Is Stan Culture Killing the Music Industry?
A Picture of a Concert by Sebastian Ervi. Source: Pexels.
The rise of social media has shaped our society in numerous ways; from the way we speak, to the way we dress, it appears there is no part of our lives it has left untouched. Our engagement with music has similarly been impacted. Stans, who were once on the fringes of music fandom, have become ubiquitous. From the Barbz to the Eyekons, it seems every successful musician has a dedicated stan base. But what does this shift mean for the music industry?
From a musician’s point of view, this change could be a good thing. As a tribute to their idol, stans dedicate hours into promoting their music. With everything from streaming parties to TikTok edits, with enough consistency they have the power to propel you from moderate success to becoming a household name, as seen with Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise. The support of a stan is uncritical and unwavering; if you play your cards right you don’t even have to make good music. For stans, the quality of a project is irrelevant when faced with the task of ensuring the continued success of their chosen one. For example, despite a generally ambivalent critical response, Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ was met with staggering commercial success. With 432,000 sales in its first week, it was the fastest selling album in the UK since 2017.
This level of investment in a musician’s career shapes the way stans engage in music. Instead of engaging with the music as an artform, they approach music with the same clinical eye one uses for the stock market. A stan isn’t moved by emotive lyricism or experimental production. What matters is Spotify streams and charting on the Billboard 100 – a tangible and easily defined benchmark for success. With the rise of stan culture, this shallow engagement with music is everywhere. The average music fan online now finds themselves involved in arguments over album sales and merch pre-orders. Who cares how good the song actually is, it has over a million streams!
Stans’ investment in a musician, however, is a double-edged sword. The veneration of artists often results in the development of cults of personality. Many musicians, particularly those in the K-Pop industry, encourage the fanaticism of stan culture in the pursuit of commercial success. The ensuing deification can have disastrous impacts. When met with anything that counters the idealised image of their chosen musician, stans respond with a barrage of vitriol. This extends from criminal charges to a refusal to accept dehumanisation.
While it could be said stan culture has positives for musicians themselves, the same cannot be said for music critics. If the review is not overwhelmingly positive, it is read as a personal attack on the musician and stan alike. Attempts to initiate conversation music outside the realm of statistics is met with harassment by stans. In a world where music criticism is on the decline, it’d hard to see stan culture as anything but the final horseman of the apocalypse for music criticism. Criticism is an important aspect of our artistic landscape; how are artists expected to grow creatively with no incentive?
In a world of AI-generated singers and underpaid musicians, to say stan culture is killing the music industry might be hyperbolic. However, its negative impact cannot be understated. It might not be the killing blow, but it’s definitely put the industry on its knees.
