Duffett, MarkLloyd, ChristianFairclough, KirstyAttah, Tom2024-09-272024-09-272025Duffett, M. (2025). A life spent chasing the band? Female fans' autobiographies. In T. Attah, K. Fairclough, & C. Lloyd (Eds.), Rereading Musicians and their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies. Bloomsbury Academic.http://hdl.handle.net/10034/629050This book chapter is not available on ChesterRepThis chapter considers female fans’ book-length autobiographies, life stories written that recount years spent following stars, particularly from the worlds of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s rock and pop. Mass culture criticism, parasocial interaction, totemism, and participatory culture are widely understood as distinct paradigms through which academics can analyze media fandom. In parallel, I suggest they can also be seen as discursive resources that pop fans exploit in the development of autobiographic accounts. To explain this idea, I compare four case study books: My Ticket to Ride by Janice Mitchell (2021), Ah-Ha Moments by Larissa Bendell (2016), Bye, Bye Baby by Caroline Sullivan (2000), My Men, Mick and Me by Andee Baker (2020). My argument is that in such autobiographic accounts some female fans, particularly, play upon aspects of these familiar frames of thinking, not only to talk about their experiences of fandom, but also to frame their encounters inspirationally, and think about gender relations in ways that are potentially empowering.Music fandomFan autobiographiesGenderBook chapter2024-09-26