It has recently surfaced that the current lead singer for the band Foo Fighters and the drummer for Nirvana in the 90s, Dave Grohl, has had a child outside of his marriage with Jordyn Blum. Hard-core fans around the world are outraged that their beloved singer has betrayed them. Fans on Tiktok and other social media platforms are seen ripping down posters, throwing away records, and venting that they are heartbroken over the news.
“I was working on an assignment for class about Dave Grohl when the news came out and I was devastated, I even contemplated changing my topic because I was so upset,” East High School sophomore and long time Foo Fighters fan, Adrian Lindholm, said.
One would think these types of reactions would be warranted by a close friend or relative caught cheating, but not from a random celebrity that they’ve likely never met. This phenomenon is known as a parasocial relationship, and they have gone too far.
Parasocial relationships are when an audience feels a strong one-sided connection with the performer. This can be with social media influencers or big celebrities and musicians.
“However, when parasocial relationships become consuming for an individual, they may be considered unhealthy—the individual ceases to maintain their real-life relationships or daily functioning becomes impaired,” an article by Psychology Today said.
People convince themselves that they know their favorite influencer and create a personality for them in their head even though the content that they see is a curated performance. This causes great devastation when their perception is crushed by a celebrity making a mistake like a normal human being.
Jealousy is also extremely common among fans of bands or male artists; one of the members gets a significant other and the entire fandom fumes with hatred for that person and even goes as far as sending death threats. The band One Direction is one of the worst cases of mass stalking. Thousands of teenage girls and other demographics such as middle aged women went to extreme lengths to spy on the members and even steal their underwear. These bands are made up of people with their own lives and families. Not to mention, if it were happening to a regular citizen, it would be taken more seriously. That is a big problem. A lot of celebrities are told that this weird and obsessive behavior should be expected, but it shouldn’t. Famous people shouldn’t have to double down when bad fans commit literal crimes and just take it.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, cancel culture is highly prevalent within parasocial relationships and causes celebrities’ and influencers’ careers to be ended over their negative actions. Is this reasonable? On one hand, it’s OK for fans to be hurt or disappointed with someone’s actions or when someone commits a genuine crime, but completely defaming someone for slipping up is absurd. There is also high judgment when fans don’t conform to the mob mentality of hating a particular person and continue to indulge in their content, regardless of the reason.
Fans remembering that they don’t actually know their favorite artist or influencer is important when avoiding an unhealthy attachment to celebrities. Cheating is bad, but Foo Fighters have some bangers that people shouldn’t be deprived of.
