Foucault News

CAVALCANTI, R.C.T., SOUZA-LEÃO, A.L.M., MOURA, B.M.
Hipsters versus posers: Fannish split in the indie music world
(2021) Revista de Administracao Mackenzie, 22 (3)

DOI: 10.1590/1678-6971/ERAMG210202

Abstract
Purpose: Web 2.0 technologies have enhanced relational dynamics in fan communities. Indie music fans significantly identify themselves with the genre and participate in these communities within a music industry reinvention scenario. Based on the Foucauldian perspective, by sharing knowledge about media products, fans manifest truths capable of expressing subjectivities – parrhesia, a way of mutually affecting different truths. Thus, the aim of the present study is to analyze how parrhesia is operated in interactions among indie music fans.

Originality/value: The present research expands an important theoreticalinvestigative path in the consumer culture theory (CCT) field by adopting Michel Foucault’s later theoretical cycle, which addresses the construction of subjectivities.

Design/methodology/approach: Netnography of interactions among indie music fans was carried out in one of the largest online discussion forums on the topic. Findings: Heated discussions observed in the investigated community often create a split that shows a dispute focused on defining what being an indie music fan means. Based on disruptive parrhesia anchored in moral backgrounds associated with erudition and collectivism versus hedonism and individuality, self-declared true fans and those who seek fun establish alter-subjectivities as hipsters and posers.

Author Keywords
Fans; Indie music; Netnography; Parrhesia; Subjectivity