Cult following
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- This article does not discuss cultist groups, personality cults, or "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice". See cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".
A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific area of pop culture. Cult followings most often develop around television shows, films, books, and radio programs. Some comic books, video games, musicians and writers also gain cult followings. Non-media items may also have what could be considered cult followings, for example the Apple computers.
Cult followings are often dedicated enough that many people of similar interest are familiar with one another due to convention gatherings, concerts, message boards, Internet chat rooms, word of mouth, or shops featuring related items.
These dedicated followings are usually relatively small and pertain to items that don't have broad mainstream appeal. An exception is Star Trek, whose followers call themselves "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". Star Trek has an extremely large following but can still be considered 'cult' due to the intense loyalty the franchise inspires.
"Cult following" is also used to describe the more obsessive fans of established mainstream performers. For example, many persons have been interested in Michael Jackson's music or in Disney films, but some fans take their interest to extreme levels, hoarding vast amounts of collectables. Some such "cult fans" occasionally veer into obsessive-compulsive disorders or stalking; however, cult followings do not necessitate that individuals partake in cultish activities.
Cult followings establish their own canons and cherish the notion of cult classics, which are individual items with cult followings. Cult followings are usually generated through a film or television show having targeted a particular genre, typically fantasy, sci-fi, comedy or horror, but occasionally other types of films or TV series will produce a cult following.
While cult followings are unquestionably more prevalent among the uncritical, examples of this phenomenon exist in serious culture as well, especially among certain sub-segments of the public, such as gay men and other cultural minorities. Thus we find cults of certain writers, such as Yukio Mishima, Colette, or Simone de Beauvoir; composers like Erik Satie or Edgar Varèse; or performers, like Maria Callas, Magda Olivero, Clara Haskil and many, many ballet dancers. [1] [Apr 2007]
