The Pop Corporation

You get the impression that most musicians consider stan culture to be a necessary evil, because stans move product like musical drug mules. Of course, some stans are just super enthusiastic sorts, but there’s a good percentage of them that are over-zealous lunatics who want to prove they’ll go above and beyond, like supporting an artist is a contact sport.

The term, of course, came from the Eminem song of the same name. The song itself is not an advertisement for being a super fan, but rather a cautionary tale (and genuinely, one of pop’s masterpieces), and when Eminem said “Why are you so mad? Try to understand that I do want you as a fan – I just don’t want you to do some crazy shit“, you imagine a lot of prominent figures silently nodded in agreement.

And now, Eminem is to co-prod a documentary about this very subject called ‘Stans’, and it’s coming at a good time, because in the Wild West of social media, stan culture is running riot and there’s a lot of unsavoury stuff that is sullying the name of enthusiastic fans who just want to innocently shout from the rooftops about their favourite artists.

According to Variety, the film will be a “revealing, edgy, and disarmingly personal journey into the world of superfandom, told through the lens of one of the world’s most iconic and enduring artists, Eminem, and the fans that worship him.”

Em’s manager Paul Rosenberg adds: “’Stans’ will be the opportunity for us to to turn the camera around and ask the audience about being fans — and in some cases, fanatics. This is a study of the relationship between fanbase and artist through the lens of one of Eminem’s most fascinating songs and one of the world’s most important entertainers.”

No release date as yet, but we hope that this branches out away from just Eminem’s own fans, and looks toward the feverish fanbases of other MCs, K-Pop groups and popstars. There’s a wealth of stuff around at the moment, so it’d be great to get a thoughtful look at this new version of megafandom.