Consider the starfish-like charisma of Raymond Watts.
On this week’s podcast, we’re discussing the reasons why certain acts seem to cultivate a much more dedicated fan base than others. Charisma? Solid live show? Tapping into hitherto unexplored themes? What’s defines the line between broadly successful acts and cult ones? We’re talking about all that, plus some Ministry and Comaduster chat, on this week’s episode of We Have A Technical. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or download directly or listen through the widget down below.
I’d be curious how the names for collective fandoms play a part in all of this. Do fans tend to be more passionate / obsessive when they have a name (chicken or the egg)? How has this changed from the days of Deadheads to today’s plethora of tribes (mostly in pop)? Similarities to non-musical fandom, i.e. Trekkies? I’ve noticed that many artists today coin a name and begin using it to address fans in newsletters and posts on Bandcamp, Instagram, etc.; are they responding to and recognizing their fans’ passions by naming them? Might there be less-forthright artists who want to artificially drum up an aura of popularity by suddenly using names for their fans?
Or maybe this sort of approach — applying a kind of onomastic lens — is just another symptom of contemporary “stan culture”?
Someone should start a band called The Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis.” Their fans are, of course, Whorfies.