Down the rabbit hole: further reading and creative projects on fan culture

Modern shrines and celebrity worship

Holy Pop!, an exhibition currently open at London’s Somerset House, examines celebrity fan culture and worship through art and memorabilia. Featuring modern shrines to Prince, Britney, David Bowie, Aaliyah and Nina Simone, the show highlights the devotion of fans and the ways in which they iconise their idols to a religious degree. Curator Tory Turk says Holy Pop! is “a dialogue between people, the mementos they gather on the fridge; the flowers, notes and offerings they leave at famous people’s graves. It’s about the community created when fans build their own memorials to their heroes and the affinity felt between strangers because they idolise the same pop star, devour the same literature, or worship the same actor.”

Fan girls are experts, without the credit

In this video by pop culture commentator Zara McIntosh (aka @whatzaraloves), Zara asks: “If you put a fan account on your CV, how seriously would you be taken?” She highlights how many successful women in the media industry were running fan accounts back in the 2010s, and how so much of what they did off their own backs is basically much of the role of social media managers now, such as campaign and community management, analytics and content creation. Yet fan-girling is still largely devalued and dismissed by society, she says, despite its impact on the success of those stars they supported – particularly the “unmanufactured, raw and real” fandoms surrounding the likes of One Direction and BTS.

Fans getting hired

Rachel Karten, social media consultant and author of the Link in Bio Substack, recently interviewed a Heated Rivalry fan who was hired by HBO after her fan edits of the show went viral. The self-taught, 26-year-old video editor Mellie (aka @uhbucky), who was previously working in financial consulting, would hold the new title of associate producer working on videos for their social accounts. Rachel also reports that Lionsgate has recently hired multiple fan editors, and that some of those fan edits of the company’s TV shows had double the likes of their official trailers. Fast Company also recently wrote about these “stan-to-staff” pipelines.

Learning from K-pop merch

Last year, our Seoul correspondent James Chae wrote about the graphic design approach to K-pop merch and picked out some of his favourite designers and approaches. One major takeaway from the article is the scale of investment on products made for each group and tour, catering to fans and their desire to collect physical ephemera from their favourite stars. “K-pop is one of the few musical genres out there where physical product sales still rake in a substantial portion of revenue,” James reports, stating data from 2023 where physical album sales accounted for 31 per cent of the total overseas K-pop sales*.

Bringing online fandom IRL

Creative Review recently published a piece by I-Am Associates’ creative director Paul Tynan, about how digitally native brands, pop stars and influencers alike are creating physical destinations for their fandoms. From bricks-and-mortar stores for online-first brands, to Machine Gun Kelly opening a coffee shop, Paul argues it bridges the gap between online community and real life, tightening their bond with a generation craving real-world experiences, as well as legitimising the brand and reaching new audiences.

Superfans unite!

And finally, in the BBC’s Superfans podcast, Amy Lamé digs into the fandoms around some of pop culture’s biggest stars, from Dolly Parton to Ozzy Osbourne.

Projects

Ten projects made with fans front of mind

Over Land and Sea

This new 340-page book from Topsafe, launched just in time for the World Cup 2026, traces a visual history of the beautiful game through global fandom. It features contemporary documentary shots of fans all over the world as well as archival 90s imagery exploring football fan cultural history.

Reversed Merch

A recent campaign by Nord for Universal Music Publishing Scandinavia saw a clever flip of the traditional fan t-shirt, where artists were seen wearing fans’ names on stage. The case study used to launch the campaign was with Swedish musician Thomas Stenström, who played a gig in Uppsala wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the name of one of his superfans. The campaign is designed to scale, with more artists lined up to take part.

Sleep well, NY

Simple, euphoric, with details that matter – from the Jalen Brunson jersey to the Billy Joel soundtrack – this Nike ad by Wieden+ Kennedy released just after the Knicks won the NBA championship captured everything fans were feeling. Mainly because it was directly by Josh Safdie, New York native and Knicks fan.

Adult Swim’s exquisite corpse

Adult Swim is known the world over for its pioneering animated films and series, but is just as renowned amongst its core fans for its drawing workshops. When It’s Nice That visited one at the Manchester Animation Festival, we saw firsthand how its dedication to community and good ol’ pen and paper is uniting fans (and potential creative talent).

Ipswich Town posters

Lifelong Ipswich Town fans (and brothers) Steven and Richard Haugh created gig-style promo posters for every home match of the 2024-2025 season, in an initiative named Call Me Ted (also a beloved crowd chant). They worked with 19 artists to create each poster, which varied in style but were packed with details included for true fans.