The Hater's Gonna Hate (hate hate hate hate)

"The internet has transformed what it means to be a music fan." ~ Nancy Baym, "Online Community and Fandom"

How did people ever get famous before the internet?
 
I was very young when cassette tapes were still in use. The music industry then switched to using CD's and then gradually to a purely digital format which, I would agree, changed the culture of the music industry. It was a lot more effort to be a fan back then. You had to physically meet with other fans and exchange information and franchise that you had gathered from various pre-internet sources. It's is hard for me to comprehend how much time devout fans sacrificed for certain bands back in the day. While I was reading Baym's article, she was talking about how it took years to accumulate all of the information, music, and other "stuff" from any given band. Does anyone else agree with me that bands had to be pretty amazing to become famous at all back then? It seems as though today it's so much easier to get famous, and so perhaps there is less skill required to do so. Or maybe it's just the opposite in today's world; fame in the music (or any other) industry may be much more competitive today than ever before due to the widespread availability of the tools needed to make music and share it.

Whichever the case, it is unquestionable that it is much simpler to be a "fan" in today's world. You can find any song you want on the internet. The information for any artist is available for everyone, and you can connect easily with other fans through forums. Franchise is advertised on the internet and can be shipped to you so that you never even have to go to a concert to get a T-shirt for a band. The things you would have had to accumulate through years of devoted fanhood can be found with the click of the button if you are able to find the right website, even music that you can download for free.

But I wonder ... has this new culture of fandom been more hurtful to the music industry or the individual artists involved? Nancy Baym claims that despite the negative side-effects of the fan industry, the benefits are mostly positive. Because fans can so easily share what they love about certain bands with others, fans are multiplied every day, even if some illegal downloading happens along the way. I would agree--fans generally help more than they do harm. However, there is something else that seems to have been born with the new culture of internet fandom: haters.

You've seen them. There are entire articles on the internet and in magazines dedicated to tearing down a certain artist or celebrity. It may have been around before the internet as "gossip," but it seems to be more prevalent now more than ever. People probably write them less because of how passionate they feel about hating on a certain celebrity and more because they know that it will attract many readers who will be drawn in by a title that bashes on someone who they admire or at least have heard about.

It's so annoying. Whenever I see articles like that, I just feel like slapping someone. Or look the people responsible in the eyes and say, "Get a life." They are literally earning money by criticizing others, often taking what they say out of context and making harsh judgements about them. Can you really ever make a judgement about anyone you have never met or tried to get to know before in your life? 

Taylor Swift seems to be one of the hardest-hit. If I were her, I would be seriously affected by this, but she at least appears to understand that "the hater's gonna hate." 

I was not expecting to rant about this pet peeve of mine in this post, but it seems to tie in with the theme of Baym's article. Fandom has grown and changed ever since the internet has become widely-used, so it's only logical that the opposite has also taken place--there are also more "haters." Their influence does seem to have at least a minor effect on how many fans a group can accumulate. However, there seems to be little or nothing to be done about it. It's the same case with the fans. Trying to control it is impossible. 

Or is it? How do artists go about dealing with that?