What is the fandom. The meaning of the word "fandom"

Probably, in our days there are few people who do not know what a fandom is. Anyone who leads an active life on the Internet and communicates on forums, as a rule, enter into any community of interests and thereby support this interesting phenomenon, which has been developing especially lately. Let's once again discuss about the fandom and what unites the people inside of them all the same.

Definition of the fandom

What is the fandom, you can understand, if you recall the fans, fans, surrounding any celebrity. They, as a rule, create their own community dedicated to the idol, which is now called fandom. Such groups gather not only around famous actors, singers or athletes, to unite people can also be a common hobby or some kind of interest.

But most often, fandoms arise around movies, television series and video games. Obviously, this is due to the fact that the possibility of the appearance of something new, provoking interest and exciting in this area is very high, and besides, the commercial appearance of new successful projects here has a direct relation to the number and frequency of the appearance of fans.

How to become a member of the Fandom

In order to become a member of any fandom, it's not enough just to get involved in a topic. It is necessary to participate in the information exchange - it is, you can say, the quintessence of the existence of the fan community. Today, such an exchange takes place mainly through the Internet, but there are many classical forms - interest clubs, thematic periodicals, congresses of various ranks (from regional to international), and so on.

Special names for fandoms help determine their affiliation. For example, fans of anime and manga are called otaku, admirers of the series "Star Trek" - trekkers, lovers of "Doctor Who" - huvians, and Tolkienists, as probably clear from the title, are fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The fanatics of the series "Supernatural" has a somewhat ironic title - superimposed, in the singer Justin Bieber fandom - beliber, and Miley Cyrus - smilie.

Like every subcultural movement, any fandom in its own way is unique, in it, with the passage of time, its customs arise, there is a structure, and slang appears, often understood only by the members of this community.

Ribbons of fandoms

To mark their belonging to a certain community, the members of the fandom are wearing colored ribbons on their hands, because they have long been a way of expressing the relation of the bearer to some social movement or to the problem.

For example, blue is popular with twitters, blue is worn by the huvians (the TV series Doctor Who), the orange color of the Bangers (The Big Bang Theory), the yellow color is played by fans of the Supernatural series, silver was chosen by the Volchonka fans, and the emerald- Green - slashers. Red color is preferred by rockers.

Of course, it's impossible to list all types of ribbons here, but everyone who enters the fan community immediately learns about the chosen color and will wear a ribbon as a sign of his belonging to the "elite".

Custodianship Communities

The phenomenon of fandom is difficult to overestimate. What is a fandom? This, as already mentioned above, is primarily the exchange of information. But in fact it will eventually become priceless, and the descendants will receive unique details about the creation of the film, the forgotten musical genre or the technical features of the retro car. Thanks to the fans, all this is constantly maintained afloat and is carefully preserved.

In addition, we must not forget that the fans - this is the target audience, which the producers study diligently, before submitting one more megaproject to the public. By the way, this applies to any commercial project, because only the presence of enthusiastic fans can create a brand that really brings profit.

The origin of the term "fandom"

By the way, the meaning of the word "fandom" in the narrow sense was the name of a community of fans of a fantastic genre and originated in the thirties of the last century.

In the United States at that time, there were created so-called amateur postal associations, which included adherents of different subjects, about which they exchanged letters. In 1934, on this basis, the League of Science Fiction arose , which became the first official fandom. By the way, this League has raised talented science fiction writers: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Judith Merrill, Frederick Paul and many others whose names have gone down in history. This included also famous researchers of the genre of fiction: Forrest J. Ackerman, Sam Moskovitz, and others.

The movement has become very popular, and since 1939, fans of fiction have started to hold world conventions.

How did the fandom in Russia develop?

During the Khrushchev thaw and in the USSR there were the first groups that unite fans of fiction. At this time, this genre is becoming very popular. Although what the fandom, the devotees of the genre hardly at that time understood. They simply created fantasy clubs (CLFs) in libraries or cultural centers, where they discussed new books and meetings with authors.

In the early eighties this movement took on a special scope, and every year festivals of fantasy called Aelita were held. And now fandom do not only unite fans of one genre.

What is the difference between a subculture and a fandom

Fanatism and different passions, which become a meaning and a way of life for a group of people, among other things, over time can grow into subcultures. Such a metamorphosis occurred in its time with punk rock, with gothic music and with furry-art.

Although most of the fandom do not grow to subculture. They are hampered by focus on one thing of adoration or interest. A subculture is a movement that does not depend on individuals, since in it an ideologist (the object of worship) always replaces another one.

The best fandom in RuNet

It is very difficult to determine the best of fandoms. After all, for every person who is keen on a topic, it is his fandom - the best, no matter how many members there are. The main thing for fans is the opportunity to talk about your favorite topic, exchange information, and just meet virtually or really like-minded people. It's very important to know that you are not alone!

Users in Runet, determining which fandom is better, proceed, of course, from attendance. They name the "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars", "Sherlock", "Harry Potter" and "Doctor Who" communities as such. But these findings can be argued, because the real tracking the number of supporters of the topic is really no one conducts.