“An enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.” is how dictionary.com describes the term fan. When it comes to the music business, an artist’s fans might be the most important part of their career. The math is easy: if there is no one to spend money on an artist, CDs are not bought and concert tickets are not sold, there is no career to continue. An artist can create the best music ever heard or have the greatest look in the world, but without fans, they are nowhere.
However, while fans are usually cherished by their artists (even if some of them have a rather funny way of showing it), things aren’t always easy. Innocent admiration can become obsession and degrade into plain stalking, where death threats are – unfortunately – not an uncommon thing.
But even while they are still in the innocent admiration phase, they can pose quite a threat for artists. An example of this would be the case with Johnny’s Entertainment artist Tomohisa Yamashita while on holiday with a few friends in Korea. It seemed like a harmless event, so no bodyguards were sent to accompany the boys. Everything seemed to be fine for the young entertainer until some fans spotted him and via internet and mobile, contacted each other in no time. The result was a frenzied chaos waiting for Yamapi at the airport in the form of about a thousands fans hoping to catch a glimpse of their idol.
Fortunately, he managed to get away from the crowd in one piece. The same can’t be said about his clothes, and he had been repeatedly hit in the face with harmless gifts turned assault items .
Amongst the fans too, things sometimes get out of hand. How many times have found yourself cursing fan girls at a concert because you couldn’t hear what the artist was trying to say, they were screaming so loud? Or thought to yourself that these men were on stage to make music, not to get their crotches groped by horny women?
Hatred between fans is often quite apparent, not only on the internet but also in real life, where instances of animosity are becoming more prevalent. One case concerned a girl who traveled to Germany to see the band Versailles during their European tour. She was pushed the entire time and repeatedly kicked in the hollow of her knees, and was told by fellow fans that people dressed up in Lolita clothing like her weren’t welcome at ‘their’ concert. Would they have told guitarist Hizaki and bassist Jasmine You the same had they appeared in their elaborate period dresses that form part of the Lolita culture? At the end of the concert, the poor girl came away with numerous bruises and a stolen wallet.
Many fans will do anything within their power to be just that little bit closer to their idol. When miyavi came to Europe for the first time, he himself even asked the frantic fans a few times to stop pushing and to move back. Unfortunately, few adhered to this request, and as a result a girl was knocked unconscious. One can only imagine what would have happened had the security guards failed to notice this and pull her body from the crowd. Most likely, she would have been seriously injured.
But this phenomenon isn’t something that can only be found at JRock concerts; at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, nine people died as a result of being shoved down and trampled by other festival-goers. Although this happened in a crowd of 50 000 people, and the Japanese overseas music concerts have not reached this number of attendees yet, one can only pray that similar accidents will never happen at J-music concerts!
Do you also have the feeling that things seem to be getting out of hand? Or have you been in a similar situation that you would like to share? Please feel free to leave a comment!
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Kay is the English version manager, aka editor in chief/executive editor and one of JaME’s vice-presidents. Between her job, second BA studies and random language courses, she’s able to find time to shout at her darling team members and write an article or two once in a while. If that isn’t enough, she runs a JRock company in her home country and occasionally organizes concerts of well-known Japanese rock acts.
Although she got into Japanese music through visual kei, she has now moved onto different sorts of music such as pop, alternative/indie rock and will talk your ears off about anything related to reggae in Japan. More information on this creature can be found at 
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Well its a reason i dont like some part of the fanbase……it happens indeed in other scenes but not at this scale, or it is a similar fanbase.
I also dont enjoy concerts as much as i used too because of that reason, The sister of a friend of my was kicked unconscious at Jshock while girugamesh played, i received a lot of elbows in my back at a few concerts in Germany….i have tons of stories but i just come to the conclusion that the overreacting fangirls are a pest at concerts for people that just want to enjoy themselves. The Visual scene is the only one i came across where i saw this kind of retarded behaviour.
I have to say that I absolutely agree with you. Fans do get out of hand quite a bit. Acting like an immature, hormonal child is no way to show respect to artists you like. It also tends to ruin the experience for other people who aren’t like this. I would hate to think that any artist coming overseas would think that all their fans are like that.
As for concerts being violent.. well.. I’m of the opinion that rock concerts should not be pc and organized, and people should move like crazy and rock out. If you cannot handle being up front or near the pit, then you should stay somewhere safer. ( I got in a tiff at one of the RTOC shows over this) HOWEVER.. there is no excuse for intentionally hurting your fellow concert goer, or not helping them get to safety if they need to. Somewhere where there is loud rock music and lots of people jammed together is not a safe situation and people should be aware of that. But also, you have all these people there, for the love of a particular artist, there should be enough a sense of community just in that to not be-little people, rip them off or harm then on purpose.
It always slays me whenever fans don’t think that an artist is an actual human being with feelings. I seriously think some fans think the artist is out there ONLY to please them — Regardless of how the artist might feel. Perfect example being the first night of the X JAPAN reunion concerts. After Yoshiki collapsed, there were some fans angry that the concert ended so abruptly. All that kept running through my head was that the man just collapsed from exhaustion and you are concerned that you didn’t get your moneys worth?? It’s just amazing how self centered some people can be!
I do somewhat agree that if you are going to be in the pit, that you need to gear up and realize that people are going to get a bit crazy — Although, some people (like me) just want to see their favourite artist closer and really get a feel for the music! But everyone should just try to have a good time in the end.. And not beat each other up over a guitar pick…
best. post. ever.
Don’t you miss the good old days of when someone got knocked to the floor, people around him/her would actually help that person up?
But I think part of the problem is that Japanese bands so rarely go overseas (or at least, at the moment they’re still not touring that much overseas), so fans are so desperate for their one shot at seeing the band, they’ll forsake common decency.