Have you been a fan?

Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Now we're all too old to be fans I'd assume but you must have been at some point, right?

You wore the t-shirt, you went to the gigs/raves, you wrote their name on your schoolbook or bag.

In retrospect it was like you were on a drug. It's a bit embarrassing. But don't you miss that fervour? Isn't music best when it incites a religious zeal?
 
sufi

sufi

lala
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Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Today I listened to a Mark Kermode review of '500 Days of Summer' and he said that he loves The Smiths and Morrissey but hates people in films who love The Smiths and Morrissey. It's rare that Kermode makes me laugh, but he did there.
 
M

martin

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There was a time when you'd have walked into the pub in your 'It Takes Two' t-shirt, asking, "Are Nine Inch Nails any good?" only to be chased back down the high street by a pack of Manowar fans in cut-off denim jackets - another suburban victim of METAL MANIA. A time when young people would consume nothing but brown rice and diet Tango to get the Brett Anderson / Heroin Really Screws You Up cheekbone effect. A time when you had to hide your copy of 'Wild Planet' by the B52s at the back of the wardrobe because having it in your possession made you a 'fake punk'. A time when I could wind up a Shabba Ranks fan to the point of him nearly punching me by claiming Ninjaman's superiority. Better, more wholesome times!

But also a time when I wasted approximately a month of my life trying to get the Conflict / Mortarhate Records logo down pat, even using a protractor, so fuck fandom. Waste of time.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I wrote the lyrics for a NOFX song on a t-shirt. I wore an army jacket from a retro shop in homage to the Libertines.

Embarrassed? A touch.

RDR yes, me too. I was a hip-hop fan (or 'head', as I liked to think of myself). It was a very small-minded, nerdy and yet passionate stage in life, wherein I refused to believe any music that wasn't rap music could be good.
 
R

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
that was pretty much my entire adolescence.

it was ridiculous.

obv i did like a lot of other music, but it had to be thoroughly rationalised, and meet some core tenet of hip-hop in some way first.

my fan phases prob go like this (these are the most significant ones, im leaving out all the mid-level obsessions) -
wham (seriously)
michael jackson
prince
hip-hop (see above)
grime/dubstep

i think that was actually the last time i was obsessive about something

though i still get obsessive about new artists/sounds/scenes/albums/songs, its rarely as deeply as before.
dont seem to have the time (also i am lazier now), or maybe just not the inclination.
 
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G

grave

Well-known member
I can't tell you how cool I felt when I wore my new Limp Bizkit t-shirt to the local shopping centre for the first time.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
Within a span of about two years, i went from proudly wearing a Blue Oyster Cult t-shirt in high school (16 years old) to sporting a Crass "Anarchy & Peace" button during my freshman year in college (18). i suspect others experienced similar sorts of transitions at that point in their lives, even if they grew up at a time other than during the birth of punk.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
rubberdingyrapids said:
that was pretty much my entire adolescence.

it was ridiculous.

obv i did like a lot of other music, but it had to be thoroughly rationalised, and meet some core tenet of hip-hop in some way first.
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Haha I relate to this. I hated UK Garage mainly because I thought the MCs were lyrically incompetent.

When getting into a new genre, I generally follow this pattern:

1. Get really into the most obvious, popular, MOR artists
2. Repudiate above artists, having become a nerd, and gravitate towards the most niche, cult, difficult artists
3. Get really bored of the (2) stage artists and realise that many of the (1) stage artists are in fact the best
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n05/andrew-ohagan/cartwheels-over-broken-glass

The best thing about writing by fans is that it really matters to them: nobody wants to read a measured assessment of life on the road with the Rolling Stones. Fans must be capable of hating people who don’t agree with them – they have to have the mentality of a teenager, in other words, as well as the acquisitive beakiness of the train-spotter. But despite occasional enjoyment of one another’s company, fans never really get on, and that’s because it’s in the fan’s essential make-up to imagine that they are The Only One. Morrissey, by the same token, seems to have lived his life imagining he’s the only person ever to get the point of Shelagh Delaney or Charles Hawtrey – the fan’s conceit, the fan’s unaccountable belief in the secret and singular nature of their love.​
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Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Funny how your perceptions change... Listening to 'Stone Cold' by Groove Chronicles now, I find it pleasant enough, but the first ten or so times I listened to it, I was getting chills down my neck. Mind you, I was on drugs for at least five of those occasions.
 
R

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
Corpsey said:
Funny how your perceptions change... Listening to 'Stone Cold' by Groove Chronicles now, I find it pleasant enough, but the first ten or so times I listened to it, I was getting chills down my neck. Mind you, I was on drugs for at least five of those occasions.
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i am slightly embarrassed of the obsession i had with rap in the 90s. still trying to sort of make peace with it. but apart from the personal embarrassment, its just about changing tastes (to my surprise, i now think the 'lightweight' first digable planets album - which i only listened to because i had to - is much better and just more enjoyable than their 'deep' second one).

im a bit wary of people whose tastes dont change actually.

Fans must be capable of hating people who don’t agree with them
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this might be partly to do with why rap fans are often so obsessive and combative. cos the artist themselves hate anyone who doesnt agree with them!
 
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