In 2020, it’s almost impossible to log onto Twitter without seeing at least one fancam per session.
If you’ve run into the phenomenon, but have no idea what it is or how it started, allow me to explain. A fancam is a piece of video content that is essentially a supercut of a celebrity or a group of celebrities. The videos are usually under 2 minutes long, have intense and fast-paced editing and a banger of a song driving it.
Recently, Twitter fancams have been dominating every available square-inch of Stan Twitter and for good reason. What once started out in the realm of K-pop has now become mainstream, allowing for not only Western artists but also other Western icons to occupy the online space.
As I’ve mentioned, fancams originated on Twitter from the K-pop community. It was never supposed to be a meme or funny in any way shape or form, it was simply a way for fans to promote their pop idols. It was frequently used when those idols came from pop groups, to give individuals a little bit more attention. The goal was promotion and ultimately, it worked. According to Seoulbeats (a Korean entertainment blog), fancams boosted the sales of EXID (a k-pop group) as a byproduct of a boost in their cultural relevancy.
As k-pop fancams grew alongside K-pop’s rise in the West, fans of Western artists started to whip out their editing skills and adopt the same actions. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see fancams of Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift or Katy Perry in the comments section of news that has rarely anything to do with them. Not only this but fancams have even spread to Western celebrities like gay-icon Timothee Chamalet, the progressive Bernie Sanders and even the Coronavirus.
Even Lil Nas X showed some love to hand sanitizer.
The future of Twitter fancams looks uncertain. In the past year, we’ve seen fancams being used to promote a particular news story (such as Normani and Camilla Cabello’s feud in Fifth Harmony) as well as being used to show a celebrity in a negative light (Justin Bieber’s negative album reviews). So, who knows what the future of fancams will be. All we know is, they aren’t going anywhere, so we better get used to them.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.