Welcome to another week of Rock Rant. This week we are talking about whether people are going too far to show their love for their favourite bands?!
Now we’re sure you all watched the TV show a few weeks ago about One Direction fans and their craziness (we were slightly scared after watching it for sure!) and it made us think: how far is too far?! Some fans will wait after a show to try and meet their idols, some will follow them to hotels and recording studios and some people make it more permanent and get tattoos of their favourite bands and lyrics. But what is thought of as the norm now?!
Check out what some of our team think about fans and their love for their favourite bands.
Robbie Doran (Rock Writer)
Do people take their love for bands too far? Short answer is yes, because as with everything moderation is key, but there’s always the idiots that have to take it too far.
This is coming from a person with a Rise Against and Cancer Bats tattoos, but I have always seen tattooing as something that needs to be personal to yourself, not because you have something to prove. I spent a lot of time in the past decade listening to those bands and admire their ethics and how they portray themselves, not to mention they have cool logos! So, I allocated parts of my skin to portray my love for those bands, but they’re in concealed places and there for me.
However when people have a whole sleeve of the masks of Slipknot members, I can’t help but think they have some ulterior motive behind that tattoo. And then when people camp outside their idols houses and collect their dirty underwear, it’s a bit much!
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with really digging what a band does, it’s what makes music so enjoyable! People just need to recognize when their love for a band is going from something personal to them, to borderline insane.
Rhian Westbury (Rock Editor)
In the age of social media it seems that some peoples obsessions with their favourite musicians is going slightly overboard. When I was a teenage first going to live shows even the notion of waiting for a band after the show around the back was a big concept. They were real people and needed their own time to relax and I didn’t fancy standing in the cold (and usually rain!) to catch just a glimpse.
Now it’s unusual to leave a show and not see hordes of people waiting outside, and this isn’t just for the big bands either. Watching the One Direction TV show a few weeks ago really worried me in all honestly. Okay it’s one thing going to see a band and maybe meeting them, but does going to bands hometowns in a hope of seeing their second cousin twice removed, or following them to their hotel after a show on their well deserved day off really make you any more than a stalker?! Bands and artists are people as well and I know for a fact if I went outside my house and saw several teenage girls camped out ready to run screaming after me as I left for a days work i’d be freaked out!
Band tattoos are another thing; they’re something I haven’t quite come to terms with. I understand that everyone has a band who has helped them, changed their life or even saved them in some way. But are all these people still going to feel the same in twenty years time when no one has heard of Black Veil Brides or Fearless Vampire Killers?! Personally I think it’s going too far and in most times I think it’s just for bands attention, every week without fail you see another attempt of self publication in Kerrang! where someone has sent in a photo of their latest My Chemical Romance or Biffy Clyro tattoo. Come on guys think it through! I know when I was 16 and wanted my first tattoo I wanted the My Passion heart but my parents wouldn’t let me (damn them!) But looking back I am bloody glad that they stopped me!
People need to grasp the difference between appreciation and obsession and sadly too many people out there are tipping too much on one side.
Natalie Gardiner (Rock Writer)
Back in my teen years, the closest I could get to a band was reading an in-depth interview in Kerrang! and standing (probably near the back) at a gig to see them in the flesh. In that way, I could imagine them to be exactly the people I wanted them to, without ever being shown otherwise.
Nowadays, with so much access to their beloved musicians, through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it.. fans seem to think that they’re almost owed something, as if that person is a close, personal friend of theirs who’s being neglectful if they don’t have the time or the energy to hang out with them. After Black Veil Brides headlined Brixton Academy, I saw one girl posting on the band’s Facebook page about her experience of trying to meet them afterwards. Needless to say, the lead singer had retired to the tour bus, understandably after being on the road for several weeks, in a foreign country, maybe, for once, he wanted an early night.
This girl went on to publicly name said lead singer’s supposed girlfriend, comparing her to the girlfriends of other band members, none of whom she knew personally, and calling the girlfriend out as being the reason that the singer hadn’t met her. Ignoring the fact that the private life of the singer should by no means become public knowledge, just because the band have become successful, so what if he had been phoning her? He’s away from home, he was just as likely to have been phoning his parents as he was his partner.
What fans seem to forget, is that though they might feel as if they know the band, the members are simply human beings, with their own lives. No matter how much they might follow the group, or how many times they meet them, they’re not a part of the musician’s private lives, and should learn to respect that fact, instead of constantly harassing them in the hopes of being otherwise.
To quote Sapphire from Almost Famous “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts”. Can’t we just get back to that, when it was just about the music?
That’s just what we think, have your say here! Have you got a band tattoo and think you’ll love it forever or do you think they’re a waste?! Let us know!
