When Kim Niehaus came upon Taylor Swift in class, she used to be made a laugh of. “If you walked into a classroom wearing a Taylor Swift T-shirt, it was extremely embarrassing,” she recollects. Nonetheless, she stays a fan – or even skips two hours of English elegance to get to Cologne in time for the live performance.
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Lately, years later, the influencer talks about how robust fan tradition can create a neighborhood. Whether or not it is Swift, Ok-pop stars or German bands like Tokio Resort: Superfans are turning into increasingly more self-aware in recent times. They provide us explanation why to consider what it method to be a fan lately.
The place does the time period “Stan” come from for a superfan
Excessive sorts of fan tradition at the moment are additionally described via the time period “Stan”. Consistent with media reviews, the time period comes from Eminem’s 2000 tune of the similar title, which items a fan’s fixation as a cautionary story: A fan assists in keeping writing letters to Eminem till his fixation sooner or later turns deadly.
Eminem later reportedly defined that the tune used to be impressed via actual stories. “Stan” (pl. “stans”) has now established itself in popular culture parlance and, along with obsessive fan habits, may be used to specific risk free enthusiasm.
“Parasociality”: A time period for one-sided fan relationships
Psychologists additionally summarize such dynamics underneath the time period “parasocial relationships”, i.e. one-sided connections between fanatics and media personalities. “Fan culture is parasociality,” explains social psychologist Johanna Degen to dpa. “As in the rest of life, these relationships can have different strengths and emotional colors: there are friendly or romantic relationships, but also hate relationships,” provides media scientist Holger Schramm.
Being a fan: Extra than simply song
Swiftie Kim Niehaus needs to destigmatize being a fan. Additionally as a result of he buddies a large number of certain issues with it. She says of that live performance: “I was 16 or 17 years old, super young, super unsure of myself. During the speech, Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to be who they are. “And that you’re greater than the opinion that any individual who does not know you has of you. That touched me.”
For Niehaus, being a fan after this revel in used to be about greater than the song. “I saw all these other Taylor fans who were having a good time, who thought she was cool, which I thought was cool, no preconceptions,” she explains.
What binds fanatics to stars
The mechanisms at the back of folks’s admiration for celebrities are as various as the connection itself. “Some people use this to compensate for their own weaknesses and shortcomings,” says Schramm. Others may see the celebs as a job style that might function an incentive. Some have been in search of orientation, some lacked a powerful emotional connection.
“Most people don’t make up for it, they’re just fascinated by the feeling of emotional closeness to someone who’s become a star.”
Social media is influencing how fan tradition is lived
This closeness between the celebs and the target audience isn’t a brand new phenomenon, explains Schramm. Even early life magazines like “Bravo” seemed like private closeness via posters or interviews. On the other hand, this type of cope with has modified with social media. “Today, these possibilities have multiplied thanks to social media and users are suggested to be closer to the stars. Digital proximity can promote belonging, but it can also lead to addiction, as social needs merge with economic interests, explains social psychologist Degen. “Get admission to is in particular designed for familiarity and exclusivity. This ends up in connection, loyalty and a way of debt, which will then be successfully transformed into clicks and purchases.”
Influencer Marie Joan just lately demonstrated in a YouTube video how shut this dynamic can also be to exact border crossings. On this, she describes fanatics kissing her on the street as a result of they felt just about her. “But I don’t know you, please don’t just kiss me,” she says.
Excessive fanatics and excessive habits
For Niehaus, some of these nuances about worship are noticeable. “In each and every fan scene there are individuals who cross to extremes, who assume they’re pals with artists or cross into debt to shop for products.
As well as, there’s a double usual: “For a football fan who goes to every game – he is loyal, he is passionate about something, he has passion, and someone who is maybe a fan of an artist who goes to a few concerts is straight up exaggerated, hysterical, or does not know how to handle his money.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251115-930-296222/1
