Top Artist Fanbase Names, Or; Where Do You Fit In?
posted in: Pop • Rock • Urban
The social media explosion allows fans to be more connected then ever before. Duh.
You can Skype with one of your friends as you both live stream a concert from one of your favorite artists and simultaneously take a picture of your screen with Instagram, which will also allow you to post your exploits to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare.
We are no longer people interacting with one another. Our clicks and key strokes are electrons that ping across a neural network made of fiberoptics. With the creation of new online matter generating and accelerating the sharing of content with fervor that hasn’t been seen before, our communication culture is turning entropy on its head.
One way that this new social paradigm has spilled into music culture is the new intensity of fandom. Major stars and cult performers alike can be more connected with their fanbase than ever before. As such, we wanted to take a look at some of the more noted fanbases and some of their communication habits.
Justin Beiber
Fanbase name: Beliebers
We’ve already talked about Beliebers in pretty excuricating detail, so this will be brief. In the heyday of Beibermania, Beliebers could start a riot at the drop of a tweet. In fact, Beleibers, suffering from rabid Beiber Fever, got Justin’s manager, Scooter Braun, arrested at a mall for just that reason. That said, Beliebers are still a force to be reckoned with, growing with the singer as he matured from a young Canadian pop star boy to a fully fledged global sensation man. If you’re a female between the ages of 11 and 17 and you have a working high speed Internet connection, chances are you’re a Belieber.
One Direction
Fanbase name: One Directioners
We aren’t going to choose sides in the heated One Direction vs. The Wanted debate. But we will say that the Directioners win out over their Wanted Family fan counterparts if only because they have their Tumblr game on lock. Searching the ‘One Direction’ tag on the photo-blogging service brings up A TON of pics, .gifs, and fan-made content that is notable for its depth and devotion. Tumblr even did a whole feature on what the life of a Directioner via their Storyboard curation project. Whether One Direction has positioned themselves to be more open with their lives than the typical performers or if their fanbase is just better at digging for stuff on the five group members is beside the point. If you’re a One Directioner, you probably know more about your favorite boy band then you do about most of your family members. Who’d have thought that teenage girls could be so obsessed with some cute boys with British accents?
Lady Gaga
Fanbase name: Little Monsters
Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters might win for largest group that also possesses the most cultish devotion to their performer of choice. The feeling is mutual; Lady Gaga got “Little Monsters” tattooed on her person back in 2010, so you know it’s real.
Gaga got in early with the strategy of forward facing interaction with her fans, sharing tons of material through her Facebook and Twitter profiles. And the noise that the Little Monsters can generate hasn’t faded over the singer’s career. Gaga can tweet a MySpace-style mirror shot that will net her over 278,000 likes on Facebook (and counting). Standard social media outlets don’t provide enough Gaga for some Little Monsters. Thankfully, these super fans have their own Lady Gaga-centric social network, LittleMonsters. If you’re a little monster, then you’re always up on the latest gossip and you’re always liking and sharing the best posts on Facebook. And you have a profile on LittleMonsters, of course.
Rihanna
Fanbase name: Rihanna Navy
Rihanna, despite her long (in pop years) career, has only recently come into her own as a social media force to be reckoned with. That’s why her fanbase, the Rihanna Navy, might not be quite as famous as some other Top 40 sensations’ might be. Google Trends doesn’t even pick up mention of the term rihanna navy until Spring of 2011. But that doesn’t mean that these fans, primarily Tweeters and Instagrammers, don’t follow the Carribean pop singer’s every move. They’re also one of the few forces brave enough to go toe-to-toe with #TeamBreezy if need be.
Insane Clown Posse
Fanbase name: Juggalos (or Jugalettes, if you’re a member of the fairer sex)
We saved the best for last. There is no contemporary fandom that has received as much scrutiny or attention as Insane Clown Posse’s Juggalos. They have their own Gathering after all. Not only is the Gathering of the Juggalos a big annual to-do, but so is the embedding of various members of the media in the Gathering. But being a juggalo isn’t just about the music, it’s a lifestyle. That’s why, much like Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters, juggalos have their own social network. It’s called JuggaloBook and it resembles the bastard child of MySpace and Facebook circa 2007. The only difference being that half of the members have some variation of the word twisted in their name. It really is a thing to behold. So, are you frequently washing face paint and Faygo off yourself after a long night of backyard wrestling. Then chances are you’re down with the clown.
Naturally, we couldn’t include every single fanbase in this post. Which ones did we neglect to include? Let us know in the comments!
More like this: