Deez Interviews: Hannah Ewens on the state of modern fangirling + the work of documenting 00’s internet culture
This week’s interview is with Hannah Ewens, author of Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music Culture (which we published an excerpt of yesterday) and features editor at Vice UK. We talked about what it was like to source interviews for her book from hundreds of fans all over the world, report on the largely intangible Myspace culture, and her own major “fangirl” moment from working on the book. Enjoy!
In the preface for Fangirls, you talk about getting the idea to put together this book after attending a Frank Iero show and observing the younger generation of fangirls who were present. I'd love to know more about what that moment of inspiration was like.
I felt familiarity – like, I was shocked by remembering that I’d been that emotional when I was a teenager – but also felt, as I did a lot while researching and writing the book, that I was a million years old.
It was strange in that moment that nothing had changed for girls in 10, 15 years. All the emotions and the presentation of those emotions were the same, the fact that old school meet-and-greets still happened in the same way and were so important, the fact they were bringing records, posters and physical things to be signed or had brought huge things they’d made by hand.
I knew I’d never read anything of substance about these girls and why they act this way and what they do. I also felt like, as a woman in my twenties, I was positioned really well to embed myself back into this culture. I didn’t want a man or a much older woman, for example, to write this book. I wanted to write it while all of it was a not-so-distant memory.
Each chapter roughly centers around one artist — Lady Gaga, Ariana, Harry Styles, Amy Winehouse, etc. How did you go about picking which fandoms to focus on?
Everything presented itself to me very naturally having done a lot of research and interviews before finalising the idea for each chapter. Some chapters I picked artist first, but for the most part I picked a theme first and worked out which artist was appropriate for which theme.
For example, after speaking with a bunch of Gaga fans, it was clear that her physical body and aura is so important to them and that meeting her is a particularly massive part of being a Gaga fan – so that chapter is about meet and greets. A couple are very specific to me though – I’m a big fan of Amy for example, and seeing as I live in London and have access to all her history and fans who grew up alongside her locally, it was important to me to have her in there.
What was it like sourcing all those hundreds of interviews all over the world for this book?
For the Japan and Harry Styles chapter, I flew there to voxpop fans outside a show and got an interpreter, which was very fun. For the Courtney Love/Hole and New York chapter, I went to America to meet a bunch of older female fans I’d already spent some time building a bit of a relationship with online.
Obviously a lot of interviews had to be done via Skype or phone call – all the interviews for the Beyonce and Black womxn fans chapter were done that way. But the best connections I made were always in person. Some of the British fangirls I met when they were 14 or 15 at a show and I ended up speaking to them on and off until they went to university! It was quite emotional to see them through a big chunk of their story so far.
I couldn't help but notice how so much of this book doubles as a primer on the Myspace culture of the late '00s. Were there any unique challenges that came with reporting around that — like, how do you research this digital platform and culture that kind of disappeared and didn't leave behind a physical trace?
Yes! I’m so glad you noted that. I had to take interviewees seriously and a lot of the history of this period is either made up of what girls – now women – have to say about it or their own personal achievement. Which proved the point of the book: that these girls are extremely important in creating mainstream music cultures and documenting them.
For the My Chemical Romance chapter, I was lucky enough to speak with some of the biggest fans of the time who ran clubs etc and actually have their own enormous private archives of press clippings, videos, diaries, and everything you could need as a researcher. The internet and the British Library and all these other places we go to to learn about pop culture were drawing a blank. I’m really happy that now this book can serve as research on this period now.
Finally, are there any scenes that didn't make it into this book that you'd like to share?
I thought I’d really grown out of being a fangirl or even loving music that earnestly, honestly, and then a couple of months before the book came out in the U.S., I interviewed Hayley Williams during lockdown and didn’t hold it together. I think she casually expressed that she’d enjoyed our chat and I blurted something weird about having an amazing time and tried to rein it back. An embarrassing final scene that thankfully never made it into the book.
Don’t forget to follow @hannahrosewens and check out Fangirls for your next read!