The relationship between musicians and their fans can be described as mutualism (symbiotic relationship), because both parties benefit from each other. Artistes create music that appeals to the different emotions of their fans, and in return, they receive so much love and support, but more importantly, receive money for their music.
Over the years, we have witnessed how some music fans have redefined what it means to be a fan. Although, fan worship is not a new development, the extremes of this practice became a mainstream trend when social media was thrown into the mix.
Social media platforms made it easy for fans to coordinate themselves in creating online communities, and form large fandoms. Some notable fandoms include: “Wizkid/Starboy FC”, “Marlians”, “30 BG”, and “Outsiders”.
These fandoms are characterized by such a highly obsessive following of their favourite artiste that it gave a new meaning to fan worship. “Stanning” is the term used to describe this modern obsessive fan worship, and the fans are referred to as “Stans”.
The term originates from Eminem’s song, “Stan”, about a fan with an unhealthy obsession that ends up killing himself. One would wonder if the fans who proudly call themselves stans know the origin of the term, regardless, their actions online perfectly fits the description.
Many Nigerian afrobeats stars are known to have huge egos; each star claims to be the best, and in a competitive industry without short supply of talented stars, these egos and claims coupled with other factors inevitably leads to a clash of titans.
Since stanning dictates that fans go all out in support of their favourite music stars, it is no surprise that the different fandoms also clash. These clashes have become the afrobeats stan wars we see today that manifests in form of fans abusing each other online, making comparisons and biased criticism of projects released by artistes, and even going as far as cyber-bullying.
To be fair, stan culture has its positives, top of which is promoting an artiste as well as music genre to a wider audience, however, there is a blurred line separating fans from crossing this positive over to the dark side filled with toxicity/negativity, and this is evident in Nigeria’s afrobeats stan culture.
Afrobeats stan wars have transformed the essence of being a music fan from enjoying good music, to tearing down music made by any artiste perceived to be a competitor, or an enemy. It sometimes even goes beyond genres and nationalities. There are instances of these wars between Nigerian, South African, Ghanian, and other African music stars and their stans.
The competitive and hostile atmosphere created by these wars prevents harmonious collaboration between top talents who should work together to move the industry and genre to greater heights.
Considering how long the stan wars have dragged on for, it is unclear who is responsible for it. Is it the perceived rivalry and clash of egos between the artistes, or the obsessed toxic fans constantly having a go at each other?
Entertainment blogs and media outlets have also played a role in fanning the flames. Interviews and headlines are done with the sole aim of highlighting controversies involving feuding musicians, and in turn getting their fan base riled up.
In the long run – even though this is a toxic trend – if afrobeats stars are as visionary as they should be about pushing their music and the genre past its current boundaries, there is bound to be a positive shift towards mainly using stans for generating more exposure.
Nigerian music stars don’t need to be told the importance of having a dedicated fan base; this is because not only does such a fan base elevate them to the highly coveted celebrity status, it translates to unwavering support for their art in an extremely competitive music industry, and provides them with an online militia to fight on their behalf in the never ending stan wars.