DOT COM UNITY: Exploring the sense of community in the AF Gang, IDLES' online fan group

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DOT COM UNITY:

EXPLORING THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN THE AF GANG,

IDLES’ ONLINE FAN GROUP

Wetenschappelijke verhandeling Aantal woorden: 20.044

Emile Dekeyser

Stamnummer: 01305525

Promotor: Prof. dr. Frederik Dhaenens

Commissaris: Ben De Smet

Masterproef voorgelegd voor het behalen van de graad master in de richting Communicatiewetenschappen afstudeerrichting Journalistiek

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Deze pagina is niet beschikbaar omdat ze persoonsgegevens bevat.

Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, 2021.

This page is not available because it contains personal information.

Ghent University, Library, 2021.

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Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my mother, father, brother Basile (d’you reckon I’d get away with putting a cycling emoji between these brackets?), Robbe (riejen!!!), and Bo for their unconditional support during these intense months. Coincidence or not, a bubble of five people who I probably cherish the most, certainly now. Shout-outs to Eva as well for proofreading some passages.

My sincere thanks as well to my supervisor for allowing me to write on the AF Gang and believing in this topic, as well as the supervisor from my bachelor paper last year, who referred me to prof. dr. Dhaenens.

And then finally: thanks to every participant in the interviews, and the admins of the AF Gang for allowing me to write about the wonderful community they have created. KFG!

This section can only end with three words. Three words I’ve noticed mean a lot to not only myself, but to all the people I have talked to throughout this research:

ALL IS LOVE

Emile Dekeyser August 2020

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1. Abstract

1.1 English

This study focuses on the AF Gang, a Facebook group formed by fans of the British rock band IDLES in 2017. It aims to provide an insight on the establishment of a sense of community in the group that allows its members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to open up about all kinds of personal issues, from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. In order to do so, we draw on five ‘online community-shaping forces’ reported by Baym (2000): the medium, the topic, the members, the influential members, and the members’ offline contexts. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with a sample of eleven AF Gang members and further contextualisation using relevant document analysis concerning both the AF Gang Facebook group and IDLES’ music, we have collected a fairly wide range of roles these forces play in the case study.

Most of the collected data pointed at the importance of the topic (IDLES) and the influential members (the admins of the group). The specific way in which IDLES presents its prosocial messages of inclusivity and self-love is considered to play a central role in shaping, as well as maintaining, the sense of community. The impact of the influential members was mostly observed through the use of particular AF Gang traditions established by the admins, such as the slogan “all is love”, which regularly returns, making it an implicit code of conduct. However, the discussion cannot be reduced to these two forces, as examining the other forces provided valuable information as well. Two specific features of Facebook (the medium) are an example of this: the emoji reaction buttons and the participants’ experience of a sense of realness are also believed to play a role in shaping the sense of community in this case study.

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1.2 Dutch

Deze studie focust op de AF Gang, een Facebookgroep opgericht door fans van de Britse rockband IDLES in 2017. De studie tracht inzicht te verschaffen op het gemeenschapsgevoel dat gecreëerd wordt, en de leden toelaat voorbij hun fan object te gaan, alsook hen aanmoedigt openlijk te praten over persoonlijke problematiek, van mentale gezondheidsproblemen, over andere medische problemen, tot verdriet en verlies. Om in ons opzet te slagen baseerden we op ons vijf ‘gemeenschapsvormende krachten’ gerapporteerd door Baym (2000): het medium, de topic, de leden, de invloedrijke leden, en de offline context van de leden. Via kwalitatieve diepte-interviews met een sample van elf leden en verdere contextualisatie via relevante documentaire analyse van de Facebookgroep en IDLES’ muziek, verzamelden wij een brede waaier aan rollen die deze krachten spelen in de casestudie.

Het merendeel van de verzamelde data wijst op het belang van de topic (IDLES) en de invloedrijke leden (de beheerders van de groep). De specifieke manier waarin IDLES hun prosociale boodschappen van inclusiviteit en eigenliefde verkondigt wordt gezien als iets dat een centrale rol speelt in het vormen, en behouden van het gemeenschapsgevoel. De impact van de invloedrijke leden wordt vooral duidelijk door het gebruik van zogenaamde AF Gang-tradities die in het leven gebracht zijn door de beheerders van de groep, zoals de slogan “all is love”, die zo vaak terugkomt dat de leden er een geïmpliceerde gedragscode in herkennen. De discussie kan echter niet gereduceerd worden tot deze twee krachten, want ook het bestuderen van Bayms (2000) andere krachten leverde waardevolle informatie op. Twee specifieke kenmerken van Facebook (het medium) zijn hier een voorbeeld van: de emoji-reactieknoppen en de beleving van een vorm van echtheid spelen volgens de participanten ook een rol in de vorming van het gemeenschapsgevoel in de AF Gang.

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2. Introduction

The AF Gang is amazing. People share their problems with each other and they help each other get through things. It has got nothing to do with us. They have created this community themselves, and it helps each other and others. Whenever anyone new joins the group, they are there for them. It is expanding and they continue to be so nice to each other. It is madness.

Lee Kiernan, IDLES’ guitarist in Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About IDLES

In June 2020, the IDLES fan group AF Gang premiered Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About IDLES. The film tells the story of the rise and breakthrough of the British rock band IDLES since their formation in 2010: from the unsuccessful first steps in their career to the release of well-received and critically-acclaimed albums Brutalism (2017) and Joy As An Act Of Resistance (2018), and from playing to three people in small venues to performing in front of thousands of devoted fans at Glastonbury Festival, the biggest music festival in the United Kingdom. A second important element of the film is that it zooms in on the creation of the AF Gang, their fan community hosted on Facebook. The AF Gang was created by fans of the band in 2017 and the Facebook group currently holds more than 29.000 members. In the film, it is explained how – next to a place to discuss IDLES- and music-related things – the AF Gang Facebook group also, and perhaps more importantly, functions as a sounding board for its members to open up about all kinds of personal issues they deal with: from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. Before the Don’t Go Gentle film release, various music magazines had already reported on the AF Gang (Clarkson, 2020; England, 2019; Richards, 2018; Harrison, 2017) and how it functions as a life-affirming community (Richards, 2018) that helps to save lives (Clarkson, 2020) and proves that social media is not always toxic (England, 2019). These articles too focus on a sense of community that is established within the AF Gang, which allows and encourages its members to actively seek out, offer, and receive support regarding their mental health battles or other personal problems. This study seeks to understand how this sense of community, that allows the members to move beyond talking about their object of fandom and to open up about their personal issues, is created.

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3. Literature study

3.1 Online fandom studies

These popular sources mentioned in the introduction indicate that something special is going on in the fan group, but the AF Gang and its sense of community provide for a relevant case study in academic literature as well. Studying the AF Gang essentially means studying fans, hence why the case study belongs to the discipline of fandom studies. Within media studies, the most influential academics in the field of research of fandom studies in online contexts have studied other concepts rather than how community is established. Jenkins (1992) has explored the manners in which fans approach, read, interpret and adapt the fan text, and Sandvoss (2005) studied how the image of ourselves and who we would like to be is reflected in the object of our fandom. Contexts in which community has been researched in fandom studies include online television soap fandom and offline music fandom. Baym’s book Tune In, Log on: Soaps, Fandom, and

Online Community (2000) belongs to the first category and concerns the development of a sense of

community on an online soap forum, and how this led to the formation of friendships between fans. Cavicchi’s Tramps Like Us (1998) belongs to the second category, it is an extensive study of the sense of belonging together, and community – in an offline context – experienced by Bruce Springsteen fans. To our knowledge, an online counterpart of Cavicchi’s study on music fans has not yet been undertaken. This could be due to the fact that, as Giles (2013) described, research concerning online music fandom is rare, as most scholars in the field of online fandom mainly concentrated on fans of television series. (Jenkins, 2006; Pearson, 2010; Stein and Busse, 2014). This is remarkable because there is a close-knit relationship between music fans and the development of the internet. Baym (2018) even claims that music fans have built the internet. She argues that

from the start, there was an unusual synergy between music fans and the developing world of network computing. Wherever there was networked computing, there were music fans communities leading the way, long before the masses, most musicians, or those in the music industries caught on. (p.95)

Online fandom and music fans thus share a rich tradition, which is why the observation put forward by Giles (2013) is remarkable. Yet, he is only partially right. Baym (2018) lists two ways in which musicians can deal with the online presence of their fans: either accept their autonomy and leave them to their own devices, or let them help by incorporating them into the business model. Based on this distinction, online music fandom studies can equally be divided into two categories: a first one in which the artist is present in the

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online fan community, and a second one in which the artist has chosen not to interfere on the platforms designed by the fans (which is the category the AF Gang belongs to). Studies belonging to the first category cannot be considered as rare, it is well-documented how artists have engaged in conversations with their fans (Click, Lee and Holladay, 2013; Beer, 2008), set up crowdfunding campaigns to finance an album (Baym, 2018; Potts, 2012), and actively rely on fans to produce content such as video clips (Potts, 2012) and even songs (Shryane 2010). Studies belonging to the second category, on the other hand, are in line with Giles’ observation. Apart from Giles’ (2013) study, Wall and Dubber (2010) and Bennett (2012) have explored these ‘fan-only’ communities. In these studies, the focus is on the relationship between fans and their fan object (the fans and the music), and how the fans discuss concerts, new releases, song lyrics, and engage in ‘specialist’ talk about the fan object. These studies concerning ‘fan-only’ communities do not focus on how fans move beyond their object of fandom.

3.2. Community in an online context

It is noteworthy that studies on these fan-only communities have focused on various things, but not on how community is created, despite community being the ‘in-term’ in online studies. (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2007) However, defining community has been proven to be very complicated. Preece and Maloney-Krichmar (2007) mention there is a feeling of angst connected to using the term and Kendall (2011) goes as far as saying that defining community means defining the undefinable. The latter study lists three approaches to defining community in a digital context: the first is by Porter (2004) who focuses on interaction around a shared interest, the second emphasizes relationships and shared norms, values, and identity (Etzioni, 2004, p. 225), the third approach follows Feenberg and Bakadjieva (2004) and concerns how online forums create virtual community. Defining community is that complicated Kendall (2011) even points out how academics have suggested to abandon the term. A less radical solution is offered by Preece and Maloney-Krichmar (2007) who suggest that:

A more productive approach may be to accept community as a concept with fuzzy boundaries that is perhaps more appropriately defined by its membership. […] While this approach to definition might be hard to accept, it may encourage us to concentrate more on substantive issues such as how communities are created, evolve, or cease to exist online.

When looking at the community debate in the online fandom context, it is important to note how Sandvoss (2005) is also less concerned with defining the undefinable:

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While the debate as to whether online networks can be accurately described as communities is ongoing, there can be little doubt that many fans themselves imagine these networks as a community and equal to other friendship ties. (p. 56)

This indicates that the fandom scholar Sandvoss does not engage in those questions put forward by scholars who suggest abandoning the term community. Sandvoss puts the fans first, what matters most to him is that fans perceive these networks as possessing a sense of community. The debate pops up in Pearson (2010) as well, when she argues that “clearly the issue of community in all its ramifications constitutes a key and unresolved tension in fandom as well as in the digital economy as a whole” (p. 93). At one point Pearson then asks how important community to fandom is, and how that community should be defined. In order to answer this, she draws on an exchange between Kristina Busse and Cornel Sandvoss on Henry Jenkins’ blog in 2007. Pearson observes that to Busse, fandom and community go hand in hand, as Busse states that “fandom requires a community and participation in that community – and possibly self-identification with that community” (Busse and Sandvoss, 2007). It can thus be concluded that however complicated the issue of defining community may prove to be, fandom scholars still attribute a great deal of value towards fans themselves experiencing a sense of community.

Fellow fandom scholar Baym (2000) sees community as a platform on which social relations can be built between those people that engage with each other on the platform. In a similar way as Sandvoss (2005) and Pearson (2010) emphasize the importance of fans themselves perceiving online networks as communities, she too highlights it is important that the fan forum she examined “feels like a community for those involved” (Baym, 2000, p. 197). Her vision on community concerns the way in which online forums create virtual community, and thus closely resembles the approach of Feenberg and Bakadjieva (2004). In the previous subchapter, it was highlighted how in research on ‘fan-only’ groups in online music fandom studies the focus lays on how the fans talk about the fan object, and not how a sense of community is created. Baym (2000) makes a similar observation relating to online television fandom studies. She praises Jenkins (1992) for its social groundings, meaning that it does not study fans in isolation but in relation to their social networks, but regrets that the focus is still only on “how these communities function as organized institutions of interpretation, focusing on the media text and the fan generated text in response” (Baym, 2000, p. 18), and not on how interpersonal connections are formed. The main goal of her book (2000) closely resembles the aim of this study, as it too seeks to understand how the members in her case study (r.a.t.s., a soap forum) move beyond the object of their fandom (soaps) and start to build social relations. Because of this close resemblance, her study, which is a key work within fandom studies, and her

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findings provide a valuable theoretical background for this discussion. To answer her question, Baym draws on five forces that shape online community:

(1) the medium; (2) the topic; (3) the members of the community; (4) the influential members; (5) the offline contexts of these members.

The unique interaction between these ‘online community-shaping forces’ enables the members of her case study to develop a welcoming and supportive environment in which friendships can be formed with people they, at first glance, only have their love for the object of fandom (soaps) in common with. Consequentially, equally to Baym (2000), applying this framework to our case study should provide us with an insight on the development of a sense of community that enables and encourages the members in the AF Gang to move beyond their object fandom (IDLES’ music) and start to open up about their personal issues. All these forces are at play differently in her case study than they are in the AF Gang. The IDLES fan group operates around a different topic (music rather than soaps), on a different medium (the social network Facebook rather than the Web1.0 forum Usenet), and, naturally, has different members (with different offline contexts and different people taking up an influential role). Using Baym’s findings as a framework thus means determining how these forces are at play in this case study, and what this says about the community that is created.

In the last subchapters of this literature study, Baym’s indications on how to apply these five ‘online community-shaping forces’ to other case studies will be described. Next to this, we shall also outline the relevant scholarly work on the medium (Facebook), the topic (music and lyrics), and the cluster of forces connected to the members, that should be taken into account when applying these forces to our case study, and to determine their role in the creation of a community that allows the members to open up about their personal issues.

3.2.a. Shaping online community: the Medium-force

Baym (2000)’s relation to the Medium-force in her framework is complicated. On the one hand, the whole framework is built upon indicating that there are more forces at play in shaping online communities than just the online medium. It serves as a reaction to early researches suggesting that the medium is the only force that is important in influencing computer-mediated interaction, something which she calls short-sighted:

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Conceptualizing all online communities as a single phenomenon because they share medium is like reducing all towns, cities, and villages to a single phenomenon because all of them are built on earth. (p. 201)

On the other hand, this does not mean that Baym considers the role of the medium as inferior or non-existent, she does explain that the medium rightfully has its place in the framework. She points out that “the removal of geographical constraints allows people who might otherwise never meet to come into contact” (Baym, 2000, p. 199). But much more importantly, she explains that rather than looking at the one commonality (the fact that it is online), studies trying to understand the complexity of online groups should examine the differences, mainly in terms of the specific features of the platforms on which the online communities are hosted.

Baym’s case study, the r.a.t.s. community, is located on a Usenet newsgroup. She argues that specific features of that platform, the header-organized and interest-specific structure, shape the online community. Her research was conducted in the 1990s, at a time in which the Web was still seen as Web 1.0, the web of documents (Anderson, 2007). As of this writing, we are now in the context of Web 2.0, the web of people (Anderson, 2007), in this context, social network sites are central. The AF Gang is located on the social network site Facebook, meaning we should thus look at the specific features of the Facebook platform and how these shape online community. In a later study, Baym (2009) herself has observed how: Hardly any work looks at community in the context of social network sites, leaving a wide-open terrain for future scholarship. Online community research has shown that online groups develop behavioural standards, internal hierarchies, and provide social support. With the exception of social-capital analysis, there are no parallels within social network research, although these phenomena are likely at play. (p. 398)

This study is thus trying to find out whether for this specific case study, the findings on the creation of a community on Usenet newsgroup (popular in the 1990s) may or may not be similar to a social network site such as Facebook, one of the most popular platforms of the early 21st century.

It is plausible that the shift from a Web 1.0 newsgroup (r.a.t.s.) to a Web 2.0 Facebook group (AF Gang) comes with a different sense of community that is created, and that therefore the medium plays a big role in this issue. Research by Preece and Ghozati (1998) on emphatic online communication on 100 Web 1.0 communities has shown that while empathy has a role in all but 19/100 communities they examined, its role is most significant in actual patient and emotional support communities, in which fandom

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communities cannot be categorized. Similar research on social network sites such as Naslund et al. (2014), on the other hand, have shown that being active on social media (whose primary function is not patient and emotional support) has allowed people who struggle with mental health problems to feel less alone, support each other, and share strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges. Gowen et al. (2012) and Naslund et al. (2016) found similar results, while Fergie, Hunt and Hilton (2016) have tempered the enthusiasm, suggesting that that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (p. 86). One barrier to participation in online interaction and sharing health experiences put forward in the latter study is the “concern about compromising the presentation of identity” (Fergie, Hunt and Hilton, 2016, p. 46) on the platform.

The case study of the AF Gang seems to lean more towards the more positive discourse than the more negative discourse. However, as scholarly works on social media platforms and emphatic online communication present contradicting results, further research is needed to identify what role, if any, the medium and its specific features play in creating a sense of community in the AF Gang that allows people to open up about their very personal issues.

3.2.b. Shaping online community: the Topic-force

The topic around which most discussion revolves is the second force indicated by Baym (2000) as shaping online community. She explains that the topic plays a central part in her framework and that it brings with it a purpose. In her case study, the central topic is television soaps, and the purpose that comes with the topic is that of interpreting the content of these soaps. Baym goes on to state that because soaps are “emotional, relational, and talk-oriented” (p. 199-200), the environment that is created to interpret these soaps ideally is one that is welcoming and supportive. In the case study of this research, the band IDLES is the central topic around which most of the discussion is considered to be centred. Because despite our observation that a lot of the conversation in the AF Gang is not necessarily IDLES related, it cannot be contended that the AF Gang is a fan group dedicated to IDLES.

One of the main objectives of this study is trying to understand what forces shape the sense of community that allows the AF Gang members to open up about personal issues, and thus move beyond discussions about the topic (i.e. IDLES, the object of fandom). This observation leads us to the expectation that other things than the topic’s influence are at play in shaping the sense of community that characterizes the AF Gang. However, because the topic plays such a central part in Baym’s framework, it is thus not unlikely that

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the specific nature of the topic is an important factor in permitting fans to move beyond that very same topic after all.

Studies on music lyrics and the interpretation of these lyrics have highlighted the importance of the topic as well. In the academic field of effect studies, scholars like Greitemeyer (2009), Jacob, Guégen and Boulbry (2010), and Ruth (2016) have examined the effect of music with prosocial lyrics on prosocial behaviour, “the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself—actions such as helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperation” (Batson and Powell, 2003, p. 463). Greitemeyer (2009) conducted three experiments and concluded that exposure to songs with prosocial lyrics (1) affects an individual’s internal state which may instigate behavioural reactions, (2) fosters interpersonal empathy, and (3) increases helping behaviour. Jacob, Guéguen and Boulbry (2010) examined the effect of listening to prosocial songs on tipping behaviour in a restaurant and discovered a significant increase in this prosocial act. Ruth (2016) conducted a similar experiment with a similar outcome, but warns to take into account different explanations, such as situational states and personal traits of the customer and/or server, as well. Despite the warning that these results are thus dangerous to generalize, and the fact that they are not methods that are used within fandom studies, they do show that a certain topic (music with prosocial lyrics) can potentially influence prosocial behaviour.

In fandom studies as well, the importance of the topic – the fandom object – has been highlighted. Sandvoss (2005) proposes a model of fandom where the projection of ourselves, and who we would like to be, determines the attraction to the object of fandom, with what fans need to build an intense identification. This can also be seen in offline music fandom studies: Cavicchi (1998) observes how “fans identify general values important to being a fan and [Bruce Springsteen stories] serve as models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (p. 169). Being a fan is thus linked to identifying yourself with the object of fandom, and mirroring yourself to that object, and can, therefore, be seen as influencing your behaviour.

Similarly to Baym indicating that the topic plays a central role in her framework, the results observed in these effect studies and music fandom studies once again suggest that it is plausible that it may be the specific nature of the music and lyrics of IDLES after all that allows the members of the AF Gang to move beyond talking about the band and start opening up about personal issues. However, taking Ruth’s (2016) warnings not to exaggerate the influence of lyrics on one’s behaviour in mind, as well as our observation that what the members of the AF Gang essentially do is moving beyond the topic of their

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fandom, hence why it is expected other things than the influence of the topic are at play as well, here too, further research is needed to identify the exact role of the topic in this case study.

3.2.c. Shaping online community: cluster of forces connected to the members

The last three forces in Baym (2000)’s framework consist of the cluster of forces connected to the participants in the community: the members, the more influential members, and the offline contexts of the members. These forces are harder to examine in the context of a literature study, as all three of them obviously differ heavily in any online community. Two networks will never contain the exact same individuals with the same offline contexts, and with the same members taking up an influential role. To get a good picture of these three forces, Baym makes a few suggestions for each force, but they are not as specific as her suggestions to examine the role of the medium (detecting specific features of the platform) and the topic (looking at the interpretations of the topic).

Concerning the Members-force, Baym recommends looking at characteristics such as the gender ratio of the community, or the dominant style of writing and language patterns. Related to the Influential Members-force, Baym mentions Anne, a contributor in her case study, of whom she says that “her extremely sociable and welcoming style has helped to set the interpersonal tone for the group and has single-handedly welcomed countless new participants” (Baym, 2000, p. 200), but she also points out the role of certain traditions, such as the weekly polls, established by individuals in the community. The Offline Context-force is mainly related to how the content of the posts in the AF Gang is shaped by the backgrounds of the members. As Baym puts it: “people’s self-disclosures in r.a.t.s. indicate diverse full offline lives that are brought into the group. Their online identities are congruent with those that they stake out offline” (p. 204). As these suggestions are thus less specific than those related to the first two forces, the role of the Members-force, Influential Members-force and Offline Context-force can only be unearthed through the process of interviewing, the next stage of this study.

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4. Research design

4.1. Research goal

This study will thus focus on the AF Gang, an online community built by fans of the British rock band IDLES. The AF Gang was established in 2017, is hosted on Facebook, and currently holds 29.644 members. In the introduction, it was indicated that various popular sources have reported on how, next to a place to discuss IDLES-related things, the Facebook group also functions as a sounding board for its members to open up about all kinds of personal issues they deal with, from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. These sources have indicated how there is a strong sense of community present that encourages them to open up about these personal issues. This last aspect is what separates the AF Gang from other fan-only groups that are central online in music fandom studies, as these have mainly focused on how fans engage in specialist conversations concerning their object of fandom (cf. supra), and not how fans move beyond their object of fandom, or how community is created within the fan group. The concept of community in an online context is something that has been studied in the context of television fandom studies and Baym (2000) has named five forces that shape online community: (1) the medium, (2) the topic, (3) the members, (4) the influential members, and (5) the offline contexts of the members. The interaction between these ‘online community-shaping forces’ enables the members in her case study to move beyond their object of fandom, and develop a welcoming environment to build social relations. Our aim is similar:

To understand how the sense of community, which allows the members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to open up about their personal issues, is created within the AF Gang. In order to do so, we will draw on Baym’s findings as a framework and determine how the ‘online community-shaping forces’ are at play and what their role is in the creation of the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang.

4.2. Methods

To determine the role these forces play, we have decided to base ourselves on qualitative in-depth interviews, a common approach in fandom studies. The decision was made following Grossberg (1992), of whom Wall (2013) says that:

Grossberg wants to explore in more detail what is actually achieved through fan activity, and how it is achieved. Rather than defining the meaning of fan behaviour from a theorist’s social position, as mass culturalists did, Grossberg attempts to understand fans’ feelings from a fan’s position. (p. 236)

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This research as well seeks to find out the fans’ perspectives of what the important factors are in how the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang is established.

The data we collected in the in-depth, semi-structured interviews were analysed via the constant comparative method and, at different stages throughout the research, observations and fragments were compared thematically to seek for similarities that regularly returned (Bevers and van Bohemen, 2016; Bennett, 2013; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). This means that the roles the ‘community-shaping’ forces play in this case study were determined inductively. In order to adequately contextualise, the data we collected have also been contextualised by relevant document analysis concerning both the AF Gang Facebook group and IDLES, the band the fan group is dedicated to. The data are also linked to the relevant theoretical findings that were outlined in the literature study, as well as other sources.

4.3. Sample

A theoretical sample of eleven members of the AF Gang Facebook group participated in the in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The sample matrix can be found in the appendices (Appendix I). The ages ranged from 20 to 52. When assembling the sample we mainly strived for a well-balanced mix between active and less active members. This choice was made because Baym (2000) has pointed out that heavy posters are considered to be setting the tone for the group, and one of the things we hoped to find out was to what extent the experiences of the sense of community within the AF Gang of the active and less active members relate to each other. Three of our participants (IDLER 1049, Ellie and Scum) have obtained a badge that indicates that they are ‘conversation starters’, a system that Facebook uses to identify those members that start meaningful (in terms of comments and likes) discussions in a group. These are our most active members. A second category we use is ‘prominent members’, which consists of five participants (Gotho, Patrick, Craig, Watermelon Carrier, and Jason). These members have a high level of activity (as indicated by the Facebook search function) in the group in terms of regularly posting and commenting, but they have not obtained that badge. The last category is the less active members/lurkers, which, in our case, consists of three people (Emma, Brecht, Luka) who have made one or two posts since joining, and rarely comment but still offered relevant data.

4.4. Interview structure

The interviews were semi-structured. This means that a list with relevant topics and questions (the questionnaire can be found under Appendix II) was used to give direction to the interviews, but we also strived to allow each respondent the space to elaborate on and interpret each concept. After some general questions about the participants’ affiliation with the AF Gang, the interviews started with an open

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discussion on ‘sense of community’ in general and in the AF Gang context. They were then presented with a PowerPoint slide that showed seven forces that can potentially shape online community: (1) Facebook (the medium), (2) IDLES music and lyrics (the topic), (3) the members, (4) influential members, (5) own experiences related to the AF Gang content, (6) AF Gang traditions and taglines, and (7) AF Gang meetups. These forces correspond with Baym’s findings, as the goal of our research is to determine how the ‘online community-shaping forces’ are at play and what their role is in the creation of the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang. The seventh (7) force was added to the framework because we had noticed that the AF Gang has a strong offline component as well (cf. infra). Forces five (5) and six (6) are both connected to the ‘Influential Members’-force, but we decided to divide them into two. This decision was made for clarity reasons, and because we expected it was possible that someone would not regard certain individuals as more influential, but could still attach great importance to the role of the regularly returning traditions and taglines (cf. infra) in shaping the sense of community. Each participant was asked which, in their opinion, two forces shape the community the most, and whether there were forces that they would not link to this debate. During the next phase of the interview, we have then delved deeper into their choices and the specific role these forces may or may not play in the AF Gang, with the expectation to come to a conclusion in terms of what their role is in the creation of the sense of community within the AF Gang.

4.5. Ethical reflections

Before participants were sought, the admins of the AF Gang – Lindsay Melbourne, Louise Hughes, and Brian Mimpress – were contacted, and asked for permission. We stated clearly what the purpose of the research was, and they confirmed their consent via e-mail. After this confirmation, the participants were sought by putting up a post in the Facebook group, stating the purpose of the research. These chosen participants were then asked to sign a document which asked whether they agreed to cooperate. In this document, the purpose of this research was once again clearly outlined and emphasised, in order to guarantee consent. To avoid any confusion, the interviewer also accentuated the content of the document orally before the interview took place. Due to the specific nature of this research, at some points, the participants were expected to share personal and/or confidential information. To ensure their privacy, all personal details, i.e. places of residence and names, are either omitted (locations & names of fellow members) or pseudonymised (own names) from the transcriptions and analysis (Stevens, 2018, Mortelmans, 2018; Sales and Folkman, 2000). The participants were asked to pick a pseudonym themselves. Some of the interviews were conducted in Dutch, the native language of the interviewer. When cited in the analysis, these fragments were translated into English, trying our utmost best to remain as close to the original statements as possible. To guarantee the reliability of this research, all information collected

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throughout the research was ordered by theme, coded, and saved in a digital database. This database is only accessible to the people working on this research. All recordings of the interviews, which were conducted via the Zoom web application, are stored in this database as well. As researchers, we strictly performed our duty of care by protecting the participants, and not harming them, and not violating their human rights (Stevens, 2018).

5. Analysis

5.1. The role of the Medium-force

As explained in the literature study, the role of the Medium-force in Baym (2000)’s framework consists of two elements. Firstly, the removal of geographical constraints which brings people together, and secondly, how specific features of the online platform help shape online community. In regards to Facebook, the platform on which the AF Gang is located, it was also pointed out how scholarly works on emphatic online communication on social media sites offer contradicting results. There is the more positive discourse found in studies (Naslund et al., 2016; Naslund et al., 2014; Gowen et al., 2012) that suggest that being active on social media allows people who struggle with mental illness to feel less alone, support each other, and share strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges. Yet, more negative portrayals are found in Fergie, Hunt and Hilton (2016), in which the authors state that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (p. 86). Based on the fact that AF Gang-members share their personal stories in the Facebook group, it was expected that their experience of the medium would lean more towards the positive than the negative discourse. However, elements of both attitudes towards Facebook were observed in the interviews. In this subchapter, we will outline which specific features of the Facebook platform the interviewees have indicated as playing a role in either shaping (when related to the positive discourse), or complicating (when related to the negative discourse) their experience of a sense of community in the AF Gang.

Before delving deeper into which elements of both the positive and negative discourse were observed in the interviews, and which specific features of Facebook play a role in the establishment of a sense of community, it is worth mentioning that only three of the eleven participants mentioned Facebook as one of the two forces that are most instrumental in shaping a sense of community in the AF Gang. The reasons why Craig, Scum and Jason chose Facebook are in line with Baym’s observation that “the removal of geographical constraints allows people who might otherwise never meet to come into contact” (Baym, 2000, p. 199). Interestingly, the three participants did not mention any specific features of Facebook. The

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features were unearthed when the positive and negative attitudes towards Facebook were discussed with all participants.

In relation to the more positive discourse on emphatic online conversation on social media sites, it can be said that all three elements of the conclusion put forward by Naslund et al. (2014) – (1) feeling less alone, (2) supporting each other, and (3) sharing coping-strategies for day-to-day challenges – were observed in various interviews. A specific element of the medium that was mentioned by Emma, Scum, Ellie and Luka as relating to the first two elements is Facebook’s emoji reaction buttons, in the form of, for example, a thumb (‘liking’) and a heart (‘hearting’). Emma stated that receiving likes or hearts on a post generates a feeling of being heard, and thus feeling less alone. The accounts of Luka, Scum and Ellie express similar views, although they are more connected to the second element, the showing of a certain degree of support. As explained by Luka (who identifies as a lurker):

I do not think I would make an actual comment that soon [on posts relating to mental health

issues], but usually I react with a heart or a thumb. It is a bit passive, but I sometimes put myself

in the position of the poster and to receive a thousand likes or hearts on a post like that, I think that must feel very nice. Also, it is not that much of an effort to click on a heart, yet it still expresses a certain degree of support.

This is in line with studies by Hayes, Carr and Wohn (2016), on how a like on Facebook may have many meanings and must be seen as a complex message, and, more importantly, Spottswood and Wohn (2019), on how the reaction buttons help users to engage in social grooming. In the latter study, it is outlined how giving emoji reactions to negative posts are used as a way to “respond in some way in order to maintain the relationship (a.k.a. social grooming) when a lack of closeness or familiarity with the posters may make it difficult to determine how to respond” (Spottswood and Wohn, 2019, p. 250). In that way, it is not a coincidence that the importance of reaction buttons in offering emotional support was mentioned by Luka and Emma, as a lack of closeness or familiarity stems forward from their status as lurker/less active member.

To Gotho, Patrick, and Craig, the emoji reactions are less important. They use them, mainly because it is the easiest way to interact without having to write a comment, but the actual commenting, the high quality of those comments, and receiving helpful advice when they are asking for it, is more important. These sentiments are linked to the third element of Naslund et al.’s conclusion, sharing coping-strategies for day-to-day challenges, which in its turn could be related to the fact that Facebook facilitates many-to-many

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communication, meaning that you can comment on Facebook posts. However, being able to comment can hardly be seen as a Facebook-specific feature, many-to-many communication is also facilitated by other social network sites (Hawn, 2009) and Web 1.0 platforms such as Usenet (Baym, 2009). Therefore, comments, and more specifically the quality of those comments, is something that is down to the members using the medium, and is thus connected to the Members-force, as will be further explained in subchapter 5.3.

Elements of the negative discourse on emphatic online conversation on social media sites, the observation that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (Fergie, Hunt and Hilton, 2016, p. 46), were observed in the interviews as well. One barrier to participation in online interaction and sharing health experiences put forward in the abovementioned study is the “concern about compromising the presentation of identity” (p. 46). This came forward in the accounts of Luka and Watermelon Carrier, who feel to a certain degree reluctant to share their own personal experiences in the Facebook group because they have added friends to the group (Watermelon Carrier) or have family in the group (Luka). Similarly, despite Brecht and Emma mentioning that they would not feel reluctant to share more personal things, they do indicate that having no family or friends among the members plays a big part in this. As Emma summarizes:

It feels like one big group filled with strangers. I don’t know any of the members personally, and I guess it would be different if I did. I’d certainly keep more low profile.

The three lurkers in the interview sample, along with Watermelon Carrier, thus feel that these types of posts would conflict with the presentation of themselves towards their friends and family.

However, this seems to be a rather small side note, as it does not necessarily has to do with something that is connected to a specific feature of the medium itself. Most negative attitudes towards the medium detected in the interviews were related to grudges the participants hold to Facebook as a platform in general. More specifically, the reasons why Ellie, Gotho, Patrick, IDLER 1049 and Brecht indicated they are not particularly a fan of Facebook are connected to either the more recent studies on cyberbullying, hate speech and trolling on the platform (Singer and Brooking, 2018; Nagle, 2017; Del Vigna et al., 2017), or older studies on Facebook and the internet in general, and how these platforms lead to problems of attention distraction (Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010; Hong et al., 2014) or displace social ties and hinder well-being (Kraut et al., 1998).

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Gotho, Ellie and Patrick belong to the first category, as their resentments towards Facebook relate to the more recent studies, with Patrick stating that all he sees on Facebook is violence, which has a traumatising effect on him, and Gotho mentioning the presence of “racist dickheads” and “negative repercussions” that come with commenting on Facebook. Gotho was very vocal about her opposition to Facebook:

If it was not on Facebook… I mean, I couldn’t give a shit if it was on Facebook or not, because I’d actually prefer it if it was not. Facebook is better off with me staying on their platform because of the AF Gang.

What she is referring to in regards to “Facebook is better off with me staying on their platform”, is the 2018 Cambridge Analytica Scandal. Because of the scandal, it became apparent that during the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States, the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users’ personal data for political advertising without their consent. This played a big part in the election of Donald Trump as president of the US. The scandal made her want to quit Facebook because she does not want to share personal data with these kinds of companies, but the realisation that she would miss out on the AF Gang made her stay.

Much like Gotho, IDLER 1049 mentions the AF Gang as his main reason for staying on Facebook:

The AF Gang is my main reason for still being on Facebook. I think there are times when I could have walked away from Facebook. When I was doing my degree before IDLES were even properly together, back in 2012-2013, I stayed away from Facebook for six months, because I just had enough. It was a distraction, and it was boring.

His reasons are more related to the older studies on Facebook and the internet in general, and how they lead to problems of attention distraction (Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010; Hong et al., 2014), or displace social ties and hinder well-being (Kraut et al., 1998). Similar sentiments were found in the accounts of Brecht and Patrick (who thus belongs to both categories), who generally consider Facebook, apart from the AF Gang and some of the other music groups they are in, as a waste of time.

However strong the oppositions to Facebook were, none of the participants believed that there is a valuable alternative platform that is so widely used and allows them to have the communication they do. A similar experience of the AF Gang in terms of interaction, sense of community, and supportive nature, was deemed impossible on the other platforms on which the group is already active. Instagram is thought to be “a bit of free advertising, not really an interactive experience” (IDLER 1049) or “more of a ‘top-down’ conversation”

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(Gotho). Twitter is regarded as more interactive, because by replying to tweets you can engage in a conversation, but it does not offer enough space to have the same kind of conversation, as users can only use a limited number of characters (280). Interestingly, the interviewees hint that they prefer Facebook over Twitter because they are “given the space for lengthy conversations” (Williams, 2015, p. 10), an argument that was made by Williams in defence of still researching forums in a time when most fans gather on social media sites (including Facebook) to discuss their object of fandom. Another disadvantage of Twitter is the fact that you do not know who is behind the keyboard when tweeting from the AF Gang page, which is seen as less personal. That personal aspect to the debate would also disappear if the AF Gang were only active on their website.

Could other online platforms the participants have had experiences with in the past offer a valuable alternative? Ellie and Watermelon Carrier were active on respectively Tumblr and a classic forum, two platforms associated with (music) fandom, and their experiences were far from ideal. Ellie feels that running a so-called ‘aesthetic blog’ on Tumblr with a username and picture that have nothing to do with who you are leads into a toxic environment in which fans can and will start making up stories about their object of fandom because they remain fairly anonymous. The last time Watermelon Carrier was as active in an online community as he is now, was in 2008 on a traditional forum dedicated to the band Dogs. He holds fond memories of that time, and explains how “there was definitely a community behind it”, but feels that “it was nowhere near as good [as the AF Gang]”:

It was an online forum, so it was a lot less active, I would say. I had a feeling you really had to try and get in, and make an effort to contribute. It was not as linked to yourself as well, it was more anonymous.

Even though Watermelon Carrier sometimes feels restricted because people he knows personally are in the group (cf. supra), he states that the advantages of the AF Gang being a Facebook group far outweigh that minor disadvantage. One advantage is that because scrolling through Facebook is a constant in his life, it makes it easier to participate, as it takes a lot less effort than logging in to a separate forum, like he had to do on the Dogs-forum in 2008. Facebook being a big part of a general social media routine and habit was also an advantage put forward by Craig.

But the advantage pointed out by Watermelon Carrier which resonated the most with other people’s accounts was that the conversations feel much more real because the AF Gang is on Facebook:

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It tends to be that if I post something, you are going to see this ugly face next to the comment I’ve made (laughs). Rather than some username, it is my actual name. You can click on my profile, you might see other bits about me, in that way it does seem more real.

That sense of realness is something that is absent on the more anonymous platforms Tumblr and the classic forums, but it is something that is also rather Facebook-specific, as explained by Ellie:

I have all my family on Facebook, I have all of my friends, I have my name on there, I have pictures of nights out, you can see things I have achieved throughout my life, etcetera […] The fact that AF Gang is on Facebook lets people post about their real lives because that’s where you post about your life.

That sense of realness is thus perceived positively by Watermelon Carrier and Ellie, but also by Craig (“it helps having real people rather than silly names with cartoon characters”), and Patrick and Jason who both strictly oppose to acting anonymous on the internet. The reasoning behind it is that this sense of realness makes the members more identifiable and allows them to be more honest about themselves. According to the accounts, this then stimulates their eagerness to share their personal stories related to topics such as mental health, and certain medical or anxiety struggles.

Referring back to Baym’s framework, it can be concluded that even though there are voices of dissent in Gotho, Brecht, IDLER 1049 and Patrick – who hold grudges towards Facebook, but do indicate that they do not know an equivalent platform that allows them to have similar conversations –, the participants have indicated two specific features of Facebook that play a role in establishing a sense of community and supportive nature in the AF Gang. The first specific feature is the reaction buttons, which are seen as generating a feeling of being heard and possessing a certain degree of support. A second feature is the experience of a sense of realness, which makes the members more identifiable and therefore stimulates an eagerness to share personal stories. A third feature was mentioned as well, the fact that Facebook facilitates many-to-many communication in allowing people to comment on posts. However, as this can hardly be considered as Facebook-specific, it is something that is connected to the Members-force, as will be explained in subchapter 5.3.

5.2. The role of the Topic-force

In the interviews, seven out of eleven participants (Brecht, Emma, Luka, Patrick, Watermelon Carrier, Gotho and Scum) mentioned the topic (IDLES’ music and lyrics) as being instrumental in establishing a sense of community in the AF Gang. At first glance this seems rather surprising, as it has been indicated

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before that what essentially happens in conversations in the AF Gang in which people open up about their personal struggles, is people moving beyond discussions about the topic (IDLES). Hence why it was expected that other things than the topic are at play. On the other hand though, being a fan of IDLES is what connects most of the members of the AF Gang, which therefore makes IDLES the central topic around which most discussion revolves, and this is something that plays a central role in Baym’s (2000) framework. As Baym explains, the topic brings with it a purpose, that of interpretation, which in turn ideally leads into the creation of a particular environment that allows the fulfilment of this purpose. Projected onto her case study, she explains that the topic is soaps and the interpretation that soaps are emotional, relational, and talk-oriented then leads to an environment that is welcoming and supportive.

The central topic in this case study is thus the music and lyrics of IDLES, and consequently, the question arises how the participants interpret that topic, and what this says about the environment that is created. It was observed that the answers to that question – “What is the main message that you take from listening to IDLES?” – are closely related to three central themes of the band’s second album Joy as an Act

of Resistance (released in 2018): (1) power in vulnerability, (2) love yourself, and (3) unity, inclusivity and

solidarity.

The first theme was identified by Watermelon Carrier (“there’s power in vulnerability”), Craig (“vulnerability is okay, it is okay to cry […] Since getting into IDLES, I’ve been crying more than I have ever done in my life”) and Patrick (“don’t be afraid to cry and to deal with your personal tragedies”). Three songs on the album explicitly deal with that idea: there is the “I wanna be vulnerable!”-outcry in ‘Love Song’, the cover of soul singer Solomon Burke’s ‘Cry To Me’, and, most importantly, ‘Samaritans’. The title of the last song refers to a charity organisation that IDLES-frontman Joe Talbot describes as “the epitome of what we want to achieve” (Glynn, 2018), as it provides emotional support to people in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide. The song lyrics deal with, in Talbot’s words, toxic ideas about being a man (“the mask of masculinity / is a mask that’s wearing me”) and masculine norms which he describes in the song’s verses as:

man up, sit down, chin up, pipe down, socks up, don’t cry, drink up, don’t whine, grow some balls, he said.

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Various studies (Wong, et al., 2017; O’Neil, 2012) have shown that conformity to such masculine norms is associated with negative mental health, as well as unfavourably related to seeking psychological help. In the chorus, Talbot expresses that he does not want to conform to these norms. The line “I’m a real boy and I cry!”, which contrasts directly with the masculine norm “don’t cry” from the song’s verse, demonstrates the showing of vulnerability as a reaction to those ‘toxic’ norms that lead to negative mental health. In that way, it is thus not surprising that the three participants who mentioned ‘power in vulnerability’ as one of the main messages they take from listening to IDLES are male.

To a lot of participants, the “love yourself”-message is really important. Emma states that “the lyrics to ‘Television’ touched me deeply and made me think differently about myself”, to Watermelon Carrier an important aspect is that “you can’t be a good person when you treat yourself like shit”, and Gotho, Ellie, IDLER 1049 and Patrick all indicated similar things. The two songs on the album that most explicitly deal with these themes are ‘I’m Scum’ and ‘Television’. The former is a celebration of imperfection, while the latter is dealing with depictions of beauty and perfection in magazines and on television which, as pointed out in various studies (Mills, Shannon and Hogue, 2017; Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar, 2005; Tiggemann and McGill, 2004), can lead to mood and body dissatisfaction. This means that ‘Television’ shows that, much like masculine norms having a negative effect on mental health, beauty and perfection standards displayed in popular media cause a similar effect. Talbot takes a stand at these standards by reminding the listener to accept themselves and feel confident with themselves, which is emphasised through the repetition of the phrase “love yourself”.

The third theme relates to the second in the sense that it is not only about loving yourself, but also loving others, which was expressed in variations such as “compassion for all” (Luka), “looking after and caring for each other” (Scum), “teaching how to be tolerant with yourself and others” (IDLER 1049), and “in one word: unity” (Brecht). The use of that last word is not a coincidence, an exclamation of “UNITY!” wraps up the album, which seems to suggest this is the main message the listener needs to remember from the album. Unity-exclamations are also repeated throughout ‘Danny Nedelko’, one of the band’s most well-known songs (at the time of writing it is their most streamed song on Spotify and second most viewed music video on YouTube). ‘Danny Nedelko’ is a pro-immigration song celebrating multiculturalism, although passages such as “he’s made of bones, he’s made of blood, / he’s made of flesh, he’s made of love, / he’s made of you, he’s made of me, / unity!” can be interpreted as a celebration of not only immigration but diversity and inclusivity as a whole.

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Allowing and stimulating vulnerability, self-love, and inclusivity can all be considered as prosocial themes. This means that the participants’ interpretations of the topic are conform Jenkins’ (2006) argument that fan communities ensure uniformity of reading the fan text. In the AF Gang, however, this uniformity is implied, because the members rarely actively discuss IDLES’ lyrics. Yet, it should also be noted that every participant indicated that those messages they take from listening to IDLES are very important in their experience of being an IDLES-fan. The value they attach to the messages range from a reinforcing of the beliefs they have had all their lives (mostly indicated by the older participants such as Scum and Jason), to something that gives them strength, and encouraging them to carry on (Ellie, Watermelon Carrier, and Gotho) or re-evaluating their outlook on life (Emma and IDLER 1049). Patrick and Gotho even confessed that if the lyrics would be more generic they would stop listening to the band, or would never have become such a big fan in the first place.

Following Baym’s argument that in her case study the interpretation of television soaps (the topic) as emotional, relational, and talk-oriented leads into a welcoming and supportive environment, it seems reasonable to conclude that an online community built around a topic that is interpreted as allowing and stimulating vulnerability, self-love, and inclusivity leads to an equally welcoming and supportive environment. Moreover, as themes like self-love and inclusivity can be considered as prosocial, this would also be in line with the positive outcomes of the studies on the effect of music with prosocial lyrics on prosocial, supportive behaviour (Jacob, Guégen and Boulbry, 2010; Greitemeyer, 2009).

However, as Baym points out, this is something that ideally happens, not automatically. Giles (2013), for example, mentions two studies on online fandom communities with a similar topic as Baym’s case study, i.e. television series, that are far less harmonious (Johnson, 2007; Scodari, 2003). Applied to online music fandoms, this nuance shows that just because a band spreads a message of tolerance and open-mindedness or has lyrics that deal with mental health issues, it does not necessarily mean fans of that band will automatically engage in the same conversations as the participants in the AF Gang do. For instance, a lot of the interviewees are also a member of a Facebook group dedicated to The Murder Capital, an Irish post-punk band that has supported IDLES at various concerts, which is one of the reasons why the Irish band has a lot of IDLES fans in their fan base. Much like IDLES, mental healthcare is a strong theme in the lyrics of The Murder Capital (Hutchinson, 2020; Hot Press Newsdesk, 2019). Yet, the discussions in the Murder Capital group mainly evolve around the band itself such as concert reports, discussions concerning new single releases, or analysing song lyrics, the more common characteristics of an online music fan group. The participants who are also a member of the Murder Capital Facebook group have all indicated that while

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they enjoy the group as a useful platform to stay informed on updates about the band, they feel that a sense of community in that group is either not present, or very different from the AF Gang. Even though seven out of eleven participants identified ‘IDLES’ music and lyrics’, the topic, as one of the two most instrumental forces shaping the sense of community, none of the interviewees could really explain this difference. However, three possible explanations can be found in various accounts on how specific elements of IDLES’ music and lyrics play a role in shaping a sense of the community in the AF Gang Facebook group: the straightforwardness of the lyrics, the experience of inclusivity during IDLES’ concerts, and the discourse of the band itself.

A first explanation can be found in the straightforward nature of the lyrics. As Luka points out:

The lyrics are very important. They are easy to understand, the message is clear and obvious, but still very strong. They are full of simple little quotes with which you can really say something. That makes it easier for me to associate with, and for a group as well, I guess.

Jason (“Joe is very good at fronting an idea”) and Gotho (“the songs work like anthems”) hold similar points of view. Examples of these quotable lines in their lyrics that operate as mantras which are representative for the band’s message include the aforementioned repetitions of “love yourself!” in the song ‘Television’, the “I wanna be vulnerable!”-outcry in ‘Love Song’, and the “UNITY!”-exclamations throughout ‘Danny Nedelko’. In this way, these elements indicate that IDLES’s lyrics are reminiscent of the way punk lyrics work, even though the band does not want to be labelled as punk. According to Talbot, using the punk label is an insult “to blues, to calypso, to reggae, to everything that came before punk that was the epitome of what subversive art in the face of adversity truly is. […] this didn’t start in 1975” (List, 2020). Yet, whether the band self-identifies as punk or not, it cannot be argued that the straightforward element which characterises their lyrics, is also very characteristic for punk lyrics, as Bennick (2018) explains:

Punk lyrics are written for impact and interpretation. They are written to incite and inspire. […] Often they are direct and brutally honest. This might be because of the lack of the writer’s lyrical ability. I mention this not as a condemnation of the lyricists, but rather quite the opposite: Punk lyricists don’t wait for artistic style to befall them after years of artistic refinement. They have something to say now and they get it done. Taking action takes precedent over waiting. (p.11)

This straightforwardness results in punk lyrics operating as “words that you can carry with you and see everywhere you go” (Bennick cited in Ambrosch, 2018, p. 142), or, as Ambrosch (2018) puts it: mantras.

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This is in line with the accounts of Jason, Gotho and Luka. It thus seems that because IDLES’ songs are both easy to understand and containing a powerful message, it is easier to develop clear values to build a supportive community upon.

Luka, Brecht, Scum, Patrick, Emma, Gotho and IDLER 1049 indicated that the messages put forward by IDLES are amplified through their concerts. Patrick mentioned that the passion of frontman Joe Talbot, and how he aggressively stamps on the stage during performances, plays a big part in the delivery of the message, and shows how serious they take it. This echoes what Trevor Thomas, drummer of punk bands Active Slaughter and Anthrax, says about punk performances: “the message is the most important thing, but the delivery of that message is very important as well […] it adds to the message” (Thomas cited in Ambrosch, 2018, p. 73). A second way in which IDLES’ messages are amplified through the concerts is also linked to an aspect that is seen as typical for punk concerts. Ambrosch (2018) explains that during punk concerts:

It is not at all uncommon for the singer to hand the microphone to the audience, giving them a chance to sing as well, which, reflecting the community’s broadly egalitarian attitude, is intended to break down the hierarchical barrier between the artist and the audience. (p.106)

Drawing on Bernhart (2015), Ambrosch concludes that this is “likely to establish a community feeling, a sense of solidarity” (Bernhart, 2015, p. 271). Rather than breaking down the hierarchical barrier by handing the microphone to the audience, IDLES do so by letting audience members play their instruments. Gotho, for instance, spoke fondly of the first time she saw the band in concert:

It was really amazing that the band let everybody take their instruments. I remember this older lady with long white hair who was playing the drums. It was not very good, but she did it and I thought it was fucking amazing. It was the best experience ever during a gig.

By doing this, IDLES are reinforcing their message of inclusivity, but also of self-love, because the audience members’ ability to play the instrument, or lack of ability, does not matter. As Rohrer (2013) states, during such practices, the active participation and sense of belonging is more important than the musical aspect. The fans feel that they are loved by the band. After seeing a live performance, IDLER 1049’s wife, who is not particularly a fan of IDLES, summarised the experience to him as: “I can see why you love this band, because you can see that they love you.” It can thus be said that the messages of the band that are expressed in the lyrics, are reinforced during the concerts. This makes these messages more clear, and even harder to ignore or misunderstand. This then, once again, makes it easier to develop the values for a supportive community.