Fan communities have undergone a transformation in the past 50 years—with the rise of social media, teenagers no longer need to subscribe to newsletters or join official fan clubs to keep up to date with their favourite bands.
But how did we get from the organised fan groups of the 60s and 70s to the all-encompassing digital 'fandoms' of today?
An army of young people in the 60s fell victim to what was dubbed 'Beatlemania'—a then-inexplicable affliction which owed its name to four charming musicians from Liverpool.
The decade moved Britain from prim and proper black and white to glorious technicolour, and the hysteria surrounding rock legends The Beatles undoubtedly played its part in this shift.
It was, in fact, with The Beatles that a cohesive music ‘fandom’ could be identified in the UK for the first time.
Simon Warner, a music journalist and professor of popular music studies at the University of Leeds, believes 'Beatlemania' was the result of the band taking control of their image.
"I think The Beatles were a unique gathering of talents, they brought to the popular music scene not just an ability to play and perform, but they wrote their own songs, which was quite unusual at the time."
"We have four young men who have been playing together for several years by the time they gain a national profile, who are very good at playing live and they also write their own material.
“They were a similar age to the audience they were aiming at, and they were writing songs from personal experience that seemed to strike a chord not just with young women, but that entire generation."
What is a 'fandom'?
It is perhaps because of The Beatles that the word 'fandom' evokes a very specific image: a horde of teenage girls screaming their lungs out at the sight of their favourite celebrity.
To a degree, this is still the case. The term 'fandom'—abbreviated from 'fanatic domain'—refers to a group of people who are connected through their loyalties to a particular musician, actor, or fictional world.
Watch the video below to learn more about what it means to be in a 'fandom.'
People participate in fan culture at various levels. Some fans are only involved with their chosen 'fandom' in certain situations, such as at a concert or convention, and others constantly seek out interaction with like-minded fans on social media.
Perhaps Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer explained it best in their recent book 'Superfandom': "Fandom does not describe what someone is—it's something they do."
'FANDOM' IN THE SWINGING SIXTIES
The 'Fab Four' attracted a mass of loud and proud local fans from their inception in 1960.
Liverpudlians in their late teens would religiously abandon the office for an hour and head down to lunchtime shows at their hometown venue The Cavern.
One of these fans was Freda Kelly, who quickly befriended the band and bagged a job as band manager Brian Epstein's personal assistant in 1962. It was Kelly who was tasked with the management of a new Official Beatles Fan Club.
"The fan club produced a monthly Beatles Magazine which was helpful in creating a fan community," Simon explains.
"There was fan interest in American film stars in the 40s and 50s, but I think The Beatles really led the way in terms of pop group fan clubs in this country, and it definitely played its part in creating a kind of fan community."
Fans could join the club for £2 a year, and in return they received a monthly magazine and, from 1965, an annual Christmas record.
The fan club's employees quickly became experts at copying the band’s signatures so as to keep up with the floods of requests which poured in when the club reached peak membership in 1962.
Kelly’s official fan club closed its doors in 1972, two years after The Beatles decided to call it quits.
But 'Beatlemania’ didn’t slow down post-breakup. The club’s closure gave birth to dozens of unofficial clubs, zines, and regional newsletters which allowed fans to still share information about the band in the era before the internet.
Ernie Sutton, 58, is the treasurer of the current evolution of the original Beatles Fan Club, the British Beatles Fan Club, which opened its doors to members in 2000.
The club now has 1500 subscribers to a quarterly magazine, 7000 Facebook fans, and a further 12,000 Twitter followers.
"Our main work is on a quarterly magazine that we send to subscribers," Ernie explains.
"It's a 40-page A5 magazine with up to date news, archive items, book and CD reviews, letters pages and more. It is based loosely on The Beatles Monthly magazine from the 1960s.
“The Fan Club today differs from how it was when The Beatles were performing in the 60s.
“That club had a membership who then had the opportunity to see the band live, or meet at big fan get-togethers such as the one in Wimbledon in 1963 and Liverpool that same year.
“The club now is mainly fans that appreciate The Beatles' music and the influence they had on the music scene."
'FANDOM' OUTSIDE THE BEATLES
Though the original Beatles Fan Club may have had the most members, this type of organised fan community did exist elsewhere.
Acts including Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Animals, The Monkees and The Kinks also had large organised fan communities which music lovers joined to get the inside scoop on their musician of choice.
William Orton, 63, joined the Official Kinks Fan Club in 1968, four years after it was established.
"The fan club was initially run from The Kinks publicist's office in London, but this changed over the years and after 1968 was run by a few fans with support from the record label," he says.
"In 1990 they organised the first ever Kinks Fan Convention in Muswell Hill.
"The group were recording at Konk Studios in London and all band members called in to see what was going on.
“This was followed by fan meetings in Huddersfield, and more elaborate meetings in Broxbourne with live sets from Kinks members."
Though the band stopped producing music in 1996, the fan club and its 2000 members survived.
William now runs the organisation from his home in the Midlands and acts as secretary and prime mover for the still-annual fan club show in London.
"By the third Fan Club Convention after 1996, we were selling out the venue and everyone was in the spirit.
"In 2002 we found a new home with the Boston Arms music room, attracting more band members and Ray Davies has visited and performed most years since."
It's indicative of the longevity of 60s music that these fan communities still thrive today.
But instead of being a way for fans to keep up to date with the band, these organised communities are now a way for fans to feel connected with a band they loved in their youth.
'Fandom' today
The existence of organised fan communities has waned in recent years, with those that survive mainly consisting of modern-day outposts of veteran clubs.
It's likely this has much to do with the emergence of the internet and social media throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
No longer is it necessary to turn to monthly magazines for updates on bands; all this information is passed seamlessly between online armies on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Even 'fanzines' have made a digital exodus to online blog site Tumblr, where you can also find a fairly new side-effect of fandom—'fan fiction’.
This is when fans write and publish stories involving celebrities or characters from their favourite fictional world.
Jess Hodges, 25, from Somerset, wasn’t aware an official fan club existed for her favourite band, One Direction.
She says their 'fandom' has such a significant presence on social media that it is unnecessary for their management to establish it properly.
On Twitter, there are One Direction official member accounts, fan accounts, and 'updates' accounts which track each member's movements using insider tips.
"There's a huge fandom presence on Tumblr, where the more 'hardcore’ fans tend to congregate," Jess explains.
"But more recently, this has spilt over into Twitter—the rise of One Direction ‘official’ updates accounts definitely influences the fandom and their discussions.
“It has been said that this is one of the ways in which One Direction’s management is able to control and monitor how certain news is received by the fandom."
The internet has made ‘fandom’ constantly available to those who are immersed in it—fan friends have daily contact to speak about the band, share content, theories, and can even interact with the members themselves through Twitter and Facebook.
“Through Twitter you are able to directly interact with people you admire, which is amazing," Jess says.
“The sense of community within fandoms that social media platforms create really provides people with a sense of belonging."
"It's powerful - these are places where people become friends for life, simply because of their mutual interests in the same band."
This new era of 'fandom' may be different in composition and style, but the sentiment is the same as it was in the 60s—a group of like-minded people banding together over their loyalty to a particular artist.
The difference is accessibility: people now have the means to involve 'fandom' in almost every aspect of their lives. Through the internet, fan friends have become just friends, and social media accounts are constantly updated and available at the touch of a button.
