Fandom and Pop Culture

 

A fan is a person who already likes or loves something or person. This fan is usually being united as a kingdom of fan, or called as fandom. Fandom is the state of being a fan or all that deeply encourages and believes a belief, person, or anything else. It is a little bit different with the word audience. Audience is an assembly of listeners or spectators, and listeners do not always like or love that object. But, fans always like and are enthusiastic about certain objects.

The fans can have some activities like interacting with other fans, making a fanbase, or producing something creative like fan fiction, can be a video, writing a story, or doing some cosplay in costume. But there is a word ‘fanatic’ which means being a fan that is too much and so excessive on believing and giving devotion. This fanaticism is not good, because as we know, something which is too much is not good.

The better one is when being a fan makes us creative fans. The first is the semiotics productivity is when a fan uses her/his fandom object to bring a social meaning in her/his life. For example, when a fan gets confidence while watching her/his favorite artist on television or youtube. The second is enunciative productivity is when a fan expresses her/his fandom object to the outside world through speech or appearance. For example, like when a fan wears her/his favorite team’s jersey. The third is the textual productivity is when a fan creates a story or a fiction about the fandom object. For example, like when a fan creates a fiction story about her fandom object and then she can post it on some portal like webtoon or wattpad.

 

These days, Korean Pop is booming, this kind of entertainment is always crowded by people that call themselves a fan. We can take one example of a Korean boy band idol, EXO. This group has existed since 2012 until now. The fans of this group made an association and named it as EXO-L or Exo lovers. This fandom usually makes a line or whatsapp group just to be enthusiastic and discuss their idol, EXO. One example of their activity is writing fanfiction which represents their imagination with their idol, EXO, and frequently they upload that story on their own blog, or even wattpad and webtoon. This fandom is supportive enough, when their idol makes a movie, they rent a cinema to watch the movie together. EXO-L is dominated by girls, and sometimes some of them are so fanatic. They become untolerated with other fandom, and frequently mock other idols. This behaviour is exactly not good. 

As a normal human, we are allowed to be a fan, but to be fanatic and do some bad behaviour are not recommended. We have to take control of ourselves and take the good advantages for ourselves as a fan. Anything less or too much is not good.