Active and alert, mobilized young people put idols on top of the world in exchange for access to a shared life
The “fan kingdom” is no longer a poetic expression. It classifies a more active and intense relationship of young people with their idols at a time when digital relationships are intensifying, capable of transforming people with skills in exposure, intelligence in digital affectivity and some artistic talent into immortals of planetary scope. Fans have almost always existed – and there are those who say that the first of Western Christian civilization, before Elvis began to mobilize the first hordes, were the apostles of Christ themselves. But perhaps nothing, not even Beatlemania, has acted as decisively as the new fans of second-generation streaming.
Fandom, corruption of fan and kingdom, no longer has any of the submissive fan clubs that were on the scene from the 1950s to the 1990s. With her idol, she enters his house, tastes his breakfast and decides in the repertoire for the next show. And in exchange for what? There is the new clause in the contract. By having access to a life entirely shared by their idol, the fan offers something that has already been in other hands: success. And today it is only the fan, this ‘new god’, the filter capable of putting artists on top of the world through coordinated and overwhelming actions.
The reflections of this relationship are already being studied by the platforms. The largest of them, Spotify, with 422 million users, just carried out a global survey with numbers showing how these relationships are given by ever-growing connections. Some contacts: 1. “Fans recognize that good music can come from anywhere. On average, global listeners listen to artists from 14 different countries every month.” 2. “On average, 66% of the artist’s discoveries occur outside the artist’s country of origin.” 3. “Artists start with national fan bases, then expand to other parts of the world.” 4. “Saved songs are played three times more often.” 5. “The biggest fans can generate many streams: on average, 5% of the richest fans listen six times more than the rest of the audience.”
Carolina Alzuguir, leader of Spotify Brazil’s artists and labels division, talks about her perceptions: “It’s the fans who spin the machine so that the artist reaches more and more listeners. That’s why it’s so important for artists to connect better and better with their fans and are dedicated to building their audience. ” On the impact on the business relationship, she points out: “Many artists decide which countries and cities the tour will go through based on the audience data per city we offer … audio content on an access-based model.”
But this is no longer just a market discussion, and maybe it’s time to do polls with what we generically call fans as well. What do some of the young people contacted by Estadio demolish part of the preconceptions such as, for example, that the fan expects to always listen to the same music from their artists. “I don’t think (the artist) has to fully meet expectations,” says Lucas Nery Santos, 19, an Anitta fan for nine years and director of one of the capital’s biggest fan clubs, heyy_anitta. “I think being an artist is going through various styles of music.” Larissa Patire, 24, also a fan and follower of Anitta, takes the same direction: “I confess I put expectations in the songs, yes, but I also think it’s great when it surprises with something totally different, as we imagined.”
What about the post-pop artists who are on the other side of the process? What do you think? With the breakup of the South Korean BTS group, announced last week, compatriot DKZ was able to see his ranks grow significantly. They are still a long way from the more than 37 million monthly listeners that contestants have on Spotify, but they move fast, with shows scheduled for July 9 and 10 in Brazil during K-Expo at the Korean Cultural Center in Brazil. The leader of the group, Jongyeong, speaks to the Estadio: “The high expectations of our fans don’t weigh you down. They make me feel more ambitious and impatient with myself. The fans are like members of our group, we are creating good memories with them.”
If each coin has two sides, it may be hiding something. Announcing the BTS hiatus, member Kim Nam-joon, aka RM, said, “The problem with K-pop and the whole idol system is that they don’t give you time to mature. You have to keep producing and creating. something”. This is the point, to produce and appear relentlessly. Professor Simone Pereira de Sá, author of the book Brazilian peripheral pop music: video clips, shows and bullshit in digital culture, affirms that the condition of “permanent visibility” of the artist is, more than exhaustive, unattainable. “The artist always needs to provide what I call ‘expressive coherence’, but at some point your overexposure will make you mistake and create noise. That’s when cancellation comes.”
Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
