What Is Band Fanfiction?

Band fan fiction is quite simply that - fan fiction written about bands and musicians. While you may be familiar with the idea of fan-fiction based on popular movies, TV shows and books such as Star Trek, Harry Potter and Twilight, fan-fiction has also been popular among fans of musicians and pop music acts for generations. These stories can be just as varied in style and subject matter as "media"-based fan-fiction, although these two fan communities largely developed and evolved separately from each other and have different standards of what is considered acceptable or not. Indeed, the idea of writing "Real Person Fiction" (stories about people who actually lived or are still living, instead of media characters) is still looked down upon or considered unethical in many parts of media fandom, although acceptance has slowly been building for the past 10 years.

The exact beginnings of band fiction are difficult to pin down as many old fanzines and communications have been lost to time. Teen magazines going back to the 50s and 60s would sometimes have writing competitions where fans could submit original stories about their favorite pop stars and idols. I have talked with Beatles fans of the time, who recall "roleplaying" The Beatles with their friends, imagining themselves as members of the band and their wives/girlfriends. Stories could be shared orally, in letters written and shared back and forth, and in early fanzines where fan fiction was published alongside of news, reviews, letter columns and other forms of fannish activity.

Fanzines would continue to evolve and become easier to produce and distribute in the late 70s into the 80s. Duran Duran would become one of the first fully organized fan fiction communities in music fandom, producing fanzine titles devoted exclusively to fan fiction and fan art. (The cover to the right is for the zine UMF, published in the 1990s.) Meanwhile, some media fans would also covertly explore writing band fan fiction, but typically changing the names and details of the artists just enough that they felt legally safe - and would not be ostracized from their own community for what they wrote. A famous example of this is the Tris/Alex series of stories which were based on Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. With the increasing overt and sometimes fluid sexuality of many rock musicians of the time, band fan fiction also became more daring and sexual in nature. Beyond simple romantic fantasies of fan girls paired with their favorite musicians, stories also began to explore the idea of sexual relationships between the band members themselves - sometimes in explicit detail.

The internet would revolutionize fan communications and communities. In the 90s, email lists, message boards, and easy-to-build websites would allow music fans to share their stories quickly and easily with other fans around the world. Though with this ease of communication came increasing concern about privacy and security - what was fine to share among a small group of like-minded fans could be difficult to explain to other fans who did not understand or like the idea of fan-fiction. Even so, the popularity of music and band fanfiction continued to grow, although some communities would employ password-protection on their websites or forums, or screen applications for membership, to keep the phenomenon still slightly "underground".

Band fanfiction continues to grow and thrive today as more and more avenues for sharing such stories evolve. Print-on-demand publication sites like Lulu have made it easy for fans to produce their own books of band fiction - which is very popular among Beatles fans today. Social networking and blogging sites like LiveJournal and now Tumblr have made it easier than ever for band fans to form specialized communities for sharing their stories. Many large fan-fiction archives accept bandfic, or are exclusively devoted to bandfic stories.

For more information on Band Fanfiction, check these articles and histories:

History of BandFic, an overview - article at Fan History Wiki
Bandfic - an article at Fan History
Band Fic - article at the Fanlore Wiki
Real Person Fiction - article at Wikipedia
"Slasher Girls" - a 2008 article featuring interviews with band fiction writers

Photo credit: lemort on morguefile

There are countless archives and forums dedicated to single artists and bands on the internet. Sadly, many of the older archives and sites from the 90s and early 2000s are gone today, as fans moved on in interests or when sites like Goecities closed down. The following links are just to give you a taste and sampling of the variety of band and musician-based fan fiction out there. Go exploring!

Adam Lambert:
Glamber Fic - LiveJournal

The Beatles:
The Beatles Fan Fiction Directory - directory listing of stories around the web
The Beatles Fan Fiction Directory - LiveJournal

Bon Jovi:
Bon Jovi Fan Fiction Directory

Duran Duran:
The Lovely Blue Planet of There - The oldest and largest forum for Duranies to share art, poetry, music and fan fiction inspired by Duran Duran.

Good Charlotte:
GCFanFics.com - archive with over 4,000 stories

Hanson:
Hanson FanFiction
Hanson Fan Fiction Archives

Jonas Brothers:
Jonas Brothers Fanfiction Archive

JRock
Jrock Fanfic - LiveJournal

Justin Bieber:
Justin Bieber Fanfiction Archive

Metallica:
Metallica Fan Fiction at the Metallichicks messageboard

Michael Jackson:
MJ Fiction - A Place for Michael Jackson Fan Fiction
MJJ Dreamworld - Forever In Our Hearts Forum
Dangerous PYT

My Chemical Romance:
My Chemical Romance FanFiction - all ages archive
The My Chemical Romance Fan Fiction Community - on LiveJournal

Popslah:
Don We Now Our Gay Apparel - Backstreet Boys and N Sync fan fiction archive
*NSYNC Fiction - Archive with thousands of NSync fiction

One of the frequent concerns raised about band fanfiction is whether it is legal to publish and share, whether or not for profit. Writers are, in effect, using real people - celebrities - as the objects of their own personal fantasies and fictional stories. Generally band fanfiction authors are very careful to include prominent disclaimers to the effect that readers should be aware their stories are pure fiction, and should not be viewed as factual in any way. This statement is to hopefully cover themselves against libel or defamation accusations. Authors of RPF generally believe they are legally protected as their writing can be viewed as a form of parody.

However, there is also the issue of Right of Publicity - in effect, the right to control the commercial use of one's identity. This can be an important issue to a musician or band trying to present a particular image to the public, who might not wish their name or likeness connected with certain types of fictionalized scenarios. There can also be concern whether extreme stories and fiction might simply be illegal to publish in certain countries or states, or perhaps present an actual danger to the subject of the story. In 2008, a man was arrested and charged under the Obscene Publication Act for a disturbing murder fantasy story about pop band Girls Aloud.

Even so, there have been many cases of professional and amateur publications of bandfiction through the years, without legal incident (see the list of sample and recommended titles below.) Most band fiction archives on-line operate without profit or advertising, and their Terms of Service indicate that they will remove stories upon request if contacted by a representative of a featured celebrity. They also will have guidelines disallowing fiction that would be considered legally questionable for other reasons.

Photo credit: southernfried on morguefile

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. At least, that's the argument some people give against band fanfiction, as they believe it to be objectionable on moral or ethical grounds.

Opponents of band fanfiction, and "real person fiction" in general, often claim that it is a violation of a person's right to privacy. They believe authors should not use real people whom they don't know as the objects of written stories and fantasies, especially those that can be of quite graphic, sexual nature. They question how a family member or a child of a featured celebrity might feel to stumble upon such a piece of fanfiction on-line, let alone how that celebrity him or herself would react. They'd say that if a person must indulge in such fantasies, she should keep them to herself - certainly not put them out there publicly for anyone to see or read, and absolutely not to profit on from selling a book or subscription.

Proponents of band fanfiction disagree on these criticisms. They point out that they are writing about the public personae of these celebrities, not actual "real people". Bandfic authors 99% of the time have no personal connection to the people they are writing about, so can only draw upon interviews, music videos, concert appearances and other sources of public information to create their characters and stories. Even those few authors who may have some limited contact with a given celebrity are very careful to not use any private information in their writings. Many will pointedly not write about non-celebrity relatives including children and spouses out of respect for their lives and privacy.

Quite a few bandfic authors and archivists protect their stories such that they can not be found via Google search, or that the archives need a password-protected account and age statement to be viewable. They frown highly upon "shoving bandfic in musicians' faces" and make a point keep their writings separate from general fannish boards of discussion. Band fanfiction authors will argue that truly their writing does no harm to anyone, and in fact through their own fannish communities may help promote certain artists through their writings.

Photo credit: priyanphoenix on morguefile