CUE: The word ‘superfan’ tends to be surrounded with a negative connotation, with most people associating the term with the idea of over-obsessed teenagers. Sean and Cali and two superfans of Lady Gaga and Demi Lovato and Fifth Harmonry respectively. Ellen King takes a look into their lives to see how their idols have changed their lives for the better.
IN: “Superfans, obviously…”
OUT: “…my hair.”
DUR: 9’39’
The piece mainly focuses on the experiences of Sean Gallen, a Lady Gaga superfan, and how the introduction of Gaga has influenced him in the way he is now as it was something that I had always found interesting since I had first known him. Other contributions came from Cali Jeferies and Professor Tuomas Eerola from Durham University, who specialises in research on music and cognitive behaviour and is who I based most of my research off of.
Sean and Cali’s interviews took place at their university accomodation in London and Nottingham respectively, whereas Professor Eerola’s took place over Skype. Sean and Cali are both friends from school, so contacting them was easy as I just messaged them on Facebook and discussed everything over that. However Professor Eerola took a bit more work as I emailed and called him a few times with no response, but when I tweeted him a few days ago he responded straight away and did an interview with me the next day. All images have either been taken by myself or I’ve had permission to use them from their social medias which I have credited at the end.