I Scream Therefore I Fan? Music Audiences and Affective Citizenship

Abstract

Screaming has long been regarded, in the mainstream media, as the sine qua non of celebrity fandom. Pop music represents one of the obvious places where it is heard in the public sphere. Not all fans scream, but those who do are not doubted as fans since they express their position on the “knowing field” of fandom in an emotional way. As scholars, however, we rarely if ever discuss exclamations made by fans, instead focusing on their creativity, autonomy and collective intelligence. Taking popular music as its focus, what follows will develop in two sections. The first considers why screaming has been framed as a problematic activity. The second argues that fan screaming can alternatively be understood as a form of enunciative productivity, an indicator of totemic interest, and a mode of affective citizenship.