World of Weird Al Yankovic

scottidog @ Nov 3 2006, 05:35 PM wrote: But that doesn't mean that the real fans have to encourage it by posting them online. I haven't seen them yet, because I haven't gotten the album yet. I'm curious, but I'll wait until I get the album.

oh my gosh! when are you getting it?

scottidog @ Nov 3 2006, 04:35 PM wrote: But that doesn't mean that the real fans have to encourage it by posting them online. I haven't seen them yet, because I haven't gotten the album yet. I'm curious, but I'll wait until I get the album.

No offence intended but what exactly is a “real fan”? That’s a term that’s always confused me. I’ve become a fan (and spent money on) many artist that I discovered through downloading. Does that make me not a real fan? Are the people who’ve enabled me to experience new music not real fans for trying to share music they enjoy?

American Pie @ Nov 3 2006, 07:01 PM wrote: No offence intended but what exactly is a “real fan”? That’s a term that’s always confused me. I’ve become a fan (and spent money on) many artist that I discovered through downloading. Does that make me not a real fan? Are the people who’ve enabled me to experience new music not real fans for trying to share music they enjoy?

I've always defined "real fan" as someone who supports their favorite artist(s) by actually buying their material, whether physically (CDs) or virtually (iTunes, etc.). I don't think it matters whether you discovered the artist through illegal downloading, as long as you actually buy their stuff later. So that makes you a real fan. But about sharing the music, that doesn't make them "not real fans" either, because they're telling others why they like the artist and see if they like them or not, thereby encouraging them to buy the artist's stuff. But to me, a "not real fan" is someone who claims to be a fan of an artist, but doesn't buy their officially released stuff (like singles and albums). It just seems kind of hypocritical to me. For example, my friend, who is a big My Chemical Romance "fan" (I think I've mentioned her before), claims her love and fandom of MCR every chance she gets, but she has yet to give any money to them by actually buying their CDs. I told her what I thought of that, and she got all huffy and dismissed it. So I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

What she said.

"Real fan" is certainly a relative term.

I agree that you really need to support the artist to be a "real fan". If you've never bought a single one of the artist's albums, you really can't call yourself a real fan.

I agree Kevbo. I never considered myself a true Al fan till I got my first album, RWS.