Digital Technologies and Music Fandom

2896 Words6 Pages

Throughout the twentieth century, significant shifts have occurred in the ways in which fandom operates, partially as a result of the increasingly integral role digital technologies have come to have within our everyday practices. The phrase ‘digital technologies’ refers to the tools used to share, analyse, and create information, using binary code. This may comprise software, online systems, or the hardware used to access such facilities. In recent years, scholarly discussion has emerged concerning the sociological impact of digital technologies, notably in the work of Deborah Lupton.1 However, there is little academic writing that considers the effects such developments have had on music fans and fan groups in particular. Taking the fans of British pop group One Direction, known as 'Directioners', as an example, consideration will be given to the ways in which fans interact and engage with the object of their fandom, and with one another since the wide-spread dissemination of digital technologies. Moreover, this essay will discuss whether, in this age of technological ubiquity, fandom is a useful concept in debates concerning how an individual's identity is constructed. In cogitating this question, one must account for the conviction that the relationship between the two concepts is irreconcilably problematic, or, at least, limited.

Firstly, in order to determine the impact that digital technology has upon the ways in which music fandom operates today, one must consider the implications of each of the functions undertaken by such tools. As Henry Jenkins highlights, numerous consequences arise for contemporary fandom as a result of the increased speed and scope of communication provided by ‘the new digital environment’.2 Thi...

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... 2000), 112.

Joli Jenson, 'Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterization', in Lisa L. Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media (publication), 9- 29; here, 13.

Nancy K. Baym, Personal Connections in the Digital Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010), 21.

Online Resources

Deborah Lupton, Digital Sociology: An Introduction (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2012), http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au//bitstream/2123/8621/2/Digital%20Sociology.pdf (accessed 1st November 2013).

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/one-direction/333439-one-direction-x-factor-uk-tour-dates-here (accessed 12th November 2013).

http://www.twitter.com (accessed 12th November 2013).

'Crazy about One Direction', http://www.channel4.com/programmes/crazy-about-one-direction/4od (accessed 25th November 2013).

http://www.ask.fm (accessed 25h November 2013).

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