'Swarm', created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, is a "bizarre new... thriller" about a young woman's obsession with a pop star that takes a dark turn which "serves as a spikey admonishment of celebrity worship." "It expresses a discomfort with and cynical attitude toward social media and fame to sometimes frustrating results" - NPR expresses in awe of the new Prime TV series. It is "at its best when it leans into the absurdities of social media and the ease of slippage between internet selves and 'real' selves". There are some interesting cameos as well - Paris Jackson plays a stripper who claims to be Black on her dad's side, whereas Billie Eilish shows up in a commune made up of woo-woo influencer types.

The founder of Stan, Denisha Kuhlor, shares her thoughts on Taylor Swift's relationship with her fans: " Streaming and social media have ushered in a new era of fandom for which long-term value is being created in real-time. As a result of how parasocial relationships are now formed and cultivated, the sky’s the limit for the depths of fandom that can be sustained over time through individual artists. If done right, artists can use these tools to effectively maintain a relationship with their fans during the different cycles in their career allowing them to unlock their patronage at the precise time that they are ready regardless of how long that time is".

Jack Probst shared with Creem.com his fascinating story from his years as a janitor at a music venue ten years ago. He was collecting fans' letters that bands such as My Chemical Romance, Death Cab For Cutie, and many more had left behind. "Reading the intimate stories fans shared with their idols kept me going as I mopped sticky floors and scrubbed permanent marker graffiti off bathroom stalls. They are a unique part of music history, the human side of a cold industry most of us never get to see".

Some Romantic-era opera listeners felt that their own listening practices could be just as emo­tionally true as the art itself. These listeners didn’t want to be stuffed shirts snarking over the music reviews: they wanted to fall in love with the music, be the music, be the characters, be the singers, and be enflamed by opera to the depths of their souls - Lit Hub writes introducing Dr. Anna Fishzon’s eye-opening book 'Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera: Mad Acts and Letter Scenes in Fin-de-Siècle Russia' which concen­trates on 19th-century Russian opera soci­ety but illuminates trends in opera and art all over Europe. "Fishzon tells amazing stories of 19th-century fans who wrote scary fan letters to opera stars and stood in ticket lines for days, till they fainted... Critics said that the new fans were vulgar, hysterical, immature, and ignorant".

“Proud to report that a New Zealand mother has named her children Metallica, Pantera and Slayer. She told me, ‘It’s not easy raising three of the heaviest bands'” - New Zealand documentary filmmaker and actor David Farrier shared via a newsletter article. The daughter named Metallica had a middle name of 'And Justice for All' (no mention of baby named Pantera's meddle name being Cowboy From Hell). In New Zealand, there are no restrictions on naming babies after bands or albums.

A month ago, during the latest Palestine-Israeli crisis, the K-pop Twitter account @sceneryfortae, dedicated to BTS' member V donated an undisclosed amount to iF Charity, a UK-based organisation that has been working to address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip since 2002, and posted the screenshot of the receipt with the hashtags #SaveSheikhJarrah and #SavePalestine. The tweet set off a wave of similar acts of solidarity across Taehyung’s global fanbase, who donated various amounts to organisations worldwide. This set off a wave of actions - numerous accounts have been spreading awareness about the plight of Palestinians and pointing their followers towards resources to educate themselves, petitions to sign, and on-the-ground organisations to donate to. Huck Magazine goes to explain the power K-pop fans have demonstrated on the politics scene in the last few years.

Former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese has joined forces with the Pearl Jam Family France Facebook community to rerecord the band’s 1993 classic 'Rearviewmirror', Loudwire reports. The seven-minute video cuts between several fans taking turns on vocals, guitars, and bass, while Abbruzzese handles the drums, just as he did on the original recording. Abbruzzese was let go from the band in 1994 because of personality conflicts with Eddie Vedder, but has a strong fan following.

Independent touches the sensitive issue of doxxing, searching for and publishing private or identifying information about someone on the internet, typically with malicious intent. Pop critic Ann Powers endured a series of verbal attacks after an essay around Lana Del Rey's album 'Norman F***ing Rockwell!'. Pitchfork writer Jillian Mapes published a mostly positive review of Taylor Swift’s 'Folklore' only to be faced with threats, which included pictures of her home. Ariana Grande fans went after culture critic Roslyn Talusan in 2019 with the singer refusing to tell them to back off. So, journalism stays one of the few professions where the professional is too often expected to do their job not professionally.

A lovely text by Guardian's Annie Zalecki about how Tori Amos changed/formed her as a person: "I had Tori teaching me how to be a woman on my own terms. She was secure yet vulnerable, so connected to her feelings in ways I couldn’t yet articulate, and comfortable in her skin... And Tori spoke frankly about religion and desire, and even discussed the impact of her own rape... To an introvert like me, her willingness to be open about these heavy topics was revolutionary... I marvel at how lucky I was to have had this aspirational role model: a woman fearless enough to speak all of her truths, so her fans could find their own".

"Twitter shaman Jack Dorsey’s recent acquisition of Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, by his company, Square points to something that is bubbling up in the business right now that is still early, but ultimately will build into a huge, new movement of massively monetizing direct artist-fan connection and engagement" - Peter Csathy writes in his CoS editorial, adding - "Just think of the virtual/tangible 'combo package' possibilities – where passionate superfans happily pay premium prices to support and get ever-closer to the artists they love in all modes of engagement".

R'n'b singer and TikTok star Zaria posted a couple of clips with a Metallica T-shirt on, which made some TikTokers attack her for rockin' Metallica merch, with one asking her to "name three Metallica songs". Well, that's when she stole the show - "Really? Only three? Only three songs? How 'bout I play 'em on guitar for you", Zaria replied and played parts of three Metallica songs on guitar, 'Master of Puppets', 'Enter Sandman' and 'One'. Loudwire really enjoyed the don't-judge-the-book-by-its-cover story.

Foo Fighters have launched a new digital zine The People of Rock and Roll, featuring countless memories directly from Foo Fighters fans. Readers can filter through the 135 pages of stories at the time of publication by narrowing down to a specific bandmember or location.

34-years-old Nikki Paterson from Scotland has 47 tattoos, 23 of which are of Eminem, The Sun reports. She hopes this will get her into the Guinness World Book of Records. Paterson said she has been listening to Eminem since she was 14, and that she fell in love with him after hearing 'Stan', a song about a crazy fan.

"The fan believes the artist and their work helped them come into their own. The artist’s work becomes a comfort—almost like a friend on their journey—as they figure out who they want to be" author Hannah Ewens says in Bitch Media interview about her new book 'Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture'. The book traces the history of fandom from the Beatles onward to contextualize what fandom means, how it functions, and how it both reflects and drives cultural conversations about everything from teenage girls to mental health. Ewens also differentiates between fans and stans, the latter of whom go to extreme lengths to prove their devotion.

"At its best, being a stan means you’re part of a wonderful community united by a shared love. At its worst, stan culture is a toxic, vindictive swamp where fans are encouraged to outdo each other with performative displays of devotion to their chosen hero" - Junkee says in an introduction to their article about abuse journalists and music stars endure, with the aim of starting a conversation to clear things up. Soon after the 1D article, some Taylor Swift published Pitchfork editor's address and phone number after a positive review of her album (8.0, which the P doesn't give so easily), The Daily Beast reports.The project started after Junkee published a light-hearted look at the One Direction boys’ respective solo careers which caused a flood of abuse and threats.

Mac Miller, Lil Peep and Juice WRLD have died of drug overdoses; XXXTentacion, Jimmy Wopo, Nipsey Hussle and Pop Smoke are among the MCs to have been murdered. Guardian talked to their fans to see how they felt, one Lil Peep's fan sums it up pretty good - "it definitely felt like a personal loss, rather than a celebrity death”.