The Fandom of Fleetwood Mac

 -The Fandom of Fleetwood Mac-

Fleetwood Mac's Members: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks,  
and  Christine McVie

        Fleetwood Mac has been an undoubtedly iconic and widely adored band for over four decades. Fleetwood Mac first began as a British blues band in London founded in 1967 by drummer Mick Fleetwood before transitioning into a more pop rock sound in late 1974 with the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. In 1975, members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie came together in 1975 to produce their self-titled album, Fleetwood Mac, which reached number one in the United States. Their next album ,Rumours, is one of the best selling albums of all time. Rumours produced four U.S. top ten singles, remained at the number one spot on the U.S. albums chart for 31 weeks, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, and has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. In addition to their Grammy, Fleetwood Mac has a acquired a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and an extremely extensive and loyal fanbase that ranges from all ages. 

Fleetwood Mac Wiki Community
    The Fleetwood Mac Wiki community is a collaborative community dedicated to all things Fleetwood Mac. The ever-growing blog has over 350 pages of entries, covering topics that include past and current band members, studio albums, live albums, EPs, non-album singles, and collaborative projects that the band members have worked on. All fans of the band are welcome to edit and add to the page and so far there's been almost 2,000 edits. There's also a discussion board where members can discuss anything related to the band and share fan-art or Fleetwood Mac related memes. 

Merchandise Shop
    Fleetwood Mac fans also show support for the band by purchasing items from their official merchandise shop. Here, fans buy forms of their media, such as CDs or records and many kinds of apparel and accessories, so they can display their support in many different forms.

Products from the merchandise shop
Fan-made Merchandise and Art
    In addition to consuming items from the licensed shop, fans have also decided to create their own merchandise and art.
    One of the biggest platforms that these items are found on is on the website Etsy, where artists worldwide share and sell their handmade products. A search using the keywords "Fleetwood Mac" on Etsy yields almost 15,000 results. Die-hard fans can purchase a plethora of items in addition to apparel and accessories, including home decor, kitchen utensils, paintings and drawings, glassware, bottle openers, welcome mats, pins, coasters, air fresheners, candles, and figurines just to name a few. 
 
 Wood-Burned Spoons from         Rumours record earrings       Fleetwood Mac Coaster set
 MarshCreekBamboo on Etsy      from DoloEarWax on Etsy    from ShineyPopsters on Etsy
   
     Another great space to find fan-made items is Redbubble, whose slogan is "awesome products designed by independent artists." Their categories include clothing, stickers, masks, phone cases, wall art, home & living, kids & babies, accessories, and stationary & office. The website has over 3,000 fan-made designs dedicated the band which can be printed onto any object of choice.
              Design by halvh22             Design by                    Design by            Design by itsnotChole
          Darrylmabey               SandraReis 

Super-fan's Fleetwood Mac Collection
   
     Fans that especially love the band may start to an acquire a collection of merchandise and memorabilia, and in super-fan Anita Kayed's case, maybe even close to a museum. Sitting in her living room, Anita is surrounded by a lifetime of memorabilia, including "signed posters, decades of scrapbooks, unpublished photos, buttons, mugs, flowers from Nicks' mic stand and hundreds of records, CDs and eight-track tapes from China to the former nation of Czechoslovakia" (Greenwald 2017). Anita's obsession began after her first Fleetwood Mac show in 1987. She'd save up her waitressing money and buy whatever she could to add to her collection, purchasing records and cutting out magazine articles. She can't put a specific price on what her collection is worth now, but just one Polaroid of Stevie Nicks costed hundreds of dollars, and some of her LPs range into the thousands. Her rarest items include hand-written journals by Fleetwood Mac's manager and a pen-and-ink sketch done by Lindsey Buckingham.

    According to Kayed, the Fleetwood Mac memorabilia market is highly competitive. She explains that she tirelessly scours through eBay and keeps track of the broader Fleetwood Mac community which includes managers, assistants, photographers, and other employees whose work ends up at other outlets, including estate sales. In her interview she shares that her finds are not "just these great collectible items. It's who was close to them and important to them... It might have bummed them out to see that it was at auction or in the trash. Who knows. But I have it now and it's being cared and loved for" (Greenwald 2017).


                                                                                                                                Anita Kayed's collection
TUSK- The Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute
    The most well-known tribute band of Fleetwood Mac is Tusk, who coins themselves as the "world's number one tribute to Fleetwood Mac." The band consists of Kathy Phillips (vocals), Kim Williams, (vocals & keys), Scott McDonald (guitar & vocals), Tom Nelson (drums), and Randy Artiglere (bass). According to their website, "Tusk covers all the great hits of Fleetwood Mac, which has featured the talents of Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and others over the years. The five seasoned, well-respected musicians comprising Tusk have been making music together in various combinations and styles, in original outfits and in cover bands, for over twenty-five years. It seemed only fitting that they should come together to form the Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute, and pay homage to a group that dominated the charts during the band members’ formative years. Authentic-sounding and always respectful, Tusk leaves no stone unturned in replicating the sounds of one of the world’s best-loved, top-selling bands" (TUSK 2020).
    Fans of Fleetwood Mac attend TUSK's shows in hopes of achieving as close to an experience as if they were attending a Fleetwood Mac concert in the past. The group is currently on tour now, with upcoming shows ranging from Pennsylvania to Hawaii.

Literature
    Fans wanting to delve into every detail about the band have a wide range of books to choose from, including autobiographies from band members. Mick Fleetwood wrote Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography, which gives fans exclusive insights on the highs and lows of what life was like inside the band. 
     Another fan favorite book, which made its way onto Paste Magazines "The 10 Best Books about Fleetwood Mac" article was Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album by Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel. Fans love to soak up every piece of information that they can get when it comes to anything to do with one of the best selling albums of all time.
    Some other popular books amongst fans include:

A Lasting Impact
    Since their beginning in 1967, Fleetwood Mac has put on a whopping 2,077 shows, performing their art to their adoring fans and impacting their lives. Despite being around for 57 years, their popularity is showing no signs of slowing down, and their fanbase remains unmatched.
    As of November 15, Billboard charts tweeted out that Fleetwood Mac's Rumours "has now spent 460 total weeks on the #Billboard200 (no.43 this week)" (Billboard 2021). This means that fans have kept the album in the top 200 for the past almost nine years straight. It's very easy to predict with certainty that Fleetwood Mac will definitely live on for years and years to come.




Works Cited

 Billboard Charts. “@FleetwoodMac’s ‘Rumours’ has now spent 450 total weeks on the #Billboard200 (No.43 this week).” Twitter, 15 November 2021, https://twitter.com 


Curnutt, Kirk. “The 10 Best Books about Fleetwood Mac.” Pastemagazine.com, Paste Magazine, 26 Jan. 2015, www.pastemagazine.com/books/fleetwood-mac/the-10-best-books-about-fleetwood-mac/#the-serious-stuff.


“Fleetwood Mac's Concert History.” Fleetwood Mac's Concert & Tour History | Concert Archives, www.concertarchives.org/bands/fleetwood-mac. 


Fleetwood Mac US, fleetwoodmacshop.com/. 


Fleetwood Mac Wiki, Fandom, fleetwoodmac.fandom.com/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac_Wiki. 


Greenwald, David. “Oregon Stevie Nicks Super-Fan Shows off Her Fleetwood Mac Museum.” 


Oregon Live, The Oregonian, 21 Feb. 2017, www.oregonlive.com/music/2017/02/oregon_stevie_nicks_super-fan_fleetwood_mac.html. 


“Play on: Now, Then & Fleetwood Mac, The Autobiography.” Amazon, 2014, www.amazon.com/Play-Now-Then-Fleetwood-Autobiography/dp/0316403415. 


The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Fleetwood Mac.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Fleetwood-Mac.






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