Encyclopedia of American Studies

Fans and Groupies

Although the academic study of fans and fan culture has a relatively recent history, the subjects of that study have been with us for a very long time. The American usage of the word "fan" dates from the end of the nineteenth century and originally referred to baseball enthusiasts. However, this construction and usage may have been inspired by the term "fancy," which originated earlier in that century and referred to the followers of a certain sport, especially boxing. Its usage and construction have always had decidedly popular connotations and, until the late twentieth century, were most usually employed in reference to activities associated with the working and middle classes. If one liked classical music they were aficionados, if they liked Tin Pan Alley songs they were fans.

The creation of the idea of the fan in America is inextricably intertwined with the rise of commercial entertainment. Theater audiences in America were some of the first fans and the extent of their fervor can be seen in the Astor Place Riot, which occurred in New York City in 1849. P.T. Barnum's empire of humbug, dime museums, and circuses marks the beginning of the practice of publicizing the activity of fans and not just the objects of their attention. Indeed his concert tour featuring Jenny Lind in 1850 was as much about the size of the crowds as it was about Lind's performances. With the creation of new printing techniques and the increase in literacy after the Civil War, there were more objects for fans' devotions. Many became followers of the "penny dreadfuls," a new type of pulp fiction, while after the turn of the century, the newly created comics in the tabloid newspapers elicited strong followings.

With the rise of recorded music and motion pictures, an entirely new mass form of fandom was created. It was possible to become a fan of an actor or musician without ever being in their presence. The movie industry was particularly adept at both creating and meeting demand for information about those who made films and, in fact, the rise of Hollywood relied upon a star system that was based in fan culture. New types of media were created to encourage movie consumption, beginning with magazines such as Motion Picture Story and Photoplay which began publishing in 1911, that were packaged for motion picture fans. This trend was followed in the 1920s by the introduction of the newspaper (and then radio) gossip column by Walter Winchell. The best known of these columnists were Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, who held great power from the 1930s to the 1950s by deciding which rumors to reveal and which to keep quiet. Their function was to reveal information about the movie stars to their fans, while their approach was primarily that of a provocateur. With the rise of scandal tabloid magazines such as Confidential Magazine in the post-World War II era, the rules of the game changed. Through the use of electronic eavesdropping devices, private detectives, and long range photography, these magazines pioneered the fan media discourse which still remains in place today and which sustains contemporary television "infotainment" and gossip websites (e.g., tmz.com, perezhilton.com).

Until the rise of media and cultural studies, fans and fan cultures were considered not of sufficient gravity to be addressed by the academy. Beginning with the study of film and television fans and fan cultures in the 1970s, this field now includes the study of any and all types of discourse on fandom. These studies employ various methodologies to address questions of everything from the effect of media on its consumers to the fans' economic impact. In the late twentieth century, media�recorded music, television, and films�became America's biggest export. For this reason, fans have been studied with greater interest not only by those in the academy and advertising, but also by business in general.

One fan subculture that has had a particularly widespread effect on fandom is that of the groupie. Initially associated with the rock and roll music subculture in the 1960s, both the term and the approach employed by the groupies have become ubiquitous in American fan culture. The original rock groupies were young women who aggressively sought out the company, both physical and sexual, of rock stars. They began more as muses and companions, but after their characterization as mindless "starfuckers" in a 1969 edition of Rolling Stone, they gradually became more of a trope of pornographic male fantasy. The potency and longevity of this fantasy is seen in the fact that the Oscar-winning film from 2000 Almost Famous is a fictionalized account of events in the life of groupie Pennie Lane. The term "groupie" has also become largely interchangeable with that of "fan," although it intimates a high degree of zealousness.

Lisa L. Rhodes

Bibliography

Burks, John, Jerry Hopkins, and Paul Nelson, Groupies and Other Girls, Rolling Stone, 15 Feb. 1969:11�26.

Desjardins, Mary, Systematizing Scandal: Confidential Magazine, Stardom, and the State of California, inHeadline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal, ed. by David A. Cook and Adrienne L. McLean (Rutgers 2001), 206�231.

Jenkins, Henry, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (Routledge 1992).

Jenkins, Henry, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture (N.Y. Univ. Press 2006).

Levine, Lawrence W., Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Harvard Univ. Press 1988).

Lewis, Lisa, The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media (Routledge 1992).

Rhodes, Lisa L., Electric Ladyland: Women in Rock Culture (Univ. of Pa. Press 2005).

Skirboll, Aaron, The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball (Chicago Review Press 2010).