I never bought into the whole hysteric screaming pool of people that seem they wanna rip the artist’s clothes off and feed off his flesh.
Have I experienced insane love for an artist, his words, and all the world that s/he creates ? Yes, of course, otherwise I wouldn’t be so passionate about what I am doing myself!
I am not here to judge anyone personally but many times I felt that the infatuation around an artist stemmed more from an obsession for his success and status as an iconic trend, rather than his actual words or music, the actual meaning of his actions and stance.
So, I was thinking, the other day… and this is what came out of my thought process.
(* the academically inclined shall be warned that I will do a couple oversimplifying statements)
Back in the day, as an artist you interacted with the people out there through old school media appearances, on TV & Radio. It was like a one way street.
Today, your “fans” are now engaged in your everyday life: you share with them the place you ate at noon and they comment back to you on the food they saw you had in the picture.
Very much like you would have done with a friend who lives at distance, with whom you try and keep in touch. They know you “personally” but without ever having given you a hug.
The relationship with your “fans” can be of a better quality, you don’t have to wait for and carefully structure a media interview, you can go ahead and express yourself to your fans through direct connection. They love you for who you ARE in everyday life, not only on stage. And you love them for who they are, as you can check out their world too, randomly click on their facebook page, answer back to their comments, thank them for their support and encouragement, compliment them on their own (artistic) endeavors.
For this reason, I think the word FAN seems outdated as it was born in and refers to a pre-internet time where the music industry was structured differently. You don’t want to consider them as a hysteric unaware crowd manipulated by the old school mogul mass media. But you can’t put them in the same bag as the handful of people you grew up with, who know first-hand how grumpy you are in the morning or how you smell after a night out.
So, as usual, I got a silly idea and decided to make up a new word : FRANS, a hybrid mix between “fans” and “friends”.
Haha I don’t know about you, but it makes me laugh and a laugh is always good to share. Point made.
What do you think?