Part 1: Description of the social group created by fandoms in the world
In today’s society, a majority of people have a favourite singer, band, actor, or someone who is well known around the world. People make fan pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to show their support to that person. Individuals in society say that these people, in particular, have saved their life by being able to present pieces of art out there, for example, songs, scenes, paintings, that relate to them or increases their hope in society. People dedicate a majority of their time throughout the day to create edits and videos about them, they are known as a fandom. One particular fandom in the world is called ‘Roadies’ this fandom supports a British and Irish boy band, located in the heart of London, England called Roadtrip. For myself, this band has increased my hope and happiness in the world with their songs and videos, it allows me to transport into another world where there is no stress or expectations of other people. In a way being part of the fandom known as 'Roadies' has saved my life.
‘Roadtrip’ is a boy band who currently consist of Andy, Rye, Brooklyn, Mikey, and Jack. 'Roadies' are a large group of people from many different backgrounds around the world, starting in Britain all the way to Canada. The group consists of about 380 thousand to 900 thousand people. This boy band has been around since October of 2016, starting with two members and growing continuously till the last member joined in December of 2016. While the boy band grew, the fandom grew themselves with tens to hundreds of people joining the 'Roadtrip' fandom every month. The 'Roadtrip' fandom is quite a committed and loud fandom that always work together in order to complete one goal, and that is to make 'Roadtrip' one of the biggest bands in history. I personally joined this fandom in January of 2016, after watching random videos of singers and after a while discovering them.
In January of 2016, 'Roadtrip' has only been a two-piece band for a space of four months, only at the beginning of their long journey. At this time the fandom was quite small due to them only starting to release their covers. As the months have gone on the 'Roadies' community continued to grow and become a strong fandom. It is an amazing feeling having people in different countries who share the same love for a group of guys, but one downside to being in this community is the distance. Due to 'Roadtrip' being located in England many of their fans are living there and ‘Roadtrips’ concerts are mainly located there.
Rules the come with being in the 'Roadtrip' fandom is that we do not spread hate with one another or with other bands and or signers, due to one of the group members being strongly against bullying and hate. Another rule with being in this fandom is that we always give our opinion with their videos and song to help them grow and expand their variety of songs and videos they release. Similarly, in the 'Roadtrip' community we must always support our bands' decision in what they do with their band and in their personal lives. Finally, one of the most important rules with being involved with our fandom is that we are a family and we will not spread hate with one another, we have one goal and that goal is to make our fandom strong and to bring 'Roadtrip' to the top.
My experience and effect I have had since joining the 'Roadie' fandom in early 2016 have been positive. Being in this community has brought comfort and happiness. When joining I have made friends with people from many different countries around the world. This bond that this community has created with one another is extremely strong, of course, there are a few haters, but because we share the same passion for this band, we have created a family with one another.
Part 2: Analysis of fandoms social world in the world
Why does someone join a fandom? As human beings none of us are strangers of being a part of a community, we have the psychological need to feel safe, respected and wanted, in order to satisfy those, need we form social relations with other people, usually based of our values and beliefs. We create a bond with this artist or artists that helps satisfy these needs, they bring joy, laughter, and comfort, to the point that we are willing to pay hundreds of dollars in order to view them in person or to have a photo and a minute conversation with them. We used to base our social groups based on physical proximity to one another, we were restricted to sharing information with our close community. But in the twentieth century, the growth in mass media started to arrive, we are able to form communities and social groups with a large proximity between one another. The mass media, which is the distribution of impersonal information to a wide audience, via television, newspaper, radio and the internet. We now are able to form social groups based on our common interest in similar content. It is common for someone to have a love for a movie, tv show or artist, but some people take this to another level by joining their fandom.
When I joined the 'Roadtrip' fandom it was because I fell in love with their voices, personality and their work ethics. The band brought comfort to me when I felt alone by just hearing their voices and seeing their antics. This also allowed to me to make friends and people who I can now consider like family around the world due to the discovery of ‘Roadtrip’ because of mass media. This also created many other fandoms, like the ‘Mendes Army’, ‘Directioners’, ‘Swifties’, and etc. I wound not be able to know of this band if it was not for mass media, especially the internet. The internet brought along YouTube which made it possible to discover this band and to be able to listen to their songs from across the world. The 'Roadtrip' fandom was a peer group, which is a group of people who are similar in age and social status who share the same interest, that had the common interest of this band. This peer group can be a perfect pathway in someone is to develop their own identity away from their parents and other family members. This also allows people to expand their view of people from other countries, due to the members of the fandom being from a vast variety of cultures and religions, but at the same time it also bring together people who share the passion for a person and a group of people.
How are fandoms form and who runs these communities? There is only one man who can truly explain this and that is Henry Jenkins. Henry Jenkins has been studying fandoms for decades, he started his journey in his research on fandoms at MIT carrying his knowledge with him to the University of Southern California. When he first started his research his first point about fandom was that it constitutes a kind of alternative social community. Every day you can see people on different outlets of social media contributing to their favourite artist or band popularity in the world. By promoting their context with retweeting, posting, talking with your friends, these members of the fandom are increasing the fandoms popularity within the world. Fandoms also help their favourite artist or band by critiquing in a nice way, writing fanfics, creating fan pages and being the first to watch and comment on their videos they post or pictures to promote themselves. This gives the artist a great Jenkins has said that fandoms have a distinct way of receiving the content that we adore, usually by giving our undivided attention.
When joining a fandom, it does not matter your age, race, sexuality, religion and gender, as long as you have loved the band for the voices and who are truly are as people and not for their looks and fame, then you are a true member of their fandom. A fandom is a term "which describes a community built around shared enjoyment of an aspect of popular cultures, such as books, movies, TV shows, bands, sports or sports teams, etc." With having the same love for ‘Roadtrip’ because of who they are and their music, people around the world, starting from England, to a vast variety of other countries including Canada, we have built this fandom known as the ‘Roadies’ and a family. A fandom is a group of people who share a common interest but at the same time it is much more than that, it is a group of people who participates both digitally and interpersonally with other fans. Fandom is an example of participatory cultures, this involves fans and or the public acting not only as consumers for their favourite artist and or band but also as producers.
Many fan-based communities are often highly segregated across gender, especially the gender role. Particularly, females tend to identify with many of the marginalized fandoms, while men tend to be pushed more towards acceptable groups, for example, fans of a sports team. People talk about what it means to be a truly a part of the fandom. In a sports fandom, a female might be facing persecution due to lack of masculine energy and sports knowledge to truly infiltrate the fandom. In a boy band fandom, a man might be lying outside of the typical image of what defines a fan in that community, due to them being a heterosexual male. It is known that a boy band fandom it quite a female dominated area, due to females being the main target for the market. Being a male, there is a level of shame involved in liking a boy band because of how their content of the music it can be perceived as girly and not suitable for a male to enjoy their music. One reason why I love the ‘Roadtrip’ fandom is that it is quite acceptable for males and females to enjoy the group. On many occasions the member of the group have stood up for male fans saying that it should matter what gender you are, if you enjoy what you are listening to than people should accept you for who you are.
In conclusion, being a part of a fandom is a great place where people can express their love and devotion towards a sports team, singer, boy band, actor/actress, and etc. A fandom is a great peer group where a person can block all the negative emotions and problems they are having in the real world and focus on what makes them happy or even who makes them happy. We create these fandoms to show our appreciation for this artist who has released a piece of work that you can relate to or help you cope with anything that is negative in your life. For some people it is the last thing that is keeping them here today, by having someone out there who make you feel loved and appreciated and seeing people who are a part of that same fandom that maybe going through the same struggles as you it can help people.