The Celebrity Imprint: Fan-Celebrity Attachments and Religious Work Among Fans of John Lennon and Johnny Cash

Based on in-depth interviews, this article examines the relationships fans develop with John Lennon and Johnny Cash. Fan attachments consist of an initial curiosity, to a more profound emotional bond or relationship with “religious” underpinnings. An externalized sense of self and the concept of a product of popular culture doing the work of religion highlight how fans develop relationships because they see more of themselves in the celebrity than do other fans. The notion of gradual development of an interpretive lens helps explain how these shifts happen over time. I conclude by considering what degrees of fan attachment say about the relationship between celebrity fandom and religion.

Cómo John y Yoko aplican los valores Ibero en su vida

La Universidad Iberoamericana busca formar a la persona completa. Los cuatro componentes básicos de su pedagogía ignaciana son la utilidad, la promoción de la justicia, la formación humanista y la vivencia de la fe. El Taller de Servicio Social es un espacio ideal para reforzar los valores contenidos en esos componentes al momento de egresar. Este artículo narra una experiencia exitosa en la transmisión de los valores de la educación jesuita en la Universidad Iberoamericana, como un legado vivo y operante. Para esto, se diseñó un módulo basado en la educación sentimental y la metodología del taller en la educación popular, por medio del rock como comunicación e identidad entre jóvenes universitarios. El caso de John Lennon y Yoko Ono resultó en ensayos muy personales, profundos y dirigidos hacia un entusiasta compromiso con temas como la solidaridad, la paz, la equidad de género, la libertad y la excelencia profesional. Todo esto con posibilidad de replicarse en otros ambientes y con las figuras de referencia que cada participante elija.

The Unifying Glue

Chapter 3 zeroes in on the trait of openness exclusively, including its structural and motivational elements. The author discusses how openness, like the rest of the Big Five traits, affects every aspect of mental life, but notes that traits are abstract potentials. Their existence is inferred from what people say and do, how they behave. Of more interest in this book are the habits of mind they give rise to. These involve ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The author describes how, depending on how high a person is in O, certain challenges may (or may not) materialize. Three artists are profiled in the chapter: John Coltrane, John Lennon, and Francesca Woodman.

Biographical Aspects of Rock Music

It is necessary to make difference between biography as a history of a person’s life and biography as a retelling of this story made by a professional author. It is this “author’s” biography that is the subject of this article. Turning to biography as a genre, we note that it exists in the environment of other genres and forms: these are various kinds of diaries, chronicles, memoirs, testimonies. It can be based on a collection of interviews, publications from different years, and even correspondence. Among the many biographies, chronicles and biographies of musicians and rock bands, the author selects those in which a bright individuality stands out against the background of parallel and commensurate creative values. The biographies of The Beatles and, in particular, John Lennon, the versatile character of whose creative personality is demonstrated by a vivid example of an “opening” biography, are considered.

John Lennon

In Sarah J. Arroyo’s work, she reflects on the intense impact John Lennon’s song, “Watching the Wheels” had on her at age 10. This impact existed outside of John’s public persona since she was unaware of his cultural influence at the time. Decades later, she analyzes John and Yoko’s last interview conducted hours before his death where they discuss their album Double Fantasy, the album that contains “Watching the Wheels.” She experiences a punctum of recognition and argues that John and Yoko used choric invention in their creative processes and were electrate before their time.

A Hard Day’s Write

Fan fiction is, ordinarily, nonprofessional writing—premised thematically on media texts, celebrities, or artistic creations. Some fanfic uses public figures as the basis for characters and is called real person fiction (RPF). Bandfic is a subgenre of RPF involving rock musicians. Slash fiction is a subset of fanfic involving same-sex intimacy between central characters. Real person slash (RPS) is a fanfic subgenre that hybridizes RPF with slash and can involve pairs of musicians. One typical Beatles fanfic story on Archive of Our Own, is listed as male-to-male romance between John Lennon and Paul McCartney and tagged with angst, love confessions, rejection, unrequited love, and period-typical homophobia. In academia, discussions about such fanfic have covered copyright, fan labor or play, fan literacy and reading practice, community-created archives, world building, identity politics, or subversion and censorship. This chapter considers a less-discussed question: how does RPF about the Beatles relate to celebrity fandom?

John Lennon as Pop-Cultural and Political Icon

No musician embodied the world-changing turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s more than John Lennon. His work as a composer with the Beatles and as a solo artist reinvented what a rock song could be. As a political and social activist, he was a tireless champion of truth, peace, and world harmony. For many of his fans, Lennon’s music and sociopolitical efforts were intertwined. They loved him for the timeless music he created with the Beatles and on his own. And many admired him still more for his efforts to effect social and political change. But his personal life, which included domestic abuse, heavy drug use, and some epically boorish behavior, did not always match his image rooted in peace and love. Has the growing knowledge of Lennon’s personal shortcomings damaged his relationship with his fans? Judging by the adulation he has received since his tragic death in 1980, apparently not.