What makes a music fan a maniac fan?

Question

I've seen that you have to:

Seriously listen to their music for X years
Own X albums
Have X concert tee-shirts
Go to X concerts
Have been around when they formed and liked their first music
Etc.

What makes a maniac fan?

Answer 1

There are many different paths to take to achieve maniac status, depending on the musical act and the manner in which the maniacal metamorpahsis transpires. There is the know-it-all form of maniac, which I have found usually develop from fans of bands which carry a catalogue of live material from the Dead and Phish to the Floyd and Zappa. These interesting fans can hear a live tape for a few seconds and automatically shout out the date of the recording, "No way! This is RFK, '79!" or, "This is the show that Phish played their 60 minute version of Runaway Jim!" Or they can tell you the date of the last concert the Floyd played Atom Heart Mother with a full orchestra, or how many differnent versions of Uncle Meat Zappa played. These types usually tell it but don't show it.

Others can show their maniac devotion which I would like to call Billboards. This type is generally devoted to rock bands, like the guy who carved "SLAYER" into his arm to mimic the album cover. Or the guy who owns twenty different Metallica t-shirts and wants the world to know he's a big fan. This is certainly a more in your face approach to expressing one's obsession and while personaly, I choose not to advertise even those artists which I hold so dear to heart, I must admire their dedication.

But to quantify a threshold to pass from fan to maniac, aside from taking an administered exam, one must examine tangible items, making the former type of maniac (the know-it-all) harder to indentify. I would say that one must satisfy at least two completions of your following conditions: 1)Has listened to the band ever since the release of said band's first album, 2)Owns (not burned) every single offical release of said band, with bonus points for bootlegs, roios, unreleased studio material, mail order extras, and duplicate releases on alternative media such as vinyl, 3)Has gone to as many concerts of said band as the age of the maniacant, or 4) Has one(1) concert T-shirt for every applicable tour in which said band has headlined.

These conditions may also be mixed and matched with any combination therof or one complete criterion with any other two half completions of criteria in tandem. As long as the values equal two completions or more. If not I guess you're just a fan.

That's all i can come up with for now. But I can say personally based on the above requirements that I am an official maniac of at least four artists. Scary!

Answer 2

a fan becomes a maniac when one risks a form of "health" just to get something connected with the band
-financial health
-physical health
-mental health
Putting any form of health at risk just to get a "fix" of one sort or another from a band means someone's over the edge...
signed,
the Rock N Roll Doctor

Answer 3

Blood pours forth from eyes and ears, such is the esctacy of the music experience.

Answer 4

maniacs are out of any league, stay away from them Marxists.

Answer 5

music is a constant 24/7....in my life

Answer 6

dont know guess its defined by your own choice