When fandoms degenerate

I'm a huge fan of The Supremes. In fact, a good chunk of my internet time has been devoted to forums dedicated to obsessive discussion of the premiere female singing group of the 60's and 70's, most specifically, supremestirfry, a yahoogroup I co-moderate.

The women who were in the group are all getting older and they're doing less and less. A couple of them are completely out of show business, while others are voluntarily or involuntarily winding down their careers. Thus product has been reduced. Furthermore, just about anything that they recorded for Motown has now been issued. So what's a die hard fan to do?

Produce their own product.

And oh how homemade can it be! A year ago, Florence Ballard's sister Maxine self published a memoir about Flo. It was poorly written and repetitive and featured anecdotes no one really needed to hear such as the girls' problems keeping their Kotex rags inserted during their periods. As a result, the book is now referred to by fans in the know as "The Kotex Khronicles". Other self published books have also come out, many of them written by die hard worshippers of Diana Ross seeking to even the score for Mary Wilson's books which provided a rather slanted and negative take on Ross.

Worse are music projects. One fan adopted a parrot and is teaching the parrot to sing the background parts on Supremes songs. Another fellow over in England has just recorded a CD worth of Supremes covers. Thin and pitchy do not begin to describe his vocal shortcomings. He has a MySpace. Go to the site and put in a search for Leo Boyle if you want to hear his take on these songs.

Finally, some filmmakers got together to shoot a movie entitled "In the Name of Love". It's a fictional take on the reunion of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong. It's a very low budget movie. Trailers for the movie can be viewed on youtube. The project is sincere, but alas, judging by the clips on youtube, little better than public access TV. A couple months ago the producers of In the Name of Love spent some money by booking a theater on Times Square to screen the film. I'm sure in hopes of getting a distributor. As far as I know, no one picked it up. I wonder if and when this movie will get another screening. Given the positive message of the movie, the makers might want to market it to church groups.

I'm fascinated by fandom and how fans find ways to participate in their idols' careers. Most of the projects I described are essentially harmless, but I worry that these fans might be deluding themselves when they put such time and effort into these woebegone projects. If their goals are modest, good for them, but if they're hoping that they will return The Supremes back to the top or to get rich from their project, they're sadly mistaken. It's best to remember the group for what they are and be cognizant that while the group may be number one in their own hearts, the larger popular culture moved on years ago, even if the group is fondly recalled and has etched a place in American pop culture history.