Fans 'n' Non-Fans

Thus a Sonic Youth album "for the fans" means lots of drones and no tunes, with each singer trying to outdo eachother in obtuseness. Or you might have a Kate Bush album "for the fans" where she spends most of her time impersonating donkeys or machines. Or a Prince album where every song title ends in the words "Love Jam" (eg. "Backdoor Freedom 2 Party Luv Jam") and every song goes on for six minutes. Or a Rush album with a 20-minute Lee Peart (sp?) drum solo.

Importantly, these are not "experimental" albums in terms of the artist branching out and trying new things. Rather, it's a matter of intensifying those idiosyncracies that have been there from the start. Sometimes an artist will defend the poor sales of their album by saying it was for the fans. However, it's clear that The Spice Girls' "Forever" was not a fan album, though you could potentially make a case for "Spiceworld".

Fans also tend not to like too much blandness, for exactly the reasons Tim so eloquently suggests. The invocation you get then is that "a bad album by [x] is still better than 95% of the shit out there".

At the risk of being semantic, pedantic and sneering, the word “fan” suggests to me an irrational passion. Once its admitted, in a way (“I’m a Suede fan”), it becomes a matter of identity and self-image, and too often individuals who consider themselves a fan would at least attempt -- sometimes desperately so -- to maintain a sense of loyalty and like everything produced by the artists for which they are so, erm, fanatic.

I think recycling becomes somewhat inevitable over a span of albums, going back to the same themes both lyrically and musically. Though bands such as Suede are big offenders in this category, I would also have to say that artists such as Sonic Youth or Momus are no less guilty. It can be dressed up in terms like "indulging their inherent idiosyncrasies", but it's basically the same thing.

I am having a hard time answering this, which is why I put it off. I have one thing to say. The idea of a "truer fan" is a bunch of bullshit. It's something I've heard a lot in my life, or at least seen a lot, people bickering over whether or not you're a 4 REAL fan if you didn't like the band prior to this or that, and then someone else is always a 4 REALER fan because THEY liked the band when they put out an EP before the LP, and then there's always that one guy who knew the band when they were children...so on and so forth. It's ludicrious. Why am I any "truer" a "fan" of a certain band because I bought their first album as soon as I possibly could, while the other person bought it after hearing their 4th album and liking it? The latecomer is still listening to the same music! Argh. It's enough to make your head explode in irritation.

The other thing to remember, of course, is that girls can NEVER be "true fans" of any band with male members because they are "just there because they like the guys". Note that this accusation is never levelled against male fans of Garbage, the Cardigans, Le Tigre, Kenickie...

Oh, and Suede: how are they recycling themselves? I listen to "Suede" and I listen to their post-Bernie albums, and fuck me if that sounds like the same band. Maybe I'm confusing "going crap" with "new sound" ;)

And I do think that Sonic Youth and Momus are both idiosyncratic -- and indulgent! Those aren't necessarily compliments. But I would grant that they are both working within their own sensibilities and others, like Suede, eventually limited themselves to *idea* of what they are expected to sound like, and that difference -- being self-conscious of what is expected from your "fans" and then giving it to them -- is a bit poor.

My favourite fan story, told in newspaper cuttings and photos:

13 year old runaway meets the Beatles

13 year old says to schoolfriend "I'm going on an exciting adventure", and flies solo from Boston to England pursued by her mother - and meets the Beatles, securing backstage photos and a couple of signed albums.

lol at the lit cigarette in her hand too, that’s one precocious 13 year old.

George Martin’s promise was fulfilled on November 1st when Elizabeth was escorted into the Beatles' dressing room at the Astoria Theatre in Finsbury Park. A published account in the November 2nd Daily Express described the meeting. "So this is the little girl we've been reading about," Ringo quipped. "I don't think we've been to Boston," George said. Paul replied, "We have. That's where we had the tea party."

then George said "It's all in the mind" and the smoke dissolved

The other thing to remember, of course, is that girls can NEVER be "true fans" of any band with male members because they are "just there because they like the guys". Note that this accusation is never levelled against male fans of Garbage, the Cardigans, Le Tigre, Kenickie...

Sadly no longer true (if it ever was)… :/

(If anything it’s probably more the opposite now!)