Fans

Defining and understanding fans and fan culture offers important insight into contemporary consumer patterns. Fan studies has provided extensive analysis of particular patterns of audience consumption and production, and has examined the relationship between these. Moreover, it is argued that given increasing media and consumption differentiation and narrowcasting, mainstream consumer patterns are becoming increasingly “fan-like.”

However, defining what is meant by the term fan can prove quite difficult. Most people have a general, and largely shared, understanding of what a fan is, notes Matt Hills. A fan is generally seen as someone with a strong interest in, maybe even loyalty to, a particular sport, team, celebrity, television show, band, and so on. However, even this simple definition raises more questions than it answers. For instance, what makes someone a fan? Does this involve a minimum level of interest, dedication, or loyalty? And if so, what are these? Also, what is the relationship between fans, audiences, and consumers? Are they the same, and if not, what are the distinctions and lines of differentiation here? These kinds of questions, and more, have perplexed scholars for many years. Hence, beyond everyday or generic definitions, defining what is meant by the term fan, in a way that can be operationalized and that sets a subject area for study, proves quite problematic. As Hills suggests, “Fandom is not simply a ‘thing’ that can be picked over analytically” (2002, xi). Being a fan is not just a label or category; it is also tied into individual and group identities and social performances, which are rarely set or coherent. Hence, the problem of defining what a fan is has led many writers on fans, such as Garry Crawford, to avoid defining precisely what they mean by this term.

The foundations of fan studies can probably be found in the work of academics at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS, or the Birmingham School), such as Dick Hebdige, who associated music, fashion, and cultural styles with certain youth subcultures, such as mods, punks, and teddy boys. Though writers such as Hebdige did not specifically identify these as fan groups, it is evident that most (if not all) of these groups had some shared music and cultural tastes, such as mods, who shared a passion for specific genres of ska, beat, and soul-influenced music. However, what was significant in forming and defining these groups for Hebdige and his colleagues was not simply music or other cultural tastes, but rather class position. This theory sees subcultures as the direct result of working-class young (usually) men's failure in, and disconnection with, wider society, which sees them develop their own counterculture as a means of achieving in-group [Page 582]acceptance and status. Hence, for Hebdige and other similar writers on subculture, the distinction between these groups and wider society can clearly be seen along social class divides. Another important feature of subcultures is how they use popular culture as a form of social resistance. In particular, Hebdige suggests that members of subcultures engage in a process of bricolage, whereby they draw on consumer goods but redefine and combine these to develop a distinct style that marks them out from the general public and identifies them as members of a subversive and potentially troublesome group.

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