ChrisPaper

It's ten thirty in the morning and there are more people with pleather pants, oversize sunglasses, and sparkling homemade T-shirts than I know what to do with. I stare at them, the desired response I suppose, like Zorblatt from the planet Zopco will stare at our business suit leaders as he experiences earth for the first time. All right, so maybe that's an exaggeration, at any rate it describes my feeling. I shade my eyes to get a better look and maybe, if I'm lucky, block these people from seeing the word that has emblazoned itself on my forehead: Outsider.

It's ten thirty in the morning, and I'm a 6 foot 4 manly guy, with a manly goatee, in my manly Paul Simon/Bob Dylan concert shirt, and I have a costume shop pair of very unmanly devil horns on my head. Not to mention I'm carrying an inflatable car, and I've checked my pocket for the 75th time to make sure I still have the tickets. I look over at my partner in crime, the reason I'm there, the fan to end all fans (at least in my existence).   He is wearing a mechanics shirt, the name tag proudly reading "Bono" and a T-shirt he had purchased the previous night with the tour emblems on it.

"What time is it?" I say still shielding the sun.

"8 hours man, that's all you need to know." He answers without slowing his pace.

I had entered a world I didn't know existed, a world that I had heard about, but doubted the seriousness of. I was no longer part of the culture I knew, I was at the U2 concert. More accurately I am in line for the U2 concert and in the hub of a subculture that has been on rise since the early eighties. A subculture that has evolved from one of political ferocity, to that of media frenzy. U2 has continued to reinvent itself as has their fans. All the telltale signs of a subculture are here. Costumes, maybe not in the common sense, but certainly old tour shirts, Bono inspired clothing, home made shirts with sayings only the fans, and in most cases the band, will understand, dot the line that has already accumulated 150 people by 10:30 in the morning. Paraphernalia, such as record collections, the inflatable trabant I carried, as well as blankets, pictures, and just about anything else you can think of, being shown off shared and discussed throughout the line. But it isn't stuff that ties this group together, in fact, it isn't even necessarily the band. To these people its the community.

U2 has several thousand fan web sites, dozens of web zines, and an official fan club. One particular web site, "Wire," an online message board system existing for the sole purpose of uniting U2 fans, has a system of identification, so as to allow Wire members to find each other at concerts. People who had never met talked like old friends, exchanged pictures and stories and saved places in line. It was never out of the question to get up and walk around and come back only to find your place being upheld by the strangers around you.

There are fan gatherings, fan discussions, and hundreds of other excuses to meet besides concerts, just as there are in other subgroups. There are the hard-core people that pride themselves on their memorabilia collection or their useless U2 trivia knowledge. These illustrate the core of any subculture following a single piece of media. Whether it be a band, a television show, a movie, or anything that attracts a following of like-minded people. The interesting aspects of these cultures, doesn't necessarily come from their idiosyncrasies, it comes from what makes them have the same ideals.

Books could, and have, been written about fans that go from city to city, E-bay giving U2 its own auction section, groups of fans calling roadies and crew members by their first name, how the politics of the fan club works, how some fans prefer old U2 to new U2, or even what the band themselves think of their crazy fans, and all of this would be interesting. But what shapes them, what drives these people, is the real greatness, the truly interesting aspect of their world.

For some it was the music that got them into it, for some it was the high-energy concerts., for some it was the fan base, and for yet others it was all by accident. A friend brought them to this, or an "I won tickets through a radio give away once and...," but there is something larger than U2 that keeps them coming, something that, beyond entertaining them, touches their soul in some way. Fans of U2, and fans in general, look to these subcultures as an escape. Whether it be from boredom, or from their parents, or from a less inclusive culture, or, as in most cases, loneliness.

Mass media can propagate and alienate people from a culture, it can brain wash them or confuse their daily normative values. But in some cases, the audience chooses to be "duped" by culture, duped in the cynical sense. Perhaps, however, they know full well they are choosing to integrate themselves into a culture unquestioningly. What these subgroups do is the idea that one must always remove the aura from art and media. Suddenly, it feels good to close the critical eye, it feels good to accept something without cynicism. These subcultures are a response to this cynicism, a response to the idea that the media is full of "bad things." Sometimes it is good to have fun, sometimes its good to allow media to give meaning instead of always painstakingly interpreting meaning ourselves.

U2 sings about the "bad things" in media, U2 sings about being independent and being happy and free. These people, despite their lemming like followings are doing just that. They are freeing themselves from both the bad things in culture, and the depression of accepting the false consciousness around you. These fans have escaped the false consciousness by deciding to accept it on their own terms, to find the item they most relate with, and want to relate with and make it their own. There is no better way to fight the system than to accept on terms they didn't lay down. The implications of this is that life will be better understood for these people on a positive level. These cultures are not an unhealthy escape, but a welcome detour for the daily cynicism.   They are being independent by choosing, as an informed audience to let down their guard, and enjoy life for what it truly needs to be. Fan subcultures epitomize this idea, and U2 fans do it in their unique way. U2 fans are happy, U2 fans are fun, U2 fans need each other, U2 allows them to let down their hair, U2 makes them smile, because the rest of life can be so easily frowned upon.

It was during a great moment in the concert, nearly nine hours since I had gotten into line, Bono sang less than four feet away from me, as we had made it into the front row, the lights flashed and I was lifted off my feet by the pulse of the concert, I turned my head to see the audience and it hit me. It was the cynicism. I began to criticize the things going on around me, the madness, the ridiculousness of it all, and then, as I saw the reflection of my devil horns in a shadow at Bono's feet, and as Bono hit a note at the same time as the other twenty thousand people, I smiled and realized how great it feels to be duped once in awhile.