BEYHIVE: Beyonce Stans
The Beyhive are kind of the OGs of Stan-like behavior before Stan was fully realized.
Even if you don’t tune into Beyoncé like that, you know how big Beyoncé is. She’s a talented vocalist, performer, businesswoman, and overall artist (in my opinion). Her talent has gotten a lot of praise but also a lot of fans. Her journey as an artist has been a long one. She's been around since the 90's and most artists can't build an empire big as hers. I would know because I would consider myself a Bey Stan, like why wouldn't you? Her fandom goes by the Beyhive and they’ll do anything to protect Queen Bey.
The Beyhive are a prime example of Stan culture and utilizing participatory media to show that. I feel like they are the most obvious fandom that has shown throughout time what it means to be a “Stan”, transitioning from regular fan to obsessive Stan. The internet has given them power and they are not afraid to use it at all. Any bad press or criticism against Beyoncé will be reprimanded by the Beyhive through the keyboard.
Beyonce Stans solution of choice is basically spamming the person and harassing them on every social media until they forfeit. It can come across as extremely off putting because at the end of the day it's cyberbullying. Sometimes the consequences are justified sometimes it's not.
When Kid Rock said this statement about Bey in 2015,
"Beyoncé, to me, doesn't have a f--king 'Purple Rain,' but she's the biggest thing on Earth," he said. "How can you be that big without at least one 'Sweet Home Alabama' or 'Old Time Rock & Roll'? People are like, 'Beyoncé's hot. Got a nice f--king ass.' I'm like, 'Cool, I like skinny white chicks with big t-ts.' Doesn't really f--king do much for me."
The Beyhive responded with:
Which in return got Kid Rock a little bothered by posting this:
When lemonade was released, the song “Sorry” got a lot of attention because of the context of a cheating man, which many presumed to be Jay-Z. She sang the iconic line, “He better call Becky with the good hair”, which was an obvious diss to her man but also to the side woman. The Beyhive exhibited what I would call “Stan” behavior and rushed to find the suspect of this statement. Very quickly the Beyhive went from enjoying the song to being an investigation team. They were finding many potential home-wreckers who fit the lyric from Rachel Roy, Rita Ora, and Rachael Ray.
Rachel Roy being Attacked: The Beyhive basically took her caption and her connection to Jay-Z as proof, is that delusional or reasonable?
What’s so funny but so sad is that Bey stans can be so delusional that they targeted the wrong Rachel, Rachael Ray, the Chef.
So what can we conclude with all this evidence?
I want to highlight how participatory media has gotten to a point where it’s invasive, justified or not. The fact that many Stans have access to ruining people’s livelihood is concerning. They use social media as a tool for communication but also destruction.They way these comments are being presented shows they take pride in defending their artist because it gives a sense of purpose and community, especially when there are other Stans doing it too. It’s almost like being a soldier. It becomes normalized behavior to attack because in their head it’s protection.
These two cases are not the only ones, there is an actual list of celebs who’ve been blacklisted or have had a feud with the BeyHive created by US WEEKLY. https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/12-times-the-beyhive-attacked-to-defend-beyonce-w206014/
But don’t be fooled, there’s still good moments with Bey Stans.
Beyonce recently released her highly anticipated documentary, Homecoming (2019), showing her Coachella concert accompanied by a Live Album. It was a historical moment as it showed the work Beyonce puts into her performance on such a large scale. But besides that, there was a bonus song on the Live Homecoming Album called “Before I Let Go”. In the song, she sings dance commands where you can easily follow it if you wanted to bust a move. The Beyhive took the opportunity and ran with it. They started the #BeforeILetGoChallenge. It’s a perfect example of how participatory media continues to extend connectedness in many facets. Not only can you talk about Beyonce all day on social media, now you can show it. The dance challenge created buzz and people wanted to take part in such a fun activity. It brought stans and maybe just regular users together who love the song also.
The Bey stans uploaded their #BeforeILetGo challenge choreography to the song where they could potentially be reposted by Beyonce on her own personal Instagram. A pretty big deal if you ask me. The internet has afforded us closeness, shown through this artist and fandom interaction. Even though it can be quite minor to some, it feels good and it’s positive impact that people can carry with them.
