Fannish Drift
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| See also: | Fannish Osmosis, Singular tropes by fandom, The Fandom That Ate Fandom | |
| Click here for articles related to this term on Fanlore. | ||
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The phrase "fannish drift" can apply to several types of situations.
Vocabulary drift
Fannish drift is the tendency for the definition of fannish terms to change over time. For example, a new fan may see the term PWP listed on an archive, and not have any idea of what it means. Over time, that fan will derive a working definition of what the term means based on what they read that was labeled in the given manner. That definition may or may not include all of the components that the 'currently accepted definition' would include.
For instance, many fans see very short stories called drabbles, and go on to call any very short ficlet a drabble, whereas others fight to retain the original definition of a drabble as always being 100 words, no more, no less.
Fandom drift
The gradual shifting of a fan's primary fandom(s). For instance, many Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans moved into comics fandom, following Joss Whedon.
There are many reasons why fans move from one fandom to another fandom.
They may follow writers; for instance, there is a lot of fannish overlap between Sports Night and The West Wing, or between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.
They may follow a shiny new BSO; when fen discover new focal points for their obsessive tendencies, they often begin tracking down every movie, short film or tv show that said BSO has ever appeared in. In some cases, this can lead to the birth of a brand new small fandom, like an offshoot from the main fandom.
Sometimes fans "follow" actors back throughout their filmography, discovering failed pilots, obscure made-for-tv movies, arty short films or short arcs as recurring characters on other shows. On occasion, small fandoms have gotten a boost of interest due to actors who appeared on them suddenly becoming fannish favorites. (For instance, fans of BtVS' Anthony Stewart Head may track him back to his role on VR.5, bringing new attention to the fandom.)
Other times, a side project (perhaps a film shot while an actor's tv show is on hiatus) may emerge as an offshoot fandom while the main fandom is still ongoing. Most of the time these "spinoff" or "offshoot" fandoms remain obscure, existing mainly as a subset of the original fandom. (There may be a substantial number of crossovers between the "parent" fandom and the "child" fandom; these are often popular in the Hewligan genre of SGA/offshoot fandom pairings.)
Some "offshoot" fandoms, however, develop enough activity enough to draw attention even from "outside" the original big fandom, and become relatively self-sufficient, independent fandoms (such as many 6 Degrees of Canada fandoms.)
Finally, after a show or film is over, if a fannish BSO moves on to a new show, many fans will follow them; for instance, many Man from UNCLE fans were thrilled that Robert Vaughan once again had a starring role on Hustle, and at least some Farscape fans gave Stargate SG-1 a shot after both Ben Browder and Claudia Black joined as regular cast members in Season 9.
When a canon closes, its fandom may dissipate as fans move into newer, more active fandoms with open canons. Some fannish friendships survive fannish drift. Others don't.
Examples of "spinoff fandoms"
- LOTR's Elijah Wood: The Faculty
- Smallville's Michael Rosenbaum: Sorority Boys
- Stargate Atlantis' Joe Flanigan: First Monday, Thoughtcrimes
- Stargate Atlantis' David Hewlett: Century Hotel
- Stargate SG-1's Amanda Tapping: Sanctuary
The 6 Degrees of Canada fandom is an example of a loose conglomerate of small fandoms where, after a certain point, it is hard to say which fandom is the "parent" fandom. Although quite a lot of 6 Degrees fans started with Due South and followed Paul Gross and Callum Keith Rennie into spinoff fandoms from that point, obviously there is no particular order as to which 6 Degrees fandoms they may move on to, such as Last Night, Wilby Wonderful, Slings and Arrows, Hard Core Logo or Twitch City.
Stylistic drift within fandoms
As fans move from one fandom to another, they bring with them styles, ideas, and tropes from their prior fandoms. If a migration occurs in large enough numbers, this can have a huge impact on the base fandom. For example, in SGA, when popslash fans migrated into the fandom during the hiatus, they brought with them a lot of anime tropes and interest in more whimsical stories, which may explain the prevalence of crack!fic in the fandom. Singular tropes by fandom shows where some tropes started their fannish existence.
