Warning: Author Rants Here

How many times have you heard someone say "I'm [insert person, fandom, whatever name here]'s biggest fan"?

And maybe it's just me, but I didn't realise admiring someone's work and being passionate about whatever it is was a competition.

And sometimes (not all times, but there's definitely a few I know of) the self-proclaimed "biggest fan" looks down on all other fans, as if to say "this is mine and you can't share in it."

Which is ridiculous, because there's nothing better than a fanbase becoming a community and all members supporting one another. And I know for a fact how supportive these fandoms can be and the wonderful friendships that can be formed.

And sometimes, the "biggest fan" can be... well, more creepy than anything else.

Case in point, Exhibit A if you will:



OK, I love Harry Potter and have since I was 10 years old. I consider myself a pretty big fan. But I stopped keeping track of how many times I've read the books when book 4 got over 100. I don't see the point in having more than 1 copy of each book and movie (although I am considering buying myself another set of books, because the new covers are gorgeous).

But I get seriously creeped out everytime I watch this video- which after the first time was usually to prove this point.

Harry Potter is my main fandom, right with Wicked the musical. And this is where the bone I have to pick gets harder:

There are a few lucky people I know of who were aware of Wicked's existence in Australia from the beginning in 2008 (I was in a uni bubble. Nothing new rarely gets through.). They work full-time and so were able to save more money and sometimes lived in closer proximity to the theatres, so their tally of how many times they've seen the show is naturally a lot higher than mine or the majority of people.

But I've read comments from these people on various social networking sites, where they proclaim themselves as the biggest fan.

Now, maybe it's just me, but in my mind, seeing the show x amount of times, reading the books, movies, going to concerts... whatever the fandom you're talking about here, doesn't make you the biggest fan.

And yes I am a tiny bit jealous of people who have the time and money to be able to see the show so much and travel around to do so, but I don't think I'm any less of a big fan because I've only seen the show 6 (it'll be 7 as of tomorrow, actually) times and wasn't aware of its existence until 2010.

Some of the biggest Wicked fans I know have only seen the show once. (Hi, Julia!) And the truth is, I was really lucky each time I've gotten to see the show. For shows 2, 3, and now 5-7, I saved my butt off for months to be able to go.

Same with musicans. I'm a huge Delta Goodrem fan, I think she's amazing and I have all her albums. But I've actually had someone tell me I'm not a "true" fan, because I haven't been to all her concerts, etc. Um, I went to her Believe Again tour in Sydney (one show, unlike the person who was telling me this who had literally followed it all around the country. And again, I saved like crazy to do so), but when her Visualise tour was touring, I was 15 and had just moved 2 hours from Sydney. If you think my parents were going to take me to a Delta Goodrem concert or let me go alone, you've got another think coming.

And there is a Delta Goodrem fan group on FB (which I recently left for reasons I'll explain in a moment, whilst continuing on my rant), which contains some huge, genuine Delta fans who live in countries where Delta has of yet never been and is not a hugely popular artist.

But when has being the "biggest fan" meant anything? What does it mean? You don't get a prize, do you? Unless there's something I've missed here.

But yes, I recently left a Delta Goodrem fan group on FB for one reason- I was sick and tired of the negativity I was hearing, and frankly, it was cheesing me off.

Delta will, in 2012, release her first studio album since 2007. So, naturally, long-time fans are a bit impatient and excited. This FB group I was a part of... I regularly read comments such as "this album had better be epic for keeping us waiting for so long" and "she should just release something before no one wants to listen to it anymore".

First of all, Delta hasn't exactly been doing nothing since 2007. Her tour was 2009, and she's been working so hard in the US and released songs with Jim Brickman and Michael Bolton. She did a voice for a film last year, Santa's Apprentice and because she writes/ co-writes pretty much all her own songs, she's been writing and learning for the past few years.

As a perfectionist and creative type person (nothing musical, but still), I can understand her wanting to make sure everything she releases, she's happy with. Especially when she's said in the past she wouldn't mind changing a few things about her second album, Mistaken Identity, which she felt she rushed to put out after her cancer battle.  (I'm still impatient for the new music, but I get it!)

She released the first single "Sitting on top of the world" at the beginning of the month. I love it. It's catchy, and upbeat and makes you incredibly happy just listening to it. You totally get the sense Delta is loving her life at the moment, and that makes me happy.

But when she released a 30 second sample (teaser, more accurately, I played it on a loop for days, dying to hear the full song), people were so negative!

Things like "I expected better after 5 years", "this doesn't sound like Delta", and my personal favourite "Just remember if you don't like this song, there's a minimum of at least 12 that we can expect to hear later in the year, so don't give up hope."

Um, what the hell?

One more example, (I promise!), is when I bought Idina Menzel's CD and DVD of Live: Barefoot at the Symphony. I loved the DVD and CD, but it was only when I went to put the CD on my computer that I noticed "I'm not that girl" didn't make the transfer.

A tad disappointed, I decided to google in case it was available online somehow (with the internet, you never know!). Google led me to amazon, and I decided to read some reviews whilst I was there, and spread the Idina love.

Now, I don't know if the people who reviewed the CD hadn't seen the DVD or hadn't listened to the track before so were unaware of the context. But there is a beautiful, spine-tingling moment when Idina sings "For Good" (yes, from Wicked) acapalla to the audience as a thank you for coming and their support. There is no music, just her amazing voice. She doesn't even use the microphone, her voice just carries (I suppose there could also be other mics on the stage, but I have no clue) throughout the room. Hence, the chills.

This is set up in the track before on the CD when she thanks the audience.

But the reviews were saying things such as "it sounds as though she's a million miles away from the microphone" and "this needed the orchestra".

Um, no, it didn't. If Idina had sung it with the orchestra and into the mic, yes it wouldn't have been just as amazing, but the intimacy of the song and the personal touch would have been gone.

One of my favourite comments stated that all the song choices were obscure and seemed completely random.

If you watch the DVD, and listen to the whole CD, Idina does a little chat before most songs, to set them up. And they pretty much all have some personal connection or sentiment to her, which is why she chose to share them with the audience.

But when did being a fan mean you can tear people down? I thought the point of being a fan was that you admire the person, the music/story whatever means something to you in some way, and supporting the fandom, whatever it may be.

I realise notihing is perfect and everything will always have flaws, but I don't see that as an excuse to gripe over them.

I don't love all Delta songs, I don't like certain parts in Harry Potter and wish JK Rowling had done it a little differently, and there are always some cast members I've seen in Wicked who I feel don't 100% match the role or I'd rather they delivered a line a bit differently. But I'm not going to go tear them down because of it.

Supporting someone/something means accepting the good and bad. You just focus on the good.

Do I make sense or am I just ridiculously positive?