Product Description

With stories of hysterical teenagers and obsessive fans killing for their heroes, fans and fandom get a bad press. The Adoring Audience looks deeper into fan culture, particularly as it relates to identity, sexuality and textual production.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37065 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Back Cover
What distinguishes fans from general audiences? Who is most likely to become a fan? What lies behind the stigma of fandom? This fascinating collection of essays is the first scholarly work to explore the complex relationship between fans, stars and the media industry. The contributors (a fan writer, a team of popular journalists as well as eminent academics and researchers) argue that fandom is a coherent and important subject for critical inquiry. The book breaks traditional stereotypes of fandom and reveals how fans actively influence and produce popular culture. Key Features: * The book covers all the social aspects of fandom: sexual preference; class; age; gender; generation and ethnicity. * It focuses on the hysterical female response to the Beatles, female fantasies of Elvis and 'groupies'. * The contributors examines fan letters, music production and the extent to which the television industry regards fans as valuable to their enterprise.

Customer Reviews

If Mark Gatiss read this book.... ;)
This book identifies the aspects of fandom which are shared by all of us; wondering why, in light of this fact, "fans" are often villified and misrepresented by the media. It draws some very interesting conclusions, and works against people's pre-conceptions of the "deranged" fan. After the problems which have supposedly occurred with celebrities turning against their fans on the internet, the points raised by this book become even more poignant.