Having fans is the worst. Or is it?

March 11, 2015 9:59 AM

Can you think of any expressions of artist/fan ambivalence or outright antagonism?

A couple that come to mind are the Fan Song from Metalocalypse, and The Singer Addresses His Audience by the Decemberists.

posted by umbú to Media & Arts (23 answers total)

Pearl Jam became rather contemptuous of fans and/or their popularity, intentionally recording albums following their massive "Ten" and "Vs." to drive away casual fans and erode their mass appeal.
posted by wats at 10:08 AM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tears for Fears: Goodnight Song
Rush: Limelight
posted by usonian at 10:14 AM on March 11, 2015

Haruki Murakami moved to the USA to escape his legions of fans in Japan. That's more a reaction to crazy Elvis-like fame, but there you go.
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2015

The last 3/4ths of The Wall by Pink Floyd is about exactly this.
posted by hobgadling at 10:18 AM on March 11, 2015

Frank Zappa was supposedly famous for just straight-up despising his fans.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:26 AM on March 11, 2015

Stage Fright by The Band
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 10:47 AM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Alec Guinness hated Star Wars and its fandom:

In the final volume of the book A Positively Final Appearance (1997), Guinness recounts grudgingly giving an autograph to a young fan who claimed to have watched Star Wars over 100 times, on the condition that the boy promise to stop watching the film, because, as Guinness told him, "this is going to be an ill effect on your life." The fan was stunned at first, but later thanked him (though some sources say it went differently). Guinness is quoted as saying: "'Well,' I said, 'do you think you could promise never to see Star Wars again?' He burst into tears. His mother drew herself up to an immense height. 'What a dreadful thing to say to a child!' she barked, and dragged the poor kid away. Maybe she was right but I just hope the lad, now in his thirties, is not living in a fantasy world of secondhand, childish banalities." Guinness grew so tired of modern audiences apparently knowing him only for his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi that he would throw away the mail he received from Star Wars fans without reading it.

posted by Etrigan at 10:49 AM on March 11, 2015

james-destiny calling
posted by steinwald at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2015

Jim Morrison hated his fans.
posted by Flood at 11:07 AM on March 11, 2015

Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories"

William Shatner tells Trekkies to "get a life".
posted by Quisp Lover at 11:28 AM on March 11, 2015

Does Biff's Question Song count? (Really, I look for any excuse to share this, even though it's probably more lighthearted than what you're looking for.)
posted by pitrified at 11:31 AM on March 11, 2015

Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame?
posted by kenko at 11:39 AM on March 11, 2015

Dave Chappelle in Hartford. The antagonism goes both ways.
posted by clawsoon at 11:48 AM on March 11, 2015

Henry Rollins had problems with the Black Flag fans, what with their spitting on and attacking of him. It's not entirely antagonistic, but there's a lot of accounts of audience attacks in Get in the Van.
posted by ignignokt at 11:51 AM on March 11, 2015

I only Play for Money Pearl Jam and the Frogs (who wrote it).
posted by zenon at 12:44 PM on March 11, 2015

Stewart Lee, the comedian, routinely mocks and derides at least half of his audience - in some sets of his it has made up a substantial part of his act. It's hard to tell how much of that is the character "Stewart Lee, the comedian", and how much is his personal opinion, but he very obviously has a strong dislike toward popular mainstream entertainment in most of its forms.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:01 PM on March 11, 2015

The name "LCD Soundsystem," as in Lowest Common Denominator, seems to be a self-referential dig as as well as a dig at whoever might like the band.
posted by Leontine at 2:45 PM on March 11, 2015

One of the weirder ones I've heard is that "With or Without You" is actually about Bono's relationship with his audience. ("And you give yourself away...")

There's also "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.
posted by Violet Hour at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2015

Nrivana's 'In Bloom'.
posted by pompomtom at 4:38 PM on March 11, 2015

"You try to make amends without defending
Perhaps pretending you never saw the eyes
Of grown men of twenty five
Who all followed as you walked and asked for autographs
Or kissed you on the cheek
And you never could believe they really loved you"
Janis Ian - Stars
posted by peakcomm at 5:33 PM on March 11, 2015

Bruce Cockburn, who's been performing for ~50 years, has a good one in Pacing the Cage

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

posted by Jesse the K at 7:14 PM on March 11, 2015

Stephen King's Misery?
posted by doctor tough love at 9:21 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

In his article entitled "Too much talk for one planet: why I'm reducing my word emissions", Charlie Brooker cites fans (specifically their comments) as one of the main reasons he temporarily stopped writing his Guardian column. An article was published in Private Eye magazine (falsely, he says) reporting his request to switch off the reader comments underneath his articles.

"Reader comments form part of the overall wordstorm described above, and it's true I'm not a huge fan of them...

When it comes to comments, despite not being as funny as I never was in the first place, I get an incredibly easy ride from passing wellwishers compared with any woman who dares write anything on the internet anywhere about anything at all, the ugly bitch, boo, go home bitch go home. Getting slagged off online is par for the course, and absorbing the odd bit of constructive criticism is character-building. The positive comments are more unsettling. Who needs to see typed applause accompanying an article? It's just weird. I don't get it."
posted by guy72277 at 2:38 AM on March 13, 2015