shirt just says I like Sleater-Kinney; a playlist filled with obscure stuff you’ve never heard of, including maybe one overlooked/underappreciated Sleater-Kinney gem, says something different. Ideally, if you listen to and like the playlist, then it says I have awesome taste. The goal isn’t to make you a fan of the Sleater-Kinney. It’s to make you a fan of me.
Maybe that’s all obvious. Or equally possible: All wrong.
Just thinking out loud.
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Reader Comments
Well maybe Carrie has gotten rid of her concert Ts and buttons, but I haven’t. I’m also a big fan of making mixes (mourning the, er, “difficulties” of Muxtape), and I’d expand on this:
“Ideally, if you listen to and like the playlist, then it says I have awesome taste. The goal isn’t to make you a fan of the Sleater-Kinney. It’s to make you a fan of me.”
Yes, and – I think we genuinely do want our friends to discover those great bands/songs we like, for not entirely selfless reasons, e.g., you go to their house/a party and there’s that song you like rather than one you don’t. I’m doing some reading right now on self-disclosure, and ran across a great passage yesterday that is pertinent here: how it begets more self-disclosure among others – and that this, in turn, makes our essential aloneness more bearable, through hearing other people’s points of view.
I had a small conversation with an artist who sent me a friend request on MySpace. I mentioned that I wished that last.fm had become the major online recommendation hub for artists rather than MySpace enjoying that position. He replied that he likes last.fm a lot too, but people were more receptive to friend requests and recommendations on MySpace than last.fm. He postulated that it was a difference between the cultures of MySpace and last.fm.
Thinking about that, I’m inclined to agree and to suggest that the culture of last.fm is about showing off your taste in music rather than actually getting recommendations and expanding or changing your taste (which is the advertised purpose). I’d say that MySpace is also a self-marketing platform (including the incorporation of music), but one in which “friendship” with small or obscure bands is more prized.
Yet another facet of digital music fandom revolves around the marketing of self over the marketing of the band. But, really, hasn’t that *always* been a major part of modern fandom?