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“Anyone who Calls Muse a Twilight Band will be Shot on Sight”: Music, Distinction, and the “Interloping Fan” in the Twilight Franchise

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 36; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03007766.2013.798543

1740-1712

Rebecca Williams,

Digital Games and Media

Abstract This article explores the connection between media fandom and intertextuality by looking at online fans who have moved between the movie franchise Twilight and one rock band featured on the soundtrack. Drawing on Matt Hills's work on "inter-fandom" and using fandom for the rock band Muse as a case study, this article first examines positive examples of inter-fan movement and the pleasures of discovering new fandoms. It also shows what happens when such movement is blocked—when attempts to move beyond Twilight fandom into band fandom are discursively policed by existing followers of the artist. Second, the article relates these practices to "anti-fandom" (Gray) to consider how anti-fan discourses and practices emerge. It offers an example of what I am terming "accidental anti-fandom," where seemingly unrelated fan cultures are forced into opposition. Adopting the notion of the "interloping fan," the article explores distinctions operated by Muse fans to prevent the "infiltration" of their fandom by "interloping fans" of the Twilight series. Given the cultural dismissal of young female fans in some existing work on both music fandom and Twilight, the article draws on theories of distinction to show how hierarchies based on gender, age, and knowledge continue to perform crucial functions within contemporary fan cultures. Notes [1] For work on Twilight see Behm-Morawitz, Click, and Aubrey Behm-Morawitz, Elizabeth, Melissa A. Click, and Jennifer Stevens Aubrey. "Relating to Twilight: Fans' Reponses to Love and Romance in the Vampire Franchise." Click Aubrey, and Behm-Morawitz 137-54. Print [Google Scholar]; Click Click, Melissa A. "'Rabid,' 'Obsessed,' and 'Frenzied': Understanding Twilight Fangirls and the Gendered Politics of Fandom." Flow TV, Web. 2009. http://flowtv.org/2009/12/rabid-obsessed-and-frenzied-understanding-Twilight-fangirls-and-the-gendered-politics-of-fandom-melissa-click-university-of-missouri/ [Google Scholar]; Leogrande Leogrande, Cathy. "My Mother, Myself: Mother-Daughter Bonding via the Twilight Saga." Click, Aubrey, and Behm-Morawitz 155–72. Print [Google Scholar]; Mitchell Mitchell, Christine M. 2010. "Forks, Washington: From Farms to Forests to Fans". In The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films, Edited by: Clarke, Amy M. and Osborn, Marijane. 189–202. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Print [Google Scholar]; Olin-Scheller Olin-Scheller, Christina. 2011. "'I Want Twilight Information to Grow in my Head': Convergence Culture from a Fan Perspective". In Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media & a Contemporary Cultural Experience, Edited by: Larsson, Mariah and Steiner, Ann. 159–75. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Print [Google Scholar]; Kalviknes Bore and Williams Kalviknes Bore, Inger-Lise, and Rebecca Williams. "Transnational Twilighters: A Twilight Fan Community in Norway." Click, Aubrey, and Behm-Morawitz 189–205 [Google Scholar].