There are probably few people left these days who don’t know what a fandom is. Everyone who leads an active life on the Internet and communicates on forums, as a rule, is part of a community of interests and thereby supports this interesting phenomenon, which has been developing especially actively lately. Let's talk again about the fandoms and about what all the same unites the people inside them.
Fandom definition
What is a fandom, you can understand, if we recall the fans, fans surrounding any celebrity. They usually create their own community dedicated to the idol, which is now called the fandom. Such groups gather not only around famous actors, singers or athletes, but a common hobby or some interest can unite people.
But most often fandoms arise around movies, television series and video games. Obviously, this is due to the fact that the possibility of something new, interesting and enthralling in this area is very great, and, in addition, the commercial emergence of new successful projects here is directly related to the number and frequency of fans appearing.
How to become a member of the fandom
In order to become a member of a fandom, it’s not enough just to get involved in a topic. It is imperative to participate in the information exchange - this can be said to be the quintessence of the existence of a fan community. Nowadays, such an exchange takes place mainly via the Internet, but there are also many classic forms - interest clubs, thematic periodicals, congresses of various ranks (from regional to international), etc.
Special fandom names help identify their affiliations. For example, fans of anime and manga are called otaku, fans of the Star Trek series are trackers, fans of Doctor Who are Khuvians, and Tolkienists, as the name implies, are fans of JRR Tolkien's work. The fanatic of the series “Supernatural” has a somewhat ironic name - super-shocked, singer Justin Bieber has fandom - Belieber, and Miley Cyrus - smiles.
Like every subcultural movement, any fandom is unique in its own way, it develops its own customs over time, has its own structure, and slang appears, often understandable only to members of this community.
Fandom Ribbons
In order to celebrate their belonging to a particular community, fandom members carry colored ribbons in their hands, because they have long been a way to express the attitude of the wearer to some kind of social movement or problem.
So, for example, blue is popular with Twitter, blue are woofers (Doctor Who series), orange with bangers (The Big Bang Theory), yellow with fans of the Supernatural series, silver was chosen by Wolfie fans, and emerald green - slashers. Rockers prefer red.
Of course, it’s impossible to list all kinds of ribbons here, but everyone who joins the fan community will immediately find out about the chosen color and will wear the ribbon in sign of their belonging to the “chosen ones”.
Community Keepers
The fandom phenomenon is hard to overestimate. What is a fandom? This, as mentioned above, is primarily an exchange of information. But after all, it will become invaluable over time, and the descendants will get unique details about the creation of the film, about the forgotten music genre or about the technical features of retro cars. Thanks to fans, all this is constantly kept afloat and carefully preserved.
In addition, we must not forget that the fans are the same target audience that the producers carefully study before submitting yet another megaproject to the public. By the way, this applies to any commercial project, because only the presence of enthusiastic fans can create a brand that really makes a profit.
The origin of the term "fandom"
By the way, the meaning of the word “fandom” in the narrow sense was the name of a community of lovers of a fantastic genre and arose in the thirties of the last century.
In the United States at that time, the so-called amateur postal associations were created, which included adherents of various topics, about which they exchanged letters. In 1934, on this basis, the Science Fiction League emerged , which became the first official fandom. By the way, this League brought up talented science fiction writers: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Judith Merrill, Frederick Paul and many others whose names went down in history. Famous scholars of the science fiction genre also included: Forrest J. Ackerman, Sam Moskowitz, and others.
The movement became very popular, and from 1939, world-wide conventions began to be held among science fiction fans.
How did fandoms develop in Russia?
During the Khrushchev thaw , the first groups appeared in the USSR, uniting fans of science fiction. At this time, this genre is becoming very popular. Although what the fandom is, the adherents of the genre were unlikely to understand at that time. They simply created fiction fan clubs (CLF) at libraries or houses of culture, where they discussed new books and met with authors.
In the early eighties, this movement acquired a special scale, and within its framework, fiction festivals called "Aelita" began to be held annually. And now fandoms unite not only fans of the same genre.
What is the difference between a subculture and a fandom
Fanaticism and various hobbies that become the meaning and way of life for a group of people, among other things, can eventually develop into subcultures. Such a metamorphosis occurred at one time with punk rock, with Gothic music and furry art.
Although most often fandoms do not grow into a subculture. They are prevented by focusing on one subject of adoration or interest. A subculture is a movement independent of individual individuals, since one ideologist (object of worship) always replaces another in it.
The best fandom in RuNet
Finding the best fandom is difficult. Indeed, for every person who is keen on a topic, it is his fandom that is the best, regardless of how many members he has. The main thing for fans is the opportunity to talk about your favorite topic, exchange information, and simply meet virtually or like-minded people. After all, it is very important to know that you are not alone!
Users in Runet, determining which fandom is better, proceed, of course, from traffic. They call the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who community as such. But one can argue with these conclusions, because no one really conducts a real tracking of the number of adherents of the topic.