Unable to listen to certain bands due to negative fan interaction

[Markness]

I’ve lost enjoyment from listening to certain bands and only feel discomfort if I hear them now. Negative interaction with fans of those bands is the cause behind it. Some of those bands would be Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Enigma, and Blur. Not being able to enjoy Blur anymore has been painful since I can’t hear them without thinking about a certain person who is a fan, too, cussing me out.

 

[Misery]

A big question that comes to my mind is why in the world would you be interacting with these fans to begin with?

It's a pretty well known thing that large fanbases are almost always toxic. I mean, what the heck did you expect? OF COURSE this happens. It happens to many people who get too close. I've rambled at length about how I avoid fanbases of most things, and that's why. Ya gotta keep at a safe distance from those particular wasp hives.

Just listen to the bloody music, or play the game, or watch the show, whatever, WITHOUT involving random idiots in it. They arent necessary for the enjoyment of whatever it is.

Nor should you care what they think of you or anything else. It's irrelevant. A waste of perfectly good braincells that could be instead be used for pondering absolutely anything more important, like thinking about, I dunno, cheese or something. Or just think about cat turds, that's more important than what a bunch of elitist bullies think or say.

I mean really, their opinions arent worth whatever it is you stepped on so far today. That's how it is with bullies and people who are just mean in general. What they say aint worth much of anything.

I'll put it this way: You either start ignoring them, or this nonsense is going to keep happening. It's your choice.

 

[tkcartoonist]

I like some of Tool's music, but their fans can be insufferable pseudointellectuals. Doesn't stop me from liking them.

 

[tree]

I’ve lost enjoyment from listening to certain bands and only feel discomfort if I hear them now. Negative interaction with fans of those bands is the cause behind it. Some of those bands would be Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Enigma, and Blur. Not being able to enjoy Blur anymore has been painful since I can’t hear them without thinking about a certain person who is a fan, too, cussing me out.

This sounds like a topic you could bring up with your therapist.
Learning to manage your thoughts would be very useful.

Plus, why interact with negative fans, anyway?

 

[mysterionz]

Had an ex friend ruin my love of Nintendo games.. mostly fixed now but I only really enjoy Splatoon now from nintendo

 

[Luca]

Some of the fans of bands I like make really scary and appalling comments on Youtube. It’s hard to resist the temptation to read the comments, but it’s likely that these negative fans are a representation of a toxic fanbase rather than reflecting the views of the artists themselves.

Like Misery said, there are horrible fans of pretty much everything. Don’t let stupid people ruin your love for the music.

 

[MildredHubble]

Oh no! Nirvana kick ass! I'm sorry that some idiots have caused you to struggle to enjoy the music you like. :-(

It can be difficult to break those psychological connections between morons and particular things, like a song or video games or a hobby.

Changing the association can help, though it can take a lot of effort.

I was a huge Nirvana fan. I started listening to them just before Kurt Cobain died. :-( There were a few people at school who decided to jump on the bandwagon and suddenly the music I listened to was cool. But, that would mean I was cool, at least in their minds. So they tried to co-opt Nirvana for themselves. It made me feel like my enthusiasm for Nirvana was inauthentic.

So here's what I did. One day I played Lithium on full blast and sang along with it at the top of my lungs and imagined I was sneering the lyrics at these poseurs! I played it again and again. I made it *my* song! I knew they would never understand, but my relationship to Nirvana was deeper and more meaningful than there's could ever be. And let's be honest, they were going to get bored of them sooner rather than later!

A year later, I was on stage with my band, belting out Lithium at the top of my lungs! What a feeling!

"I'm so happy 'cause today I found my friends, they're in my head, I'm so ugly that's ok, cause so are you, broke our mirrors, Sunday mornings everyday for all I care, light my candles in a daze cause I found God....YEAHHHYEAAH YEAH!!!!!"

Little bit of trivia, Lithium was written as a the result of a bet with Michael Stipe as to who could get the most repetitions of "Yeah" into a song. So REM's Man on the Moon is kinda lithium's half sister! I wonder if those idiots who have spoiled your enjoyment of Nirvana would know that!?

 

[MildredHubble]

Incidentally, if you are looking for some music to fill in, in the meantime. I can highly recommend Tom Waits. This is one of his grungy numbers!...

 

[Gerontius]

If the bully is a member of this website, you report the offending post & move on--otherwise they get the satisfaction of watching your reaction playing out here.
If you have been getting messages of "tough love" from people who maybe want to help you but don't realize that you take it the wrong way 98% of the time, maybe message that person & say something like "I really can't deal with this right now." Let them decide whether they are to be bullies or decent folks.
If this is in person at some Austin music venue, I would recommend hanging out with cooler people.
And if people are telling you something that's wrong, might I recommend a little bit from Rage Against the Machine, specifically one line from "Killing in the Name" that would get flagged for removal here, but it's a good attitude for dealing with bullies.

 

[Rodafina]

Markness, when there is senseless unkindness from others that has the potential to damage your self-worth, maybe you can summon Gandelf to protect your brain. And your heart. Try not to internalize the negative and just keep moving forward.

 

[Angular Chap]

Ahh fandom. Or fandumb more like.

Here you go Markness, a categorized list in alphabetical order, detailing all these different types of people so you can spot them:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanDumb

Also these days, I would add "attention seekers" as something to consider. If something is popular, it's a target for people who just use it to get attention, nothing more, nothing less. They're not even interested in the work or the art itself. Like good old fashioned trolling, but a little bit more. Wind up the fans for the reaction and attention. Wind up the creators for the reaction and the attention. Some things remain popular for years, so the attention seekers stick to that, they know exactly how to wind up certain creators and their fans long term. Other things come and go, rise and fall in popularity, so the attention seekers roam around, looking for the next big thing.

My advice would be DON'T interact with "fans" of anything you like online these days. Or if someone is trying to make a scene in person at a concert or something, turn your back. They are probably filming it and uploading it for the attention. Do your bit and deprive them of the attention. It would be nice if more creators pointed these kind of things out, but of course that would also just give them the.....attention. Catch-22 i suppose.

 

[Slime_Punk]

In my experience, diehard fans will fight to the death... with other fans of the same thing. They should be best buddies, but their obsession has somehow clouded their vision to the point that any difference of opinion seems like a direct insult to them. Politics and religion (at least in the US) are wonderful examples of this.