Rock Music Groupies, Fandom Hierarchy, and Gender Resistance in a Subcultural Social Media Community in China
(2022) MKVM13 20221Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- The thesis focuses on the combination of the rock groupie subculture and online community. It aims to explore how groupie, as an extreme form of a fan, uses subcultural capital to shape the fandom hierarchy in an online community and how social media play the role in groupies' online participation and gender resistance towards gender stereotypes rooted in rock culture in China.
To better explore the relationship between groupie subculture, fandom, and gender, the thesis takes the Douban group named “We represent the moon to destroy rock musicians with bad intentions” as a typical case study. As a private group, the Moon Group was founded 14 years ago as a “secret corner” of Chinese rock music culture, where marginalized female rock fans... (More) - The thesis focuses on the combination of the rock groupie subculture and online community. It aims to explore how groupie, as an extreme form of a fan, uses subcultural capital to shape the fandom hierarchy in an online community and how social media play the role in groupies' online participation and gender resistance towards gender stereotypes rooted in rock culture in China.
To better explore the relationship between groupie subculture, fandom, and gender, the thesis takes the Douban group named “We represent the moon to destroy rock musicians with bad intentions” as a typical case study. As a private group, the Moon Group was founded 14 years ago as a “secret corner” of Chinese rock music culture, where marginalized female rock fans and rock musicians gather to discuss intimate experiences between groupie and rock musicians. On the one hand, rock fans own the opportunity to communicate and interact with each other; on the other hand, due to the fragmentation and mobile nature of the Internet，the group members’ digital performances, fan participation, and self-identification become more and more ambivalent and diverse with the development of rock culture in China.
The thesis applies qualitative analysis, including semi-structured interviews and qualitative textual analysis, to communicate with 11 group members and analysis the interview data. The thesis has three key findings. Firstly，subcultural capital not only can determine the group members’ status in this online community but also helps establish the standard order and fandom hierarchy in this online community. Additionally, through communicating and interacting with each other, the group members are constantly seeking status, and the power dynamic reflected in this online community is constantly being developed and (re)shaped. Finally, the gender resistance towards the gender stereotype rooted in the groupie subculture is reflected in group members’ digital performance in this online subcultural community. However, the group members’ practice and performance are a kind of partial and non-systematical gender resistance in the Chinese rock culture, which is dominated by men. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9079459
- author
- Ren, Miaolin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Rock music groupie, subcultural capital, fandom hierarchy, online community, gender resistance
- language
- English
- id
- 9079459
- date added to LUP
- 2022-07-14 08:27:44
- date last changed
- 2022-07-14 08:27:44
@misc{9079459,
abstract = {{The thesis focuses on the combination of the rock groupie subculture and online community. It aims to explore how groupie, as an extreme form of a fan, uses subcultural capital to shape the fandom hierarchy in an online community and how social media play the role in groupies' online participation and gender resistance towards gender stereotypes rooted in rock culture in China.
To better explore the relationship between groupie subculture, fandom, and gender, the thesis takes the Douban group named “We represent the moon to destroy rock musicians with bad intentions” as a typical case study. As a private group, the Moon Group was founded 14 years ago as a “secret corner” of Chinese rock music culture, where marginalized female rock fans and rock musicians gather to discuss intimate experiences between groupie and rock musicians. On the one hand, rock fans own the opportunity to communicate and interact with each other; on the other hand, due to the fragmentation and mobile nature of the Internet，the group members’ digital performances, fan participation, and self-identification become more and more ambivalent and diverse with the development of rock culture in China.
The thesis applies qualitative analysis, including semi-structured interviews and qualitative textual analysis, to communicate with 11 group members and analysis the interview data. The thesis has three key findings. Firstly，subcultural capital not only can determine the group members’ status in this online community but also helps establish the standard order and fandom hierarchy in this online community. Additionally, through communicating and interacting with each other, the group members are constantly seeking status, and the power dynamic reflected in this online community is constantly being developed and (re)shaped. Finally, the gender resistance towards the gender stereotype rooted in the groupie subculture is reflected in group members’ digital performance in this online subcultural community. However, the group members’ practice and performance are a kind of partial and non-systematical gender resistance in the Chinese rock culture, which is dominated by men.}},
author = {{Ren, Miaolin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Rock Music Groupies, Fandom Hierarchy, and Gender Resistance in a Subcultural Social Media Community in China}},
year = {{2022}},
}