Does your stanning behaviour depend on your favourite artist? Or your favourite artists music?

I had to do a small scale research for one my modules last semester on anything that I wanted. One day I sat in one of my lectures and they were talking about "fans" and the lecture inspired me. Later on that day I found out that my last coursework for the class can be based on any topic that I want, and since I am a fan of music and a fan of certain artists I wanted to investigate certain fan bases, or as we like to call it "stans". A lot of the people that I interviewed wanted to read the final product so here it is! I interviewed Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Rihanna stans. Check it out and let me know what you think! 

Question: Are fans influenced by defending their favourite artist on social networking sites, influenced by the artist? or because of the artist’s music?

Within this essay I will evaluate my own small scale research project on fandom. I have arranged in-depth interviews with four different types of fan bases. Two of the individuals are fans of Beyoncé; however one is within their late twenties works full time and is female. The other is a male and is 18 and works part-time but doesn’t participate within Higher education. I have also interviewed a female who is 20 years of age who is a huge fan of Mariah Carey. She works part-time and also goes to University. Last but not least I interviewed a 20 verging 21 year old female who is a huge supporter of Rihanna. She doesn’t work at all however; is a student at Birmingham City University.

The reason I have chosen fans of Beyoncé, Rihanna and Mariah Carey is because these artists have a huge, loyal fan base and all of these artists are mainstream and well known. So, I gathered it would be interesting doing a small research project on their fans. Some of these fan bases don’t have a good reputation on social networking/user generated content, therefore I wanted to gain insight into why they behave the way they do and whether their behaviour is based on the music the artist releases or just based on the artist as a person. The reason behind this is because different fan bases act different to different situations, and some feel the need to defend their favourite artist over the smallest things. I have asked all these individuals similar questions and have approached them within a friendly manner  as I’m aware that things can get very hostile / emotional when you speak on someone’s favourite artist.

According to “The Fanatic fan” by Ross and Nightingale, fans can be seen as hysterical along with inadequate and deviant obsessive. Beyoncé calls her fans “The Beehive” (Gomez-Lacayo; 2012) she has categorised different definitions for specific fans. Beehive is the title of the whole fan base, she has categorised her fans and their actions into different sectors such as; 

• Buzz #1 - to stan for
•  Buzz #2 – To stir up something

Then there is; 

• Sting #1 which means to defend Beyoncé 
• Sting #2 means to hate on someone 
• Wasps is what they’ve entitled the Beyoncé haters. 

Beyoncé posted these definitions on her official website, which caused up a stir between her “Beehive” and people who aren’t associated as Bee’s. Beyoncé fans have the worse reputation amongst all fan bases, due to the fact that they like to argue, or as Beyoncé calls it, “Sting #1” with other people on social network sites such as Twitter and argue within the comment section of blogging websites to defend Beyoncé over the smallest of things. Whether it’ll be her music or just her actions as a person or if anyone says anything disrespectful about her “The Beehive” will be defending her. Whilst speaking to one of the female fans that are a part of my research project I asked her why does she feel to the need to defend Beyoncé when people speak negatively of her. She said “It’s because I’ve seen her come from nothing to this huge superstar and I have just got this huge respect for her. I feel like nobody can knock what she does or has done because nobody has done it the way she has.” It was the very similar reaction from the male fan. He felt that there is a need to defend Beyoncé because he’s seen her growth and feels that nobody in the industry can compare to her. Both fans said that they love Beyoncé as a person more than her music, which was rather weird as when the Beyoncé fans defend her they mostly defend her music rather than her being an individual. Furthermore, Beyoncé isn’t as active on Social Networking as other musicians such as Rihanna, so how do the fans feel that they know her as a person if she isn’t as active on the internet as other celebrities? Another comment that both Beyoncé fans made was that they found the songstress very professional and appreciate and value the fact that she keeps her personal life and showbiz life separate. The female fan praised the fact that Beyoncé's career came first; she got married then had children. She went on to mention that she looks up to Beyoncé because of that. Both fans made comments that she is a very good entertainer and believe that no-one can entertain a crowd the way she can. I also found it very interesting that whilst I was speaking to these members of “The Beehive” they didn’t mention their passion for her music; they mostly spoke about her as a person.

Compared to Beyoncé fans, Mariah Carey fans are very mature. We don’t see them arguing with other people on social networking sites or debating back on forth on blogging websites like “The BeeHive”. However, they still have a reputation for defending Carey. Carey calls her fans “Lambs” and they range from the ages of 16-30+. I spoke to a female fan of Carey who is 20 years of age and she had a lot to say about her favourite artist. I asked this Lamb why she supports Carey and she told me that Carey has had an impact on her from a young age. She found Carey beautiful and was infatuated with her from a young age. However, she emphasised that as she got older she took time to discover her music and she says that she fell in love with her music and Carey as a person. She claims that Carey has a song for every situation that she has been through and that’s why she loves her so much.  I went on to ask her, "I don’t see the “Lambs” arguing with people on Social Network sites day in and day out. Do you feel the need to defend Carey since she is your favourite artist?" Her remark was; “not really, I only defend her when someone is disrespecting her as a person. If people don’t like her music I’m not bothered, if they say stuff about her children I’m not bothered either because I know that she [Mariah Carey] wouldn’t be bothered. But if they disrespect her legacy it’s a problem and that’s when I feel the need to defend her.” She also stated that she believes Carey is very humble and modest. It has been said that there is a fine line between “normal” and “excessive” fandom however, when I asked this Lamb if she would sleep outside the hotel Carey was staying for her local concert she declined. She said; “I would spend A LOT of money to see her live but I wouldn’t do something crazy like sleep outside her hotel if I know I’ve got work in the morning. I’m not that crazy!” I also asked her if she thinks that the reason why the Lambs are more mature than the Beehive is because Carey herself is grown and mature and humble? She replied with “Yes, If Mariah isn’t going too stressed over what people say then why should I?”

The next fan I interviewed was a Rihanna fan by the name of Naomi. Rihanna calls her fans “The Navy” or they refer themselves as #RihannaNavy. Once again, they have a reputation of defending and sending vicious comments towards people who speak negative about Rihanna on social network sites and user generated content similar to other fan bases mentioned within this study. As with the previous fans I’ve interviewed, I asked Naomi why she is fond of the celebrity and she insisted that she likes Rihanna as a person. She loves her music but she loves her as a person also. Seeing as I know Naomi personally, I stated that I rarely see her throwing vicious comments towards other people on social networking sites in regards to people speaking negatively about Rihanna and I asked her if she believes it’s because of her age. Naomi is 20 years of age verging on 21; she agreed with the statement of it being because of her age and stated that the younger Rihanna fans do it to show other young Rihanna fans that they can do it. She insisted that fans throw vicious comments towards people who say negative stuff about Rihanna to show off in front of other peers amongst the fan base. This relates to a Schickens theory which says that being a part of a fan base could make an individual feel accepted within a community. Naomi has meet the pop star numerous of times. I asked her if she feels like a stalker with the things that she has done to meet the pop star. She insisted that she somewhat doesn’t feel like a stalker as she has seen other fans go further than extreme to see the pop star. However, she said that; “when you’ve been waiting to see her for so long and you finally meet her you feel like you’ve accomplished something.” Since most of the viciously comments happen on Twitter, Rihanna follows most of her fans on Twitter, in fact Rihanna is following Naomi and Naomi has had conversations with the pop star on Twitter also. I asked her “When Rihanna followed you did you feel or does it make you feel that she knows that you support her and she has acknowledged that. So, you will continue to support her because she is following you on Twitter?” She insisted that her support for Rihanna didn’t get any greater or lesser when the pop star followed her. Rihanna’s attitude is very brutal. There have been times where Rihanna has said hurtful things to some supporters of hers or even people who don’t like her on Twitter or Instagram. I asked Naomi whether she believes that because the way Rihanna reacts to specific comments people make about her, that her fans feel the need to do it also? She agreed with the statement and said “She [Rihanna] doesn’t know how much an influence she has on her fans when she replies to negative criticism. Because they [fan base] see her do it [reply/throw viciously comments] they feel the need to do it also.”

After interviewing these three fan bases I came to a vast conclusion that the behaviour/actions of fans is influenced by the person they support. Most theories which are very dated, class fans as hysterical, stalkers, inadequate or deviant obsessive, passive and linked to potential violence. However, within defence of these theories the emergence of the internet changes ways in which fans can practice fandom. Therefore their theories are still relevant. The Beyoncé fans have been in news reports of a linking to violence over concert tickets (Copsey; 2013). However, not all fan bases are the same. Hopefully you’ll be able to see that the Mariah Carey fan base “Lambs” are very mature when it comes to their behaviour on Social Network sites and defending Carey as a person. Whether this is influenced by Carey’s personal aroma or her music, her fans don’t behave outrageously because that is not within Carey’s character. However, with the Rihanna fans the younger fans behave in outrageous behaviour because they see their role model do it and to show off in front of other peers within the fan base. However, with the Beyoncé fans they defend Beyoncé because of her being an individual and not because of her music. However, when we see Beyoncé within interviews she doesn’t reply to negative comments and isn’t very much active on Social networking sites as Rihanna. Therefore, why does “The Beehive” behave the way they do? We can only put it down to Beyonce encouraging her fans behaviour by posting definitions of the fan base on her website, which made The Beehive believe it is acceptable for them to be outrageous. Overall, the answer to my small scale research project, “Are fans influenced by defending their favourite artist on social networking sites, influenced by the artist, or because of the artist’s music?” is; the fans are influenced to defending their artist by the artist as a person and not because of the artist’s music.