Because “following pop music” became my hobby when I was in and out of the hospital in 2022 and 2023, I spend more time than I should reading pop music forums.1 As far as these places go, all you really need to know is… well, you don’t really need to know anything, but the culture is constant trash talk and ragebaiting, obsessing over chart performance, decrying others for obsessing over chart performance, and so on. It’s the an atmosphere that’s fun—which is why I always end up back at one of these places when I’m procrastinating—until something shifts and it becomes clear that some people are actually very angry about pop music all the time.
Sometimes, upon contact with online pop fandom, people will say something like, the problem with this stuff, in particular its obsession with chart positions and records, is that it’s really misplaced sports fandom. To the extent that is true, you can tell it’s true because sports fans love whining. You whine about the refs, you whine about your t…
