Quote: The Decade Fandom Went Corporate

Katharine Trendacosta for Gizmodo on 2019-12-19:

Corporations have identified the monetizable parts of both curatorial and transformational fandom and made them all consumptive fandom. Fans are encouraged to want what’s been approved by the creator and to back up that approval by buying more and more.

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Fandom that wants to create communities, that wants to promote the interests of fans, protect their work, help them experience media in the best way possible for them is on one side. The fandom of nonprofits like AO3 and the sadly dying tumblr communities. The fandom that isn’t about winning but is about enjoying creativity.

Versus the fandom that wants to dictate to you, that has been approved by marketing, that is immune from criticism because real fans just spend the money first and debate it later. Or never debate at all, just unthinkingly consuming. The fandom that is valid because Zack Snyder said so. The fandom of huge mega-corporations endlessly humping the same IP over and over.

This article's from 2019, but still relevant today. While the Marvel machine has lately faltered, we've seen a number of other IP sources tapped, with people still complaining that no one is making original movies anymore. The malaise has even spread into video games, with Fortnite pioneering lucrative collaborations with other IPs, and now Star Wars, the OG nostalgia demon IP being injected as canon into Destiny 2.

Nostalgia and reference, able to elicit such weak but apparently reliable emotions, harnessed by corporations to feed you fandom (tm) "content".