In this new age of oversharing, fans have felt more connected to their favorite artists through Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and more. While the term “stan” can be traced back to Eminem, many have referred to it as a ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’. In the last 20 years, it has become a good thing to be committed to showing up and going all out for a artist on the Internet.
The most well-known fanbases are the Barbz, Beyhive, Swifters and Little Monsters. With big fanbases like these, they are able to change the way the artists makes music, how they perform and how they push music out. This have shifted the power dynamic from the artist to the fans. With stan culture becoming so normalized now, here is why it is a good and bad thing:
Stan Culture Encourages Bullying and Harassment
It is easy to forget that the people you interact with are people with feelings. This have created an environment where negativity and harmful comments are normalized. When a artist calls out someone, stans will swarmed their comments and dm death threats to them.
Stan Culture Contributes to Unhealthy Attachment
While everyone have their favorite artists, stans take it to a new level. Some stans entire existence revolves around a celebrity. Stan twitter actually encourages people to have a extreme obsession with their favorite artists by dedicating their pages to them, live tweeting every update, and constantly checking their social media activities.
There are some positives in stan culture. With artists holding most of the power, they are capable of inspiring change and action through their fanbase. Stans are constantly doing fundraisers and raising awareness to social issues in the name of their favorite artists.
Like everything else, stan culture tends to breed the best and the worst, as time continues, we will see which will outweighs the other.