ABSTRACT
This chapter explores popular music fandom as a form of complex cultural engagement. While all fandom is nuanced, so far popular music fans have tended to be considered in only relatively simple terms, almost exclusively in terms of musical approval. Fan studies scholars across many disciplines emphasized the importance of fandom in the creation and assertion of personal and communal identities. In practice, popular music fandom is much more nuanced than is outlined in the profiles above. Anti-fandom, as an acknowledgement of the relative displeasure to be found in popular music, does need to be formally admitted to popular music studies. While anti-fandom is yet to be engaged with in any depth in popular music studies, in practice it can be easily observed. Anti-fandom is present in live and online popular music discourse, but it has also been built into popular music industrial infrastructure. Most obviously this comes with the marketing, creation and demarcation of alternative or indie popular music.
