Can People be Too Much of a Fan of Musicians?

Hi Guys!

Today, I'm discussing something that I have been asking myself recently...can people be too much of a fan of musicians? I mean, there are casual fans, who  buy the albums, go to live concerts and follow their favourite musicians on social media. Then there are the uber-obsessive fans who not only follow the band members but also probably their families on social media, go to not one, but maybe every single tour date of a tour and buy the single, despite it being on an upcoming album.

I have to admit, when I was younger, I was a massive fan of Steps. I went to their tours, I got t-shirts from the tour that were usually a size too big, I had a lot of other merchandise, including magazines, a teddy bear, a game etc. However, I only went to one date of their tour. I had videos of their concerts that I would watch all the time but I still did my homework and I made sure that I accepted people's views about them. Yes, they were vey popular anyway but I wouldn't be offended if someone didn't like them. We didn't have social media at the time when I liked Steps but I would still only follow the band and the members.

I not going to lie, I do wonder why fans get so involved with the activities of their favourite bands and musicians. Is it necessary? (Apologies if this sounded like a documentary; I did Psychology as a University degree!) As a fan, I do get disappointed when one of my favourite musicians doesn't get nominated or win an award and share my disappointment on social media but I wouldn't harass the awards ceremony. An example is when The BRITs awarded The 1975 Best British Group that Little Mix were also nominated for. Little Mix fans went nuts on Twitter about this, despite them winning Best British Single for Shout Out to my Ex. Why couldn't they be happy that Little Mix won that award? Also, why do they still send tweets saying give Little Mix a nomination?

The other thing is I have heard that some fans insult musicians' girlfriends purely because either they don't like the girlfriend or because the fans believe members are together. I am talking mainly about fans of a certain boyband. Also, sometimes fans can't get over the fact that celeb couples have split. For example, I follow an ex-girlfriend of a member of one of my favourite bands on social media. She posted a photo on Instagram where a picture his band used as their album cover was in the background. All the comments were focused on this, rather than her. Why I wonder? Whether a celebrity couple has split up or not doesn't really concern me. Yes I my be sad for a few seconds and read celeb gossip articles but I wouldn't cry about it and bombard each person within that relationship with comments if they alluded to each other on social media.

What I'm trying to say is when being a fan of musicians, it is always best to be a casual fan than an uber-obsessive fan. Yes there's disappointment if they don't get awarded or don't win an award but think of all the awards they have won already and/or awards might win in the future. As for insulting their girlfriends, friends and families? This might cause you to be blocked from viewing their social media pages, which is something you definitely won't want to happen!

Em x