Word: Stan
Urban Dictionary:
1. A crazed and or obsessed fan. The term comes from the song ‘Stan’ by Eminem. The term Stan is used to describe a fan who goes to great lengths to obsess over a celebrity.
2. Stan means you look up to that person, you watch them or you truly love their content. It’s another word for saying you idolize someone or something. You would say, “I stan _____” instead of I “I love that person” (or thing).
The modern experience of music listening goes beyond consuming the music alone. Fans consume much more, they obsess over minuscule details; the clothes their faves wear, the hair choices their biggest stars make, the type of weed they smoke, the moral grounds they hold and what clubs they frequent. In one word, the modern musician-fan connection is all-inclusive. This proximity is fostered by many factors but none comes close to the effect of social media. The instantaneous nature of the internet and it’s powering of social media platforms has irreversibly altered the nature and scope of the relationship that exists between musicians/their teams and fans.
Another perk of social media is that it allows fellow fans to find themselves easily and unionise, creating familial connections among themselves, none more so than on Twitter, a good example of this unionisation is Wizkid FC, firmly devoted to the life, personality and music of pop musician Wizkid; they disseminate information about Wizkid, cloud negative reportage about him and sometimes attack the broadcasters of these news, like they’ll say, no Starboy slander here. Their devotion to Wizkid comes easy because ultimately they are Stans who wholeheartedly believe only the best of their fave.
The rise of the vaunted class of Alté musicians who established themselves in Nigeria’s competitive music industry circa 2018, had Stans to appreciate for the momentum that brought them into mainstream consciousness, most of them invariably started their musical odyssey’s on Soundcloud and have not only their talent to thank for their standing in the music industry now, they owe a depth of thanks to social media accounts and fans who digested their messages in droplets, stanned and passed the messages along via retweets, likes, quotes and making dance/sing-along videos.
Odunsi the Engine is a direct beneficiary of this phenomenon, his debut album, “rare,” released to critical acclaim was received with adoration and more essentially a fanbase that exported his art across the vast reach of the internet through their devotion and online engagements.
More recently, another Alté artist reaped the benefit of Stan Twitter, one morning in March, a Twitter user asked an innocuous question, who is a better musician – Santi or Peruzzi? What followed was claims and counterclaims for both acts, fans of Peruzzi sniffed at the audacity of the comparison while Santi Stans defended him with all they had, what that incident showed was that despite the international appeal of Santi the musician and Santi the artist, in certain circles in Lagos and Nigeria by extension, his name was still not recognisable, not to worry though, at the end of that day he was number one on the Nigerian Twitter trend chart and had his 2018 smash hit ‘Rapid Fire’ for company on the charts.
Make no mistake, Santi is a phenomenal musician in his own rights, and a more brilliant artist, the publicity that the Twitter episode gave him is however crucial in a country where name recognition is still unbeaten, he has teased an album since that time and it is safe to say that he would have added a whole new number of curious fans waiting for his debut album.
In November 2016, Wande Coal released a Maleek Berry produced song titled ‘Ballerz,” the song received heavy rotation and airplay upon its release but this was nothing compared to the level of exposure it gained from the #Allmyguysareballerz hashtag that trended in March 2019, off the video of a guy who went for a music audition with a basketball and continued to sing only one line – All my guys are ballerz – from the Wande Coal song, the moment caught fire and became a worldwide trend and the invariable google searches will lead to one source – Wande Coal.
One of the biggest measures of success as a Nigerian musician is to have a buzzword and it is this trick that rapper, Zlatan Ibile, has managed. Prior to appearing on Chinko Ekun’s ‘Able God’ track in 2018, Zlatan was relatively unknown, but since then he has gone on a run that can only be described as meteoric, in ‘Killin Dem’ with Burna Boy, he raps: “mo gbe zanku wole, mo ni kon fade shaku shaku,” literally translating to ‘I introduced Zanku and faded Shaku Shaku.’
It is not an exaggerative boast, he literally retired Shaku Shaku when he brought Zanku to the pop circuit, fans have fallen in love with his infectious character, his green-dyed hair and importantly, his Zanku. They love to Gbe Body, to Gbe Soul, it is free and instinctive and from his verse on ‘Able God,’ courtesy of songs like Jogor and Leg Work and collaborations with A-listers, he crucially established a fan base that stans his mainland-inspired music.
The darker side of fans devotion can also come into play on occasion though. In 2017, frontline acts, Davido and Wizkid, were locked in a ‘Cold War’ of some sorts and the darker side of the adulation both musicians inspire from their fanbase was evident, total strangers who did not have any issue against each other were at each others throats, exchanging curses, demanding blood and threatening to deal with each other. Twitter was usually the theatre for such displays of obsessive, toxic fandom that morphed into online hooliganism.
Fortunately, both artistes settled their feud in December 2017 and belatedly, their fans sheathed their swords and stemmed the tide of murderous abuse/threats that filtered around the web.
Organic hype is not always readily available or achievable, not everyone can be a Davido or a Wizkid who buzz on the the strength of their fandoms without any legitimate reasons, what this means is that some artists pay for digital hype and the exposure it brings. It is commonplace to hear of musicians or their camps paying media influencers/ digital marketers to make their interests trending topics, the fallout of Burna Boy’s ‘January African giant’ claim was accusations that he/his team paid to make him and his December 2018 concert every day topics of conversation on Twitter.
While these claims were never proved, the near constant gaze on Burna Boy late in 2018 set up a solid base for him to continue his stellar run into the current year and his songs/ collaborations – Killin Den (with Zlatan Ibile), Dangote and the Steel and Copper E.P with DJDS) have enjoyed widespread attention.
The internet has in effect balkanized the music industry as we know it and though gatekeepers remain in certain key spaces, artistes can legitimately harbour aspirations of blowing up without the machinery of a traditional record label at their disposal for marketing and distribution purposes, one of the best keys to success in these interconnected times is to have Stan Twitter firmly in your corner.
