“The anticipation culture around his album has moved to people anticipating the merch, remixes, and so on,” Fadia says, noting that there’s an evolution with anticipation culture as it carries over for the whole life cycle - pre, during, and post-album.Ĭole Cuchna, the host of Dissect - a podcast which analyses one album per season, such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, To Pimp a Butterfly and Blonde, and dissects a song per episode - believes elements of this trend in its current form originated on the subreddits of Reddit (which launched in 2005) where fans began sharing their fan artwork. “They feel like he's one of them and he's not your typical rapper.” Since Eternal Atake was finally surprise released on 8 March, the community have used these accounts to discuss their favourite tracks, debating which songs he should make music videos for, and getting excited about his future tour.
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“I think Uzi is just so relatable and he loves his fans,” Fadia says. Gerry’s account allows him to talk to fans regularly about Uzi’s music, speculations, songs and so on. "I know that Uzi and his team watch my account, so it’s vital that I’m able to present the feedback that might help him make career-changing decisions.” “It makes me feel connected to the artist because I communicate with the fans, ask questions, get opinions," Gerry explains. Uzi himself has also engaged with the account. Since starting Gerry has gained several solid connections to the artist’s own network. By building these networks on Instagram, these accounts’ commitment to their favourite artists is escalated to a higher level. “Super fans in general have the tendency to think: I love this artist so much, if I create memes and tag my favourite artists, other super fans are going to see it and re-share my content, and maybe the artist is going to see it too,” Fadia says. Plus, if you’re into sneakers and streetwear, you’re likely a fan of Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti.”Ī big part of anticipation culture is not just about the devotion to a singular artist, it’s a way to connect with a community of other super fans and form a real-life network. “A lot of these fans are submerged in the streetwear scene, so naturally they’re going to take the Supreme approach to music. According to her, habits around these two trends naturally cross-pollinate. Fadia compares anticipation culture to fashion’s drop culture, where there’s a lot of buildup around an item or collection of merchandise. “Rapid hip-hop culture lives on Instagram where fans and followers use the platform to form communities around their favourite artists and stay up-to-date on current trends in the space,” Fadia Kader, a creative strategist on the music partnerships team at Instagram says. a self-explanatory Instagram account with 84,000 followers at the time of writing - acts as both a source of up-to-date news on “FO3”, as well as a kind of therapeutic forum to release frustration at Frank’s lack of music via a shared sense of humour. In this way, anticipation culture is building a community around not just new music, but the very idea of it. Some make fan album covers in anticipation of an announcement, while others take a pre-release or leaked song and create their own video edits. Tracking photoshoots, meet-ups and studio sessions that could indicate a record’s progress, the resulting information leads to speculation, while fans morph these tiny shreds of details into memes.
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Put simply, the fans running these accounts get the scoop on new tracks by following not just the artists themselves but their managers, producers, collaborators and close friends, scouring through their endless posts, stories, comments and follows for a glimmer of news. Since July 2018, accounts such as and have been acting as inside sources where fans can get the most up-to-date information to followers before it reaches - and often informing - the mainstream news cycle. Two artists to have experienced this kind of behaviour from their fans are hip-hop’s Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, whose respective new albums Whole Lotta Red (release date still tbc) and Eternal Atake (out now! finally!) have been subject to years of delays.