TRANSCRIPT
"I just found out that my calling is actually within a community."
“I was hooked and from that day I followed eagerly for album drops.”
Whether it's ‘Beatlemania’ or ‘Bieber Fever’, the idolisation of celebrities and pop stars has long been a part of our society.
For many people, being a fan of a celebrity can create a sense of community, and lifelong friendships can be formed within the fandom, but it can also come with harsh judgment.
Korean boy band BTS are a K-pop ensemble who have just over 28 million monthly listeners on Spotify and are regarded by many as the group who popularised Korean pop music.
A report in 2018 from the Hyundai Research Institute estimated that BTS were worth more than 3.6 billion US dollars to the Korean economy each year.
Barbara Dela Pena is one of the admins of a Facebook group called ‘BTS Australia, the official Australian army’, which has gained more than 15,000 members.
Ms Dela Pena says, discovering BTS'S music seven years ago has had an immense positive effect on her life.
“I went through a bit of a rough time moving to, because I just moved to Australia about seven years ago, so the discovery of BTS was at the right time because that made me realise what I was actually doing with my life. The lyrics and the message that they have in their music, actually, it brought out something in me that I guess it's always been there, but I have never really acknowledged it.”
Through engaging with fan groups and communities online, Ms Dela Pena says she has found a sense of community,
“And then I started forming online friendships, and then from the online friendships we started forming actual friendships. And then I discovered along the way that there are fans who, like me, went through similar situation where they don't have, within their immediate circle, they don't have people to share their love for BTS with.”
Working in the corporate industry, she says she has faced a fair amount of judgment for being a B-T-S mega fan, but compares it with being a sports fanatic.
“Sometimes it's hard for people to understand when you like something and they're not familiar with it. Some of the wives tell their husbands when they ask, what is this whole army thing? They say, “it's our version of the World Cup.” That's when we go out. We wear the shirts, vita shirts, we have our own jerseys, we have our own caps, we have our own flags. It's practically our version of the World Cup.”
Ms Dela Pena says, despite the misconceptions, being a mega fan of a band isn't just for young people, and it also comes with social and cultural benefits.
“The Demographic of the fandom isn't limited to age, isn't limited to background, isn't limited to nationality. We follow the music more than the looks. We follow it because of the message, and then that message then transitions and translates into other stuff like exposure to Korean culture.”
Ailsa Lipscombe is a postdoctoral research fellow at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and is a self-proclaimed Taylor Swift fanatic.
Dr Lipscombe specialises in intersectional engagement with sound and culture and is studying why music from pop stars like Taylor Swift resonates with so many people, including herself.
“So, I'm really interested in understanding the connections people make to particular artists and songs and sounds in general, the types of stories and experiences that become linked to those sounds and to those pieces of music. I have always been interested in Taylor as a fan, but more recently also began really looking into and trying to understand what it was that she does that makes fans so excited about her music. Not only then to understand my own connection to her music, but also to understand why other people are so drawn to her as a performer.”
She says there are various social factors that contribute towards the hype around celebrities like Swift.
“I definitely think there's a sense of nostalgia. If you look at the social media presence of the ERAS tour, there's a wide variety of people posting things like, oh, I went to my first Taylor concert in 2008 and now I'm taking my daughter.”
Dr Lipscombe describes how Swift's music has had a huge impact on her own life for the better.
“In 2022, I was very ill, I had sepsis. I was in hospital and things weren't looking great, but I distinctly remember when that album dropped, lying in my hospital bed with my headphones on and just immersing myself in a new album and feeling at one, so grateful that I was still around to be able to hear it and experience it, but also just grateful for the distraction and for something familiar. The ability to put on headphones and drown out what was going on around me was incredibly healing for me in that moment.”
For Dr Lipscombe, being a Taylor Swift fan is more than just listening to her music. She recalls the support the online community provided her when she visited Melbourne earlier this year to see Swift in concert.
“I joined a group within the bigger Facebook group for Disabled Swifties, which was really important and did some really incredible work, I think not only for me, but other people attending who weren't familiar with the MCG or Accor Stadium because we were able to then talk to other disabled swifties who were going to the show, who knew the venues.”
She recognizes the criticism that she and other mega fans of pop stars like Taylor Swift get, but doesn't believe it's warranted.
“But in general, I mean, just don't yuck. Someone's yum, right? There's enough music out there that everyone can find the music that excites them and brings them joy. It's not hurting anyone. Them finding joy in her music doesn't negate the joy that other people might find in another artist.”
CEO of the Australian Psychology Society, Zena Burgess says there's a reason people continue to idolise celebrities and join fandoms, and can see the positives that come from it.
“There’s a sense of having a community that you're part of and you have a shared interest, and it's a way of connecting with other people over something you all are passionate about. It’s again, in a way, in a world where people can feel very disconnected, for them to have that form of social connection and a sense of being part of something that's bigger for themselves and a sense of purpose, and for some people it's really just about feeling like they're finally understood by either the music, the person, or both.”
With Swift-mania consuming the eastern states of Australia earlier this year, Dr Burgess explains why there may have been so much hysteria.
“Taylor Swift covers a lot of areas. It's covers music, it covers fashion, it covers theatre craft, it covers a tortured life, it covers trying to develop ones striving for independence and respect, broken relationships. It covers so many aspects of life that people may encounter. I think it's easy for people to identify with Taylor Swift.”
Dr Burgess says, while admiring celebrities is mostly harmless fun, it sometimes can get out of hand.
“If their media personality or celebrity does something they don't approve of, or withdraws from public life, It can lead to quite distress and a sense of abandonment for them, but that's the negative side. For most people It's quite positive and it can be transient as well.”
