This thesis examines the religious dimension of fandom in popular music, takingas an object of reflection Lady Gaga and her fans. I combine fan studies with theories ofimmanence as well as Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the process of becoming, andprovide a theoretical reading of the relationship between Lady Gaga and her most ferventfans, the 'little monsters.' Both fandom and religion promise a stable sense of identityand authentic community to devotees. Performing deconstructive discourse analysis onthree of Lady Gaga's music videos, I demonstrate how fandom, like organized religion,can simultaneously be an emancipatory practice and a practice that seeks to denyindividual subjects their agency. This thesis provides a new theoretical framework forunderstanding fandom, and illustrates how the purported benefits of both fandom andreligion can only be gained when the figureheads of each group are symbolicallydestroyed by the members themselves.
展开▼
