My bandom essay, part one.
Let’s talk about bandom.
No, wait! Come back! I promise to make it worth your while! There will be meta, and then there will be music!
Well, meta of a sort. Mostly it’s just my usual rambling about fandom and fans and why I do what I do. Still, it’s necessary backstory for the music and commentary. Think of this as the preface, maybe. Why I’m here, what I’m unsure about, what I like about the fandom in addition to the music.
Come on, guys. Give it a chance?
As a general rule, bandom is not the sort of thing I’d get involved in. And I’m still a little leery of it sometimes, taking my time to get into the discussions and the fic and the whole experience. There are a few reasons for this.
a) It’s a huge fandom, and growing rapidly.
I’m used to small fandoms, the sort where you can know basically everyone who’s part of things and track the whole path of the fandom without going crazy. I dabble in large fandoms (West Wing, Doctor Who) but it’s the tiny groups of people who love something to distraction that I end up sticking with. Due South, La Femme Nikita, things like that, are the ones where I fall completely into the writing of fic and meta and meetups and cons and the rest of it. Bandom doesn’t look like those.
b) There is much squee and corresponding wank.
It’s a big fandom, with a lot of young fans. This means there’s a lot of room for things to fall apart, and a lot of unmitigated enthusiasm. People say things without thinking about them, and because there isn’t the networked enforcement of a small fandom, those things have an unfortunate tendency to turn into clusterfucks of immense proportions.
c) It’s an RPF fandom.
Yes, there’s music. But the focus of a lot of the fandom is on the people making the music, and that’s vaguely difficult to wrap my brain around. RPF that extends out of a fiction-based fandom that already owns my heart is one thing; starting from RPF is unnerving.
d) There are a lot of young fans.
This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good, because I love seeing people in their early fandoms, and these folks are smart and excited and young enough not to be jaded by the way discussions rotate around the same issues and questions.
It’s bad because I’m, well, not. Or not young enough to feel entirely comfortable enthusing about Spencer Smith’s hips and Brendon Urie’s lower lip. (I do enthuse, just not without knowing that there’s most of a generation between them and me). And I don’t have the same issues and concerns as some of the younger fans, nor do I feel comfortable posting possibly (fine, probably) explicit fic in places where underage fans can read it.
e) It contributes to fandom drift.
It makes me sad that people drift apart over changing fandoms. And I know that there are people who simply aren’t interested in bandom, and I run the risk of losing contact with them over adding it to my favorite things. I hate that I feel sometimes that I need to censor what I write to keep their attention. I hate that I can’t share this with them, and that some of them are bothered by the possibility that I’ll leave my current fandoms behind. I hate that I get angry when people are dismissive of bandom, although I also often feel justified in that anger.
f) It’s based in part on music.
I tend to keep my fandom activities and my music loves in separate compartments, because music is such a visceral, in-person thing for me. It’s odd, trying to combine the two in a meaningful way. And the music aspects can make it harder to sell to other people, which I find difficult. At heart, I’m evangelical about my fandoms, and bandom is no different.
However. I’m getting over it.
a) It’s a huge fandom with small networks.
As I get more involved, I’m starting to find the places and people who make a huge fandom smaller, the ones who are interested in a lot of the same things I am and who are saying stuff that’s articulate and careful and brilliant.* These people make it much smaller, to the point where I’m starting to be able to get involved without being overwhelmed.
b) There are a lot of different opinions.
There is much analysis and corresponding discussion of interesting things. Gender is a huge deal in bandom, as are media representation and the lines between fiction and reality. The crafting of public narrative shows up sometimes, as do the interactions between music and language.
Basically it’s a big collection of most of the things I love talking about, and the conversations I’ve seen are often more interesting and smarter than the ones I’ve seen in academia.
c) It’s an RPF fandom.
Unnerving, but there’s never a lack of new information and images and stories to work with. It doesn’t work on a television or film schedule, and there’s no end to the canon the way there is with literature. It’s just a richer playground, a bigger place to play. And the images and video are awesome--sometimes beautiful, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic--and always interesting.
d) There are a lot of young fans, and some who aren’t.
I love knowing that I can be enthusiastic without those reactions being discounted as less important than serious discussion. And I love that, even though so many of the members of the fandom are young, they’re also welcoming and some of the most fantastic people I’ve ever met, both online and in-person.
And not everyone is a college or high school student, which is comforting. *g*
e) I may drift, but I won’t shift; loving bandom doesn’t mean leaving everything else behind.
There’s this concept in virology called shift and drift. Drift is what happens when a virus changes slightly, enough to be distinguishable but not enough to be a new threat. Shift is what happens when there’s a significant change of the sort that results in pandemics and mass deaths.
I doubt, given my natural inclination to be multifannish, that the addition of bandom is going to make me shift out of my current fandoms completely. If anything, it’ll keep me involved in fandom for longer, because when I don’t have enough new canon to consider I tend to drop out of fandoms in search of other interests.
Much the way that having the whole c6d universe kept me in dS for longer than I ordinarily would stick it out, bandom is something new enough to keep my attention while still a part of something I already love.
f) The music is almost entirely awesome.
I fell in love with the music, it’s still most of the reason I love bandom so much, and even if I drop out of the fandom proper, I’ll still love these bands and the music they make.
And that, in fact, leads directly to the real focus of this discussion. The music pimping post, which is 7000 words, 33 songs, a mess of video links, and a whole lot of my usual mix of story and analysis and enthusiasm. It’ll be up tomorrow, in the interests of avoiding spamming your f-list with words from me.
Thank goodness for small favors, right?
* To be perfectly honest, because of my friending policies they usually find me. Which is awesome and I love it a lot, because for some reason really fantastic people friend me. I’m just lucky, I guess.
No, wait! Come back! I promise to make it worth your while! There will be meta, and then there will be music!
Well, meta of a sort. Mostly it’s just my usual rambling about fandom and fans and why I do what I do. Still, it’s necessary backstory for the music and commentary. Think of this as the preface, maybe. Why I’m here, what I’m unsure about, what I like about the fandom in addition to the music.
Come on, guys. Give it a chance?
As a general rule, bandom is not the sort of thing I’d get involved in. And I’m still a little leery of it sometimes, taking my time to get into the discussions and the fic and the whole experience. There are a few reasons for this.
a) It’s a huge fandom, and growing rapidly.
I’m used to small fandoms, the sort where you can know basically everyone who’s part of things and track the whole path of the fandom without going crazy. I dabble in large fandoms (West Wing, Doctor Who) but it’s the tiny groups of people who love something to distraction that I end up sticking with. Due South, La Femme Nikita, things like that, are the ones where I fall completely into the writing of fic and meta and meetups and cons and the rest of it. Bandom doesn’t look like those.
b) There is much squee and corresponding wank.
It’s a big fandom, with a lot of young fans. This means there’s a lot of room for things to fall apart, and a lot of unmitigated enthusiasm. People say things without thinking about them, and because there isn’t the networked enforcement of a small fandom, those things have an unfortunate tendency to turn into clusterfucks of immense proportions.
c) It’s an RPF fandom.
Yes, there’s music. But the focus of a lot of the fandom is on the people making the music, and that’s vaguely difficult to wrap my brain around. RPF that extends out of a fiction-based fandom that already owns my heart is one thing; starting from RPF is unnerving.
d) There are a lot of young fans.
This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good, because I love seeing people in their early fandoms, and these folks are smart and excited and young enough not to be jaded by the way discussions rotate around the same issues and questions.
It’s bad because I’m, well, not. Or not young enough to feel entirely comfortable enthusing about Spencer Smith’s hips and Brendon Urie’s lower lip. (I do enthuse, just not without knowing that there’s most of a generation between them and me). And I don’t have the same issues and concerns as some of the younger fans, nor do I feel comfortable posting possibly (fine, probably) explicit fic in places where underage fans can read it.
e) It contributes to fandom drift.
It makes me sad that people drift apart over changing fandoms. And I know that there are people who simply aren’t interested in bandom, and I run the risk of losing contact with them over adding it to my favorite things. I hate that I feel sometimes that I need to censor what I write to keep their attention. I hate that I can’t share this with them, and that some of them are bothered by the possibility that I’ll leave my current fandoms behind. I hate that I get angry when people are dismissive of bandom, although I also often feel justified in that anger.
f) It’s based in part on music.
I tend to keep my fandom activities and my music loves in separate compartments, because music is such a visceral, in-person thing for me. It’s odd, trying to combine the two in a meaningful way. And the music aspects can make it harder to sell to other people, which I find difficult. At heart, I’m evangelical about my fandoms, and bandom is no different.
However. I’m getting over it.
a) It’s a huge fandom with small networks.
As I get more involved, I’m starting to find the places and people who make a huge fandom smaller, the ones who are interested in a lot of the same things I am and who are saying stuff that’s articulate and careful and brilliant.* These people make it much smaller, to the point where I’m starting to be able to get involved without being overwhelmed.
b) There are a lot of different opinions.
There is much analysis and corresponding discussion of interesting things. Gender is a huge deal in bandom, as are media representation and the lines between fiction and reality. The crafting of public narrative shows up sometimes, as do the interactions between music and language.
Basically it’s a big collection of most of the things I love talking about, and the conversations I’ve seen are often more interesting and smarter than the ones I’ve seen in academia.
c) It’s an RPF fandom.
Unnerving, but there’s never a lack of new information and images and stories to work with. It doesn’t work on a television or film schedule, and there’s no end to the canon the way there is with literature. It’s just a richer playground, a bigger place to play. And the images and video are awesome--sometimes beautiful, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic--and always interesting.
d) There are a lot of young fans, and some who aren’t.
I love knowing that I can be enthusiastic without those reactions being discounted as less important than serious discussion. And I love that, even though so many of the members of the fandom are young, they’re also welcoming and some of the most fantastic people I’ve ever met, both online and in-person.
And not everyone is a college or high school student, which is comforting. *g*
e) I may drift, but I won’t shift; loving bandom doesn’t mean leaving everything else behind.
There’s this concept in virology called shift and drift. Drift is what happens when a virus changes slightly, enough to be distinguishable but not enough to be a new threat. Shift is what happens when there’s a significant change of the sort that results in pandemics and mass deaths.
I doubt, given my natural inclination to be multifannish, that the addition of bandom is going to make me shift out of my current fandoms completely. If anything, it’ll keep me involved in fandom for longer, because when I don’t have enough new canon to consider I tend to drop out of fandoms in search of other interests.
Much the way that having the whole c6d universe kept me in dS for longer than I ordinarily would stick it out, bandom is something new enough to keep my attention while still a part of something I already love.
f) The music is almost entirely awesome.
I fell in love with the music, it’s still most of the reason I love bandom so much, and even if I drop out of the fandom proper, I’ll still love these bands and the music they make.
And that, in fact, leads directly to the real focus of this discussion. The music pimping post, which is 7000 words, 33 songs, a mess of video links, and a whole lot of my usual mix of story and analysis and enthusiasm. It’ll be up tomorrow, in the interests of avoiding spamming your f-list with words from me.
Thank goodness for small favors, right?
* To be perfectly honest, because of my friending policies they usually find me. Which is awesome and I love it a lot, because for some reason really fantastic people friend me. I’m just lucky, I guess.