You know who I mean. They're the ones who scream at the mention of their "baby boy", wait ages outside buildings in the hope for a glimpse of them, and have usernames such as "Lusty4Justy" and "JLSBabe4eva". I don't get them. And it's not that I don't understand them - they genuinely scare me.
Now I have passions. I love Westlife, I love Harry Potter, and like many girls (and gay/bi guys), I like to perv over good-looking men - anyone that knows me knows this. I once queued up in the Trafford Centre for about four hours to get Westlife to sign a copy of their book for me, only to have my hopes crushed when I got about half an hour away, and was told that Westlife were leaving, I couldn't meet them. I was sixteen. So I understand the urge to queue up in silly weather to see your idol. I know that you want to meet them, give them a hug, say hi, for them to know you exist. But at the end of the day, they're human. They're just regular people who got lucky.
Some musicians are genuinely talented. But it does take a certain amount of luck for many people to make the big time. So when someone is lucky enough to land a starring role in a major film or TV show (a la Dan Radcliffe, Rob Pattinson, etc), or to hit the big time with their music (like Justin Bieber) I think well done. But I also tend to admire the way they handle their fans, and the general public. Because personally, I'd be shitting it.
People get your names tattooed onto their anatomy ( 1 ). They mob you in the streets ( 2 ). They throw marriage proposals your way ( 3 ). They get tattoos of your face ( 4 plus many, many more) . They faint when they meet you ( 5 - this was actually really funny ). They scream so loudly your eardrums burst. They fight over you ( 6 ). They tweet their love and adoration of you. They send abusive messages to anyone who criticizes you. They send death threats to your girlfriends. I'd find sources for these last few, but the only ones I can be bothered finding are like Hollywood Gossip and stuff like that, so not worth it. These last ones are mainly related to tweets I have seen myself, on the subject of Justin Bieber when he and Selena Gomez started going out.
My point is, fans are extreme. I've seen pictures of Beatle-mania, what happened wherever Elvis went, Michael Jackson on trips to Japan etc. Fans have always been mental. But with social media, it's all too easy to get abusive. And I just think, give people a break.
Preferences towards anything in life are all objective - one person's rubbish is another's treasure and all that.
In relation to my Vlogger's post, today is "Godiva Day". Alex Day is releasing a song "Lady Godiva" independently of any record company, because he decided that the power of his YouTube fanbase alone could get him high in the charts. He has good reason to do this - at Christmas his fans got him to Number 4 on Christmas Day with the song "Forever Yours". All proceeds from that went to charity. He released the original song, and in a bid to get it to the top ten also released 11 remixes. Buying these remixes was a bit like buying another copy of the song when it came to counting sales. He's done the same thing today - there are 11 versions of "Lady Godiva" on sale on iTunes right now. In 21 hours, he's got to number 14 in the charts. That's without any physical release sales, which will start adding to it tomorrow. All I can say is well done.
However there has been some controversy, and the fanbase (the fangirls mainly) or Alex Day have succeeded in freaking me out a little. A friend of Alex's doesn't like what he's doing. He objects musically to one of the remixes, and thinks Alex is wrong to push people to buy his record on the "pretence" of wanting to undermine "the system". Although he wants Alex to do well, he doesn't want him to do well like this. And he has a point too. None of the money for this single is going to charity, all profits will go to Alex. Personally, I have no issue with that - I quite like the song and would like him to do well, so I bought a copy. But I don't see why people can't object. And yet reading through today's tweets, I saw again people sending abusive tweets about jealousy, and "why can't you be happy for your friend" messages.
My point is, people have opinions. We all have differences of opinion - if we didn't the world would be a bloody boring place. We shouldn't vilify each other on opinions. And unfortunately, crazy fangirls are giving friendly debates and even arguments a bad name. I hate to think what they'll be like when they grow up. Oh wait, I've just remembered... TwiMoms :S ( 7 )
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