They Might Be Connected: An Analysis of the They Might Be Giants Internet Fan Community

The Internet is a way for people all across the world to communicate
regarding a common topic. For the fans of the band They Might Be Giants,
the Internet not only allows them to communicate and exchange information,
but also to form social bonds with each other, creating a tight-knit
community.
	John Linnell and John Flansburgh both went to Lincoln-Sudbury High
School, in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where they worked on the school paper
together. They were both intelligent and probably considered geeks.
Flansburgh was the more gregarious of the pair, while Linnell was the
introvert.  After going their separate ways after high school, the two met
up again in Brooklyn, New York. In 1982 formed They Might Be Giants, with
Flansburgh on guitar and Linnell on accordion and keyboards, backed by a
taped drum track. In the mid-80's, Linnell, a bike messenger at the time,
fell and broke his wrist. Around the same time, Flansburgh's apartment was
robbed. This stimulated the creation of the "Dial-A-Song" service. They
recorded songs on a message machine, advertised in the Village Voice, and
had people call up to hear them. This still exists today, at the number
(718) 387-6962. The motto is "Free when you call from work." It was also
recently moved online, at www.dialasong.com. Their popularity slowly
increased, until they signed wit Bar/None in 1985, and released their
first album, "They Might Be Giants". In 1988 they released their second
album, "Lincoln", and received their first national TV exposure playing on
the David Letterman show. Soon afterwards they realized they needed
wider distribution, so they switched to Elektra Records. They released
their third album, "Flood", in 1990. This is regarded as their most widely
known album, due to the popularity of their song "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
on college radio stations. Another song from this album, "Particle Man",
was used to make an animated music video for Tiny Toons. This is the album
that most people think of when they think of TMBG. Due to this, some
serious fans have developed a sort of scorn for "Floodies", people who
only know music from Flood. Despite this, Flood was a turning point for
the band, because they had guest musicians on a few of the tracks. They
started touring with a full band for the release of the fourth album (a
b-sides album, "Miscellaneous T, was released in 1991, but is not being
counted as a normal album), "Apollo 18", in 1992. It sounded so appealing
to "the Johns" that they used a full band on their fifth album in 1994,
"John Henry." They had problems with Elektra beginning with John Henry,
because they were not being promoted very well. John and John persisted
with the "an album every two years" pattern however, with the release of
"Factory Showroom" in 1996. They toured incessantly and released a two
disk retrospective in 1997, "Then: The Earlier Years", on Restless
Records, made up of their first two albums, "Miscellaneous T", and various
unreleased songs. After that, they broke with Elektra. This year they
released their first live album, "Severe Tire Damage", also on Restless. A
studio recording is expected in 1999.
	The music of TMBG is quite eclectic, with essences of everything
from jazz to polka. Their lyrics are often complex and require a good
knowledge of pop culture and literary allusions. Some songs are
educational in themselves, for example, "Mammal", which starts "Glass of
milk, standing in between extinction in the cold and explosive radiating
growth, so the warm blood flows to the large four-chambered heart
maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have." Often they are
constructed using word play. For example, in the song "Cowtown", there is
a line that goes "the yellow Roosevelt Avenue leaf overturned." In this
there are three juxtaposed phrases: "The Yellow Rose of [Texas]",
"Roosevelt Avenue", and "a new leaf overturned." The most interesting
thing is that the music often "says" something totally different than the
lyrics. "They have happy music with sometimes haunting messages." ("Maneki
Neko")
	Many bands have pages on the Internet, but TMBG and their fans
seem to have truly taken to this medium. This band doesn't have a huge fan
base, but its fans are very dedicated, almost obsessive in some cases,
lending a cult-like sense to the group. This is even truer amongst the
online fans. There must be something about the band or the sort of people
it attracts to have such an effect. I surveyed online fans, and found this
to be true. There are two main factors: TMBG has a small but wide fan
base, so the Internet is a crucial tool to bring everyone together. Also,
because of the nature of the music of the band, and the band members
themselves, the audience tends to be a certain sector of the population.
"Meenie7" said, 

"The sort of people who like TMBG are often skilled in the use of computer
technology, making them more likely to find and use the Internet fan
resources.  Also, TMBG is a band with a rather small fan base which is
spread out over the USA and indeed, the world, and the Internet makes it
possible for these fans to communicate and realize that they are not the
only people in the world who like this band."

Others put it more bluntly. "VinylBoy" said, "TMBG's fans are dorks. I
hate to be stereotypical, but that's what most of us are. It's like most
Marilyn Manson fans all get together and burn crosses and kill chickens
and stuff, I guess. We all get on the Internet," while "thatdog" said,
"John Linnell and John Flansburgh are geeks.  Internet users are geeks."
In fact, most of the people surveyed used terms like "geek", "dork",
"nerd", "social outcast", and "introvert" to describe themselves, and the
fans in general. Some were kinder and used terms like "intelligent" and
"clear-thinking", but in truth, most fans of the band seem to practically
revel in their "geek" status. It isn't considered a stigma.
People who have similar interests need somewhere to congregate. Luckily,
there are many ways that Internet TMBG fans can be involved, ranging from
quite passive to very active. First of all, there is a mailing list. A
large percentage of people who are subscribed to the list send nothing to
it, and merely read it as "lurkers". This requires very little effort and
nothing more than an e-mail address. However, the list generates a lot of
mail. Lorelei said,  "I was on the mailing list, but then it just got too
much, so I un-subscribed… most of the things discussed in it didn't really
apply to me at the moment and it was just too much email that I found
generally useless." 
The next step up is the newsgroup, alt.music.tmbg. Not that many people
that I talked to seem to like it very much, and those that did seemed to
prefer lurking to posting. Newsgroups are perhaps too easily accessed,
leading to less focus. "Flaminchicken" said, "I've always found the
newsgroup folks quite cynical," while "Doug" stated his dislike in a
simpler fashion: "The newsgroup scares me." 
One of the more popular methods of communication is the TMBG Musings
Board, at www.tmbg.org. According to Chris, "If you were to picture a
party in it's "quiet" stages: most of the people have left, the drugs and
alcohol have been consumed, people are just chilling around the house,
talking to each other, then that's what the Musings Board is like." Other
reasons for using "the Board" are "because it's organized"
("Flaminchicken"), "because participation is very optional, no one can see
that you aren't participating, and yet it is still fairly chat-like"
(Ken), and "because it is moderated by password…so only the purest fans
post there." ("Dalan Galma"). It is also one of the two methods of
communication that has the tightest knit group. It has gone beyond simply
a way to exchange information and become a family. "The Musings Board is a
place where we can talk about TMBG, find out information and gossip, make
friends, vent our frustrations... whatever, it's all accepted." (Deborah)
The other form of communication that has developed a sense of family is
the IRC channel, #tmbg. IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat", and is a
real time chat program. It requires having software, but that can be
easily downloaded off the web. #tmbg was created by Josh Axelrad, or
"Jish.." The channel is "owned" by "Jish", but there are quite a few "ops"
(short for "operators") who keep things under control, because they have
the ability to kick people off the channel if they misbehave and ban them
from coming back. "Kicking" and "banning" make IRC seem like a tyrannical
place, or at the very least, an oligarchy. Some channels are like that,
but #tmbg is far more like a family than anything. We listen to each
other's problems, have good-natured arguments, and also discuss TMBG, of
course. "Jish" says,

"I use IRC because it is the most intimate and effective of all. The
others all are delayed and often don't have a thread to them that holds 
them together you can grasp. When you are on IRC, discussions are in real
time and can grab you...and you also can make great friends and talk with
them privately in a way that isn't as natural over a message board."

IRC is the most like real life as far as conversation is concerned, which
is probably why the bond amongst the people on the channel is so strong.
According to "Cavorite", "One thing about any real time chat is that you
get more of a feel for a person, and who they are; more detailed
conversations and more of a personality will come through via chat
compared to a pre-written post." 
	This synergy is quite special, because not all real time chat ends
up forming such bonds. A Java chat room was started at the beginning of
the summer of 1998, on the official TMBG site, www.tmbg.com. Opinions on
this are generally negative. "I started frequenting the tmbg.com chat room
but then the crowd of regulars there got really dumb and I had to leave."
("Bored Guy") It seems like the personal factors are more important than
anything else, especially when compared to other communication venues.
"The tmbg.com chat is full of idiots." ("thatdog") I think that tmbg.com
chat suffers due to the already established subgroups that reside on the
Musings Board and #tmbg. Since anyone who really wants to get into TMBG
discussion will probably end up in either of these places, tmbg.com fills
with "newbies" (people who are new to TMBG discussion) or the previously
mentioned "Floodies." To clarify, a "newbie" is only a stigma when the new
person pesters the older (in time of fan-dom, not age), more knowledgeable
fans. When Jordan was discussing joining #tmbg, he said "being a perfect
little newbie, I already knew a ton of information about TMBG, and didn't
ask annoying questions that frustrate everyone."
	In order to establish bonds, there must be some sort of permanence
to a person's involvement in the communication. There must be a reason to
stay, and often it as more to do with social aspects than the music
itself, although for some, like Kerry, the permanence of the music is the
impetus. "I stuck around mainly because TMBG has always been one of my
favorite bands, and because of the timelessness of their music it's likely
to stay that way." The socialization seems to be a big part of it,
especially since the stereotypical TMBG fan is a "geek", and this
sometimes means an awkward social life, or at least a lack of
self-confidence.
"It's a virtual community of sorts, a support group for the misfits that
are, for some reason, attracted to TMBG.  Even for those of us (like
myself) who have real-life friends and communities, it's kind of like a
secret double-life…everyone just wants to feel that they fit insomewhere".
(Deborah)

People come back not only because they want to know what is going on with
their favorite band, but also because they have friends that they need to
visit. Chris is "still there because by the time I had all that I needed,
I was already addicted to the people who also dwelled there. I had never
anyone who could share my hardcore interest, but here they were, and they
were funny as hell."  Others even joined these groups for social reasons
originally.  "I didn't want to go out and socialize normally so I was
seeking the sort of seemingly impersonal relationship one can have on
IRC." ("fdisk") This is reinforced by research on Internet communities and
their sociology. "For many…chat networks are 'just a game' or 'just
another form of communication'; for others, they offer an antidote to
loneliness and malaise." (Bromberg, pg. 146) This is very true, because
when the validity of the community is challenged, those who have invested
their heart, soul, and time into it feel truly hurt. When someone told
"Jish" to "lighten up" about his attitudes toward people trying to take
over his channel, that it was "only IRC" he said "to say something like
'it's only IRC' is like me telling you ' oh, it's only your life.'"
	The example of the "Floodie" brings attention to social divisions
within the TMBG general fan base. There is also a degree of elitism among
the online fans, compared to the "regular" fans. The degree of elitism is
under contention. Some, like John Nicholas, feel that the concept is
ludicrous. 
"Why would we be the elite? More "pure"? I'm begging the question here,
but I really don't think so. I believe that some of us are more friendly
than say, certain Internet fans of Marilyn Manson--but if you mean, are
Internet-TMBG-fans better than non-Internet fans, I would have to say that
there is no difference."

On the contrary, "DalanGalma" feels we are "very elite. We consider
ourselves on a higher level of fan-dom than other fans. Almost as if we
understand everything more." Whether or not there can be a value judgement
on TMBG fans, no one disagrees that being an Internet TMBG fan has a lot
of advantages. As "NiceGeoff" simply put it, "Internet fans have access to
more information than non-internet fans." Due to the fact that the
Internet allows for people to communicate rapidly, tape trades and concert
discussions are simple. Computers are capable of multimedia, so music can
be experienced in a variety of forms. "Basically being an Internet fan
allows you to know everything that happens with the band as opposed to
just stuff at the concerts you go to or on the albums you buy." ("Jish")
As far as the band is concerned, the zeal of the online fans seems to
please but possibly intimidate them. For example, last spring all the
online fans mobilized to vote John Linnell into 9th place in the People
Magazine Online "Most Beautiful Person of 1998" Poll, right above Sarah
Michelle Gellar of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fame and just below Madonna.
He later wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, saying, "I still
don't know who was voting for me, although it seems possible that one
computer hacker on a mission could stuff the ballot box electronically.
The band I sing and perform with, They Might Be Giants, enjoys an audience
that probably includes a few loose cannons of this type." We may be loose
cannons, but at least we are aware of it. AJ says, "It seems if I was to
meet one of the Johns and say I'm from #tmbg, they'd freak out and run
away."
Electing John Linnell as 9th Most Beautiful Person of 1998 is just one of
the things that stem from having a bonded community that is so eccentric.
John Flansburgh is currently up for Time Online's Person of the Century.
Aside from such silliness, these methods of communication have given birth
to secondary pages, detailing the members of the channel or board. There
have been mentions of Musings Board and #tmbg T-shirts and parties. Here
the secondary nature of the music is more apparent, while socialization
with similar people is at the forefront.
The community of TMBG fans is so strong because it is primarily founded
upon a preference for a certain musical group that allows us to
congregate.
"Online communities are communities formed around a common interest. Thus,
when participating in one of these communities, one can maintain the
assumption that everyone involved is actually interested enough to
initiate their own participation in the community." (Watson, 124)

After collecting enough people with a common interest, the realization
that we have more in common than just TMBG occurs, and we begin to make
friends. Soon, we are coming online not to argue over the interpretation
of a lyric or ask if anyone has heard the new song, but to visit our
friends. The music becomes the incidental glue that binds us together, and
provides a safe topic of discussion should we run out of something to say.
I get very defensive when the validity of my friendship with these people
is questioned, usually by someone who doesn't understand that the group of
us have more in common and are better suited to each other than most
people in our everyday lives. It is acceptable, at least to us, to have
such a situation.  The Internet in this case not only serves the purpose
of discussing music, but also forming social bonds with other willing
individuals.