Fandom
The subject of fan interest can be narrowly defined, focused on something like a franchise or an individual celebrity, or encompassing entire hobbies, genres or fashions.
There are a number of large conventions that cater to fandom such as film, comics, anime, television shows, cosplay, and the opportunity to buy and sell related merchandise.
Feminist scholar Adrianne Wadewitz cited Janeites, the devotees of 19th century author Jane Austen, as the earliest example of fandom subculture, beginning around 1870.
Fans have held the annual World Science Fiction Convention since 1939, along with many other events each year, and has created its own jargon, sometimes called "fanspeak".
[8] In addition, the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medievalist re-creation group, has its roots in science fiction fandom and was founded by members thereof.
[9] Many science fiction and fantasy authors such as Marion Zimmer Bradley,[10] Poul Anderson,[11] Randall Garrett,[11] David D. Friedman,[12] and Robert Asprin[13] have been members of the organization.
Common forms of engagement for music fandoms include attending concerts, creating fan art, participating in online communities, and consuming media related to their preferred artist.
[18] These communities play an important role in promoting and supporting the careers of artists, as well as shaping cultural trends within the music industry.
Originally using print-based media, these subcultures have migrated much of their communications and interaction onto the Internet, which is also used for the purpose of archiving detailed information pertinent to their given fanbase.
Activities that have been aided by the Internet include the creation of fan "shrines" dedicated to favorite characters, computer screen wallpapers, and avatars.
For example, the Harry Potter Alliance is a civic organization with a strong online component which runs campaigns around human rights issues, often in partnership with other advocacy and nonprofit groups; its membership skews college age and above.
Nerdfighters, another fandom formed around Vlogbrothers, a YouTube vlog channel, are mainly high school students united by a common goal of "decreasing world suck".
It presents the history of both San Diego Comic-Con and the modern fandom scene it helped to spawn, as told by nearly 50 surviving foundational SDCC members, fandom experts, and special guests such as: Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Felicia Day, Trina Robbins, Maggie Thompson, the Russo brothers, and Bruce Campbell.
[40] The book includes forewords by cartoonists Stan Sakai and Jeff Smith, and an afterword by Wu-Tang Clan's RZA.
[41] The film and television entertainment industry refers to the totality of fans devoted to a particular area of interest, organized or not, as the "fanbase".
In 2023, Lana Del Rey was featured in Taylor Swift's song "Snow on the Beach", a track off of her popular album Midnights.
[45] Such outcries, even when unsuccessful, suggest a growing self-awareness on the part of entertainment consumers, who appear increasingly likely to attempt to assert their power as a bloc.
Ed Brubaker was a fan of the Captain America comics as a kid and was so upset that Bucky Barnes was killed off that he worked on ways to bring him back.
By giving their follows a glimpse into their everyday life, public figures have a new way of expressing themselves and engaging with their fanbases on a deeper level.
[56] Fandoms, for example at Comic Con, can sometimes lead to toxic behavior, including harassing other fans or media creators.
While the principles of fandom largely remain the same, internet users now have the ability to engage in discourse on a global scale, creating an even stronger sense of community among fans.
Mark Duffet touches on this point in Popular Music Fandom: Identities, Roles and Practices: "Online social media platforms... have operated as a forthright challenge to the idea that electronic mediation is an alienating and impersonal process".
[58] Fandoms engaging with technology began with early engineers trading Grateful Dead set lists and discussing the setup of the band's concert speaker system, called the "Wall of Sound," on ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet.
