One Direction - is this a legit new threat wrt to a new boy band invasion? y/n

why the "I know, I know" caveat w/r/t gevinson? does she not hold caché around here?

i'm not aware that ilx has any particular stance on tavi's cachet or lack thereof?

an admission: i have not heard the new 1d song yet, i think because based on gifs on tumblr it seems to just be the experience of putting your fist in your mouth so no-one can hear you hyperventilate.

I realised the other day that I hadn't knowingly heard a 1D song, then I listened and realised I'd basically heard all of them.

Regarding the debate upthread, not all threats are the same because not all groups of people feel equally threatened. Which is why Stella Creasy calls the police on hers while GQ are able to put up a blog post and laugh about it, the gulf in perception is enormous.

(does she not hold caché around here?)

I basically have no idea who does and doesn't and because of this I have to automatically use a caveat about liking anyone's work. INTERNET TASTE POLICING IN 2013 BOYS AND GIRLS

that's cool. it just sounded like she had a history of being ragged on here from the way you phrased it. of what i know of her work, she's always came across as a prodigiously talented and intelligent person to me.

Ppl love Tavi

<3 c# major. great posts!

^

Is Harry considered cute because he looks like a Christmas Claymation elf come to life?

lol @ hermey styles

http://www.newnownext.com/one-direction-dolls/08/2013/

http://media.salon.com/2013/08/ku-bigpic-620x412.jpg

Oops.

did we forget the lessons of the korean air thing that fast?

Some seriously dodgy vocals on this performance at the Teen Awards the other day. Harry sounds like he's pushing out a painful shit and Nail clearly has never heard the song before. The best part is the look of panic on the face of poor Louis as he's about to do his solo. People have been commenting on the fact it looks like he says " Oh shit" as he realises it's his turn to sing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2H89ulLtqk

It's pretty obvious these guys are in desperate need of a break, shame they have a new movie and album to promote in the next few months that will probably do them all in.

harry's sort of singing this song just like i sing 1d songs at karaoke

Just when I thought hardcore 1D fans couldn't get any more disturbing, there's this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/16/one-direction-fans-documentary-larry-shippers-suicide-rumours_n_3766001.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

ehh, maybe i'm jaded by actually having grown up among adolescent girls, but wild rumours are pretty par for the course?

there was a big spate of pseudicide/suicide-rumour a few months ago when either harry or louis tweeted "harry is bullshit" and people went into frantic damage mode, in fact i thought we'd talked about that on ilx before?

if you are interested in 'spaces on the internet where teenagers tell each other to kill themselves' the larry-elounour ship war is pretty rich in awfulness.

tweeted 'larry is bullshit', i mean

haha that would have been amazing

it was a whole year ago! wow, what an evergreen:

http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/72016044.html

haha that would have been amazing

― OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY (DJP), Friday, August 16, 2013 2:16 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

'harry is bullshit' probably would have been glossed as a lovers' tiff or something, idk, the kids will brook no contradiction of this tru love story

i love that they've internalised the "boy bands are mere puppets of dastardly record labels" narrative so deeply that they refuse to accept any sign of the boys' agency and yet in a completely opposite way to the usual one

in a way it's no different from rockists who refuse to believe that pop singers write their own songs, it's just something to bolster a certain idea of the world

assuming the suicide rumours are untrue, i feel like - as amusing as some of the more hot-headed beliebers and directioners can be - the mock bafflement/fear exhibited on the part of the adult mainstream media is getting a bit absurd. the internet allows teenage ridiculousness to be a lot more viewable than before but i'm pretty sure everyone of my generation remembers girls in school being absolutely distraught and calling the take that helpline when they split up.

i love that they've internalised the "boy bands are mere puppets of dastardly record labels" narrative so deeply that they refuse to accept any sign of the boys' agency and yet in a completely opposite way to the usual one

yes!

although the "they are being kept in the closet by THE EVIL MANAGEMENT" narrative was apparently also beloved of the much smaller group who were convinced that Elijah Wood was dating one of his Lord of the Rings costars - i guess it's the most satisfying of reasons.

a girl at my school once gave an assembly about what it was like to have epilepsy, and one of her stories was about the time she had en epileptic attack because Take That split up.

I love that sentence.

xp Well of course it's because it's more visible. Adults are only a hashtag away from the bewildering intensity of teenage fandom. There's nothing mock about my bafflement - teenagers are baffling to their own parents let alone strangers. If you click on the hashtag even some 1D fans are pissed off about this because it makes them all look bad. Whenever something (the doc, the GQ feature) presents fans as unbalanced fanatics some of them retaliate by playing to the worst stereotypes.

Moving beyond pop music and considering the recent case of the female games designer who quit because of death threats based on a six-year-old interview, or the shit that George RR Martin gets from his weirder fans, it seems absurd to deny that some strands of fandom are unhealthy.

Beatlemania was heavily documented. I just really dislike the narrative that this is 'a new phenomenon', everybody but some serious magazine seems to get it. Also, contemp for 1Ders and beliebers usually reeks of sexism the same way hatred for football fanatism usually reeked of classism.

it seems absurd to deny that some strands of fandom are unhealthy

it seems absurd to think this is about fandom rather than people just being horrendous to each other!

Whenever something (the doc, the GQ feature) presents fans as unbalanced fanatics some of them retaliate by playing to the worst stereotypes.

this is a super important point tho-- i know i did this as a teenager, i feel like this is a very common reaction although it's completely nonsensical.

xp Of course a lot of it reeks of sexism and has done since Lisztomania but "nbd, same as it ever was" isn't interesting to me. There's a new dimension to online fandom that fan scholars have been studying for years and that does interest me.

but hardly any of the mainstream pieces i've seen on this bother to engage with online fandom at all - they focus on the wacky end of it, they don't discuss the multiplicity of it, they don't discuss the complicated social interactions/politics that drive it, they don't even bother getting to grips with online stan slang (that tends way towards exaggeration).

"look how cray-cray teenage girls are" is NOT good analysis or a fully accurate reflection of what is going on, basically.

Well I'm not defending any of the mainstream articles about it. It's not about taking sides.

it's the convergence of a few things -- the general tendency on the internet for people to be massively thin-skinned while expecting everyone else to be absurdly thick-skinned, the standard monstrosity of the teenager learning how to interact in society by appalling trial and error, the wildness of gangs. it is interesting! i like thinking about how they come together! but... it's not "disturbing", particularly.

think of the rumours there were about manics fans back in the day!

but you guys they are seriously being so cray-cray right now.

#RIPLarryShippers So sad to hear that 42 beautiful directioners committed suicide over a stupid documentary, are happy now Channel 4 ??

We lost 42 directioners over ONE stupid documentary. WE LOST THEM.. All because of channel 4. Hope your happy. #RIPLarryShippers

@Real_Liam_Payne we lost 42 of our true directioners who are now beautiful angels in heaven #RIPLarryShippers you will be 4eva loved x2

CHANNEL 4 KILLED MY KIND. May you all live in peace, you beautiful 28 Larry Shippers. Forever in our hearts. ❤#RIPLarryShippers

xp Personally I find it uncomfortable but that's probably because I've never had obsessive fan tendencies so I have a hesitant fascination with that mindset. I don't think it's disturbing in a moral panic way, no.

reddening's tweets kind of prove my earlier point though - they (by which I mean some not all) are angry at being portrayed as crazy but they behave in a way that confirms that portrayal. I'm not sure there aren't equivalent stereotypes about teenage boys obsessed with gaming or sci-fi anyway - it's just that in pop it tends to be girls and that brings out the sexist generalisations. Yes it's partly "ugh girls" but it's also "ugh teenagers".

also they concern troll like crazy! it's always like "calm down guys 42 people have killed themselves!!!! why can't we just get along!!!!!!"

they would like very much to be the mature and reasonable and kind voice in the crowd but they are SO EXCITED about the idea that people are killing themselves out there.

It reads to me as a genuine concern for their fans, not concern trolling. I was playing catch-up with a bunch of Youtube celebs this morning and I came away very impressed with how this new batch of pop gremlins have been making plays for online fandom in a way that seems driven by a desire to be a member of a digital community, a symbiotic member, like, maintaining a romantic relationship with their fans-- as opposed to an "advancement of brand". For example, I was looking at a Youtube celeb's Twitter feed this morning where dude was full-on asking his fans to write fan fiction about him, posting songs about maintaining online relationships. But it doesn't read as cynical, or money-driven, or perverted, but reads as an ego-driven desire for attention, like, maintaining a romantic relationship with a mass of people. I don't know if that makes any sense.

xp Yeah I realised that my first reaction - "Why don't you google first to see if there are any reliable reports of suicides?" - was a ridiculously adult response to teenagers' love of drama. I used to believe any old rumour if it felt exciting, especially if it involved death.

i've never had quite that level of obsession but i've certainly been around it (tori amos fandom, oh my) and the thing is...up close, apart from in a few loony cases, it seems less mental unhingement and more self-indulgence, and i certainly get how speaking in that language and saying OTT things would be attractive or funny, especially if you combine that with the teenage need to fit in. (and this is where the highly self-aware "obsessive" language of internet stans comes into play)

It reads to me as a genuine concern for their fans, not concern trolling.

oh dude all of these "42 people have killed themselves"/rip tweets are from teen 1 direction fans, not the group -- the group generally have the media training to stay the fuck away.

oh! I was under the impression this morning they'd responded

I like lex's posts this morning btw

It is curious that self-harm and the boyband have come together as phenomena - when i was a teenager, in those there 90s, self-harm and suicide were generally associated with angry/sad/alternative music, not with pop. Reading tweets where 1D fans tell each other to go home and cut themselves is vaguely unnerving, it makes me wonder when self-injury got so... mainstream. Though admittedly these lot are quite fringe.

I kind of wonder - this is also wrt the ask.fm stuff that's happening recently - whether it's not in part a reaction to the very salience of the anti-bullying conversation, and the anti-self-injury conversation, that telling someone to hurt themself has become such a popular form of bullying.

I don't know anything about these guys' music but 1 Direction member Liam's tweets this morning are really moving & right on imo

“Just so all of you know we love you guys and we know how dedicated you are and tbh we can't believe it that you gus [sic] spend all you time on us,” he tweeted. “We couldn't give a f--- what any documentary says there dramatized for entertainment and full of bulls--- anyway we all know... ... How hard you work for us and see it everyday at our shows, Let's all take a step back and think about what we/you have all achieved... You should be proud.”