This seems believable sometimes
(This one is pretty clear. A lot of people will only be a fan of a team as long as that team is winning. When losing, they’ll jump ship. Believe they’re called ‘fair weather fans’ and there was another term I forgot. This poem touches on this mentality and the opposite.)
I cheer a team that you might leave
Because they have hard times
That last for many years
Bumbling plays that test my heart
With a few smart moves mixed in
I keep watching every game
Holding out some hope
For a win to come this day
Or at least losing with a fight
To proudly say they tried
So you can leave and choose again
Because you hate to lose
Acting like you are a loyal fan
When you will slink away
The moment your team falls
I will stay true to my team
Through losing streaks and championships
Groaning after every stumble
But never giving up on them
Because there will always be next year
Legends of Windemere 
I’m happy that all of the Chicago teams have won at least one championship. I think the Cubs win was the one that moved everyone the most here, because Cubs fans always said, “There’s always next year.”
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I know so many people who use that phrase. Good to keep hope alive.
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This has the roots of a story, but with fantasy gladiators whose lives depend on their fan following…
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I’d be surprised if nobody has done that before.
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Yeah, the gladiator’s life depending on fans is probably not that new of an idea…
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That meme does seem believable. Haha! I know what you mean about fair weather fans since I’ve seen them directly and indirectly. I haven’t had that situation of jumping ship from a losing team even though I get why people do that. For me, I’ve jumped ship from other fandoms if the fans are too toxic, the creators do something egregious, or worse case scenario I get fandom shamed by someone. However, this poem was quite apt in describing those fickle sports fans.
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Growing up, kids accused others of being fair weather fans a lot. Over sports, tv shows, superheroes, etc. there was this idea that you don’t quit on what you enjoy just because they start doing bad or other people give up.
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I’ve heard that term when it came to sports, but not too much else growing up. Maybe since I wasn’t much of a sports fan, I wasn’t called a fair weather fan before, as least not to my face or my attention. That notion didn’t seem to apply to me since bullies made fun of me for what I liked or wanted me to stop liking certain things even though I wasn’t hurting anyone or doing anything harmful. There was one time I stopped liking a certain band just to spite someone who made fun of me and I said it to his face. It’s like…what did I ever do to anyone just for liking something? Thankfully, I was in a good mood for most of the month after finally taking a vacation after mot taking one in 6 years to see a music festival and it was awesome feeling accepted and not being made fun of for my musical tastes. It was a godsend because I had a ton of bitterness for the music scene (long story). I wished I would’ve grown up in an environment where people would tell me not to jump ship on something besides sports.
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Did you ever get back into that band?
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I did eventually. I did listen to them years after that fact, but not so much these days. Part of it had to do with changing music tastes and at one point a massive disillusionment with the music scene, but most of that was lifted during and after my vacation when (GASP!) I actually saw the reasons worth liking music again with decent human beings there. Okay, I did a scathing rant about something on my blog last Monday on a different topic and I’m recently fuming over certain decisions involving history with justice not getting done, but those are different situations. It felt good being able to actually LIKE something for once and seeing some friends in bands in person that I haven’t seen in a decade.
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I never got into the music scene. Simply enjoyed music when I found stuff I liked. So I never paid much attention to the artists themselves. Probably why I listen to a wide variety of genres.
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That’s fine if you weren’t into the music scene. Good on you for listening to a variety of genres. Same here and it expanded when I checked out more international artists. I’ve been into independent music since my teens. My understanding became more up-ended when I discovered the producer Ian Brennan and how he recorded several musicians from countries such as Comoros, Vietnam, Kosovo, Zambia, etc. I would recommend his book How Music Dies (or Lives) and it really shows his mindset of deconstructing the term “world music”, spotlighting artists who need to get attention, and really showing how so many artists in the West suffer from so many first world problems (I’ll ignore the low hanging fruit from a lot of pop punk music. Haha!).
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Never heard of Ian Brennan, but I’m sure that’s not surprising. Was he saying that musicians in other countries have a lot of problems getting noticed? If so, that kind of implies that you need to become big in the West to succeed anywhere. That’s kind of monopoly-like.
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Ian Brennan is very low profile even in the world of producers/studio engineers. To be fair, he’s not someone who looks for fame and has a lot of disdain against mainstream music without resorting to hipster logic. He mentioned a few factors about artists can feel pressured to make it big in the West, but there are other factors such as the language barrier being an obvious one, monopolizing/commoditizing music scenes or subcutlures, an expectation that certain countries or continents have only specific sounds, lo-fi recordings out of necessity compared to aesthetics (see bedroom pop music for the latter), and this disdain for music that isn’t or doesn’t sound Western among other reasons.
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Sounds like what a lot of arts deal with. Definitely heard the same issues with foreign authors.
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Absolutely and I’ve noticed that in other fields which is a shame. On a positive note (music pun not intended), it’s fascinating how people in other countries make their own Indigenous music or putting their own cultural spin on various genres. You have The Hu who make Mongolian rock music in their language and using their native instruments and they’ve surprisingly made a tiny bit of American mainstream attention even if they made a version of their song “Wolf Totem” featuring English verses from the guy from Papa Roach. There’s also Arka’n who are a metal band from Togo of all places that use West African rhythms mixed with guitars, basses, and drums, reference mythology from their home country, and some of their songs are in the Togolese language of Ewe (pronounced Yay-way) in addition to English and French. It feels good when I show random international artists to others and they get intruiged despite language and cultural differences and it feels better when those bands shatter people’s expectations of what people in those countries are “supposed to sound like” according to Western society.
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Interesting thing about music is that words aren’t always important to some. The best and instrumental can carry a lot over a language barrier.
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Good point. Even instrumental musical works can be good in their own right. There were times where that interest got too far when I was briefly a post-rocker in college, but it didn’t last long if I can use some humor. There are so many quality vocal and instrumental artists in the world. Pardon my brief negativity, I have been tempted to say “If this [international artist or band’s song] was made by [insert name of beloved experimental band or composer], you’d eat this up!” but I never had to do so…yet. Do you listen to any international artists that aren’t really getting much attention in America, or are you not too familiar with who’s out there? I’m not judging regardless if you’re not too familiar or if you are since you said you weren’t into the music scene as much.
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I’m not that familiar with foreign artists. I think. Usually just listen to whatever catches my attention. Do anime songs count?
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Okay. That’s fine. Anime songs count since many of those artists and composers do others things, and I’d be a hypocrite if I said it didn’t count since I own a few anime soundtracks. One could make arguments about J-Pop or J-Rock vs. traditional forms of music native to Japan like Noh or whatever folk music is there, but that’s for another day.
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Don’t understand the hate towards modern music like what you mention. Culture always changes and music evolves. That seems to be how it always goes.
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I don’t hate modern music, but a lot of mainstream stuff. Conversely, I’m not someone who only listens to older music like a classic rock purist or a classical music snob.
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I’m just easy. Even mainstream stuff gets my attention if I like the beat. Anything for escapism.
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Fair enough. At least you don’t strike me as someone who only listened to the mainstream stuff or are a total hipster which you wouldn’t be given your last comment.
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I may have been that way as a kid. It was whatever was on the radio. Then again I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, which had all sorts of stuff. Add my parents being into older rock and jazz to make my taste even stranger.
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I see. Don’t get me wrong, my parents played the radio when I was a kid and one constant station was a jazz one, so I do have an appreciation for that music.
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An admirable trait. Great poem.
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Thanks.
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