Of Dedication And Insanity

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Anonymous

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Chuck Klosterman of The Guardian wrote a fairly interesting paper on fandom.  I picked the following excerpt and did some highlighting of my own:


I've concluded that the following 10 artists have the most dedicated, least rational fan followings:

1. Slayer
2. Tori Amos
3. Sublime
4. Kiss
5. Bruce Springsteen
6. Black Sabbath (particularly the Tony Martin era, for some reason)
7. Jimmy Buffett
8. Iron Maiden
9. Guided By Voices
10. Morrissey



I personally tend to think that dedication to a band to the point of following them on tour and attending every gig is quite irrational -- and collecting religiously almost every single item closely or remotely connected to the band is even worse!

So, do you think of yourself as dedicated and irrational? Or rationally dedicated?

Do you own the Maiden condoms from the Fear Of The Dark tour? Would you buy the toilet rolls that were in the Abbey Road studios when Maiden recorded there if they surfaced on eBay?

I'm listening...  :smartarse:
 
Maverick said:
I personally tend to think that dedication to a band to the point of following them on tour and attending every gig is quite irrational
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean:
Every gig of the whole freakin' tour is over-the-top indeed.
But one gig per every single tour is a true pleasure. To see Maiden play is 9 out of 10 times a great experience.

This year, I'll visit two gigs for the first time, one of them being at Wacken Open Air, where I expect many other interesting bands as well, and it would be cool to meet Perun (and other forummers?).

Still, I rather see Maiden too often instead of not enough. That's in my eyes:
From Ignorance To Oblivion
(link is off-topic, just wanted to show where I got my inspiration from, for a possible counter-"line" for this topic title)
 
I would consider myself a dedicated Iron Maiden fan. I would never see more than one show per tour unless they were changing the set list for each show (dramatically) or unless invited to a very cool location by a good friend. I used to have a pretty extensive collection of Maiden items but most of them are gone now and they weren't beyond albums, singles, t-shirts and posters. I now only have the basics.

I find it interesting that Jimmy Buffett is so low in the top ten. His fans are lunatics. (Sorry if that offends anyone here but I don't mean it in the literal sense). The Grateful Dead, historically, had an insane following. I think they wrote the book on fan irrationality and propensity for them to follow shows.
 
I think it's a fair assessment.  I mean, we have all seen on this forum the insane Steve Harris ass kissing.  We've also seen some idiot Blaze haters come and go over the years...and we all know about the Church of Adrian Smith (Follow the Light!).  However, I sometimes imagine Maidenfans as a rock of well-thought out, rational fans in a sea of idiocy.
 
SlayerRetard666>:[ said:
SLAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

*CRUSHES BEER CAN AGAINST FOREHEAD*
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Anyway, yeah, I'd consider myself a dedicated fan, but not to the point of idiocy. I have a moderate Maiden collection, nothing too over the top, and there are lots of things that I'd rather spend my money on than Maiden merchandise or vinyl or Blaze's pubes.

I should be seeing Maiden twice on this current tour, at Graspop and in Paris, within 2 days of each other, which I really am looking forward to. Originally I had just planned on seeing them in Paris, but with the amazing line up of Graspop this year, I just had to. Twice or three times a tour is not a ridiculous amount of times to see a band, especially if they're Maiden.
 
I don't see anything wrong with seeing the same band twice or three times on the same tour, but following them around the world is just crazy.  Same goes for collections; owning every CD and a moderate amount of t-shirts (max. one for every day of the week? :p ), posters, etc. isn't bad, but slavishly collecting everything with an Iron Maiden logo is.

I would consider myself a dedicated but not irrational Maiden fan.  I'm seeing them twice on this tour on consecutive days, but that's because I've never seen them live before and want to make the most of it.  I own all their studio albums too, but I wouldn't buy more than one or two on vinyls if I came across some, since I'm not really a collector.  I just have the CDs for the music, not the value of having all their work. 
 
Dedicated? Yes

Insanity? Yes, but not if it comes to Maiden.

I like seeing them every tour ( I wish you all had them play within a reasonable travel distance each tour). And I do own most of the albums, I only skilpped some "best of" albums. But like somebody said above: I am not a collector. So if bags with the air they breathed are to be sold, it will not be me that is buying.
 
I'm not dedicated at all. Since I went to Apocalyptica and Metallica I won't be able to go to Maiden this Monday.. well that and since this week is going to be hell work wise I rather rest. I go when I can.
 
I guess my dedication stops short at simply buying all original CD/DVD releases and any download they offer not on any release (or only available on vinyl). But I tend to shy away from Best ofs..... I will also try to get as many boots as I can.
 
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