Fan Music Videos, Fan Romanticism, and Romantic Content

As media corporations continue to consolidate, big hits become even bigger as the same story is told in different ways on different platforms. Thus, the most popular teen fiction novels become the most popular teen fiction films. In this way, Harry Potter and Twilight became massive, wildly successful commercial franchises mostly because of their fan followings. Although no new content is being produced in the Harry Potter or Twilight universes, both series continue to inspire a plethora of fan-made creative works. These works take many forms and are often posted online. These fan communities are worthy of study because they've taken two highly successful commercial franchises and made them their own, pioneering a kind of consumption that is anything but passive and uncritical. With this in mind, I have grounded my research questions and assumptions in the findings of researchers who studied other media fandoms. This study utilized a survey and a content analysis in order to illuminate the connections between fans' romantic desires and the romantic content of their music videos.