Back in the day we connected with our favorite artists by buying all their records and going to see their concerts. In doing that we felt a close affinity with our heroes, it was like we had a part of them. Some of us, myself included wanted even more so we'd buy their bootlegs. I have inferior quality recordings by Neil Young, Dylan, Tom Petty etc that I paid almost double the price of an album for just because I wanted more of them. The point being it didn't matter what it cost it was needing to have as much as you could of them and about being a fan. As a 15 year old I went backstage to meet Led Zeppelin and I felt I had it all. I won't recount the story here in case I already have but I might come back and devout an entire blog to it, maybe several. Let me tell you it was worth it, a defining moment for any teenager and an ultra defining moment for me. As a fan it's something you don't ever forget and especially as the years go by you start to understand what those moments mean to you and how much music mattered.
In those days you paid for everything, you didn't tape your friends records or if you did it was because you were going on some dumb camping holiday where you had nothing to plug your turntable in to so you needed everything to be battery operated. But above all else we cared about our artists and we wanted to be a part of that success, we wanted to help. We wanted heroes, the bands were our heroes and whatever part of them we could have we did. The pleasure they gave us we wanted to pass on to out friends, we wanted to share what we had discovered. It was important to stake your claim, to let people know you were first but after that then whoever you could play those records to you were round like a shot. Endless evenings spent huddled round the turntable watching it go round as though your life depended on it, waiting for that next track. 'No stop, listen to this one first' as you carefully picked up the needle and placed it on another track too impatient for it to take its natural course. Simple pleasures but totally fulfilling ones. Music was your life.
Fans can get to their artists now with social networking and that can only be a good thing. You can talk to more artists than ever and the ones who reciprocate are the ones most likely too. No artist today is too big to talk to their fans. Even good old Bono said, 'without our fans we have no job.' Before it was backstage or catch the band leaving the venue, a quick autograph and that was about it. Some had fan clubs but it was usually just a general letter to all the fans. How cool now that someone could write to you. But remember if they do to be courteous, don't think they're there to instant message you for the next 5 hours. You could turn in to an obsession and make them pull away. They have lives even if you don't!
Plenty more to say on this subject but we'll save it for another day. Be gone, I have things to do.
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