FAN GIRLS AS THE BACKBONE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Most of the time when the term “fangirl” is thrown around it comes with certain connotations. These are associated with young women screaming and crying for an idol, being obsessive, crazy, annoying, hysteric, cringe; the list goes on. The truth is, fangirl culture has been around for a long time, this phenomenon started to ease its way into modern culture when singers like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra rose to fame. But it wasn't until The Beatles gained popularity that a mass wave of fangirls emerged and cemented their role in society as an official thing.

It’s important to note that Fangirls are not casual listeners, fangirls dedicate most of their day to day life to a band or singer, and they are the ones buying physical copies, streaming their music, tweeting in their fan account, calling radio stations, decorating their room with merch, etc.

As aforementioned , singers like Elvis and The Beatles are now considered part of pop culture and one of the biggest influences for today’s music industry. But who was there listening to them before they were considered cool? Young women were. They were the ones going to concerts, they were the ones buying records, they were the ones buying the merchandise. Elvis and The Beatles became the icons they are now because of this group of young women which were ridiculed for admiring them at the time. It wasn't until grown men decided The Beatles were good that they became cool to listen to, but they were not mocked when they said how much they liked them. It was the young fangirls that took the blow.

This mockery from society directed to fangirls comes from a place of sexism. In middle school it wasn’t considered cool to like One Direction, Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. Society always portrayed the “cool girl” as the one who liked sports, disliked pink, and hated make up; it all follows the trope of “not being like other girls”. And now that we’ve grown up and realized how absurd that is that we are now openly talking about our interests. For the big group of people outside this culture it's almost impossible to wrap their heads around how devoted young girls can be. So now the excuse became that they're only fans because they must be attracted to the artist. Getting society to understand that being a fangirl gives young girls a sense of identity, of belonging, relatability that is almost impossible to find, but no matter what, fangirls will always be looked at as obsessive.

“Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.” said Harry Styles in an interview for Rolling Stone magazine in 2017. This shows that no matter what teenage girls like, they will constantly struggle to be taken seriously. Young girls were the ones who saw the potential in singers like Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, which both of those singers are currently considered the top musicians in the music industry. In Taylor Swift’s case, it took her until her fifth album “1989” to be taken seriously. It took another six years for her to release “Folklore” for people to finally acceptTaylor Swift as one of the greatest songwriters.

When put in perspective, even the greatest musicians reached success because of fangirls. Even in today's pop culture, artists like Conan Gray, Olivia Rodrigo and BTS, work hard toward building fanbases it's part of the reason why they are so popular, because they just get it. They know that at the end of the day the fans streaming music, selling out arenas, calling radio stations to play their music, making trends on tiktok and twitter, putting posters and QR codes around the city, the ones buying vinyls and cds, are the fangirls. Fangirls make or break an artist.

It's time society stops diminishing and treating fangirls as the punchline. Without them we wouldn't have musicians like Elvis, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, One direction, Justin bieber, and more. These girls are not crazy, they're just excited. If anything, it just teaches them life skills. Having an update account dedicated to an artist, teaches them communication, teamwork and much more. It pushes them to work to meet a goal, but they still don't get enough credit. Sometimes these fangirls do better jobs than a professional marketing team by making edits on tiktok and dances to songs, but if they openly admit to doing those things, it's still considered cringe.

The end goal for all young girls in the world is not being obliged to hide our enthusiasm for things. Its infuriating to be invalidated for liking things with a predominantly female audience. It's even more sickening when the media, even though being aware that fangirls carry pop culture, still try to profit off of them when dramatizing stories and acting like camping outside a venue or arena is the most crazy thing to ever do. Being a fangirl is feeling loved and understood by people you don't even know just because you like the same singer, it’s fun, it’s comforting, which is something society lacks when it comes to women.