Hannah Ewens

Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music Culture (2019 UK / 2020 US)

A rare exploration of girls and women in music fan culture, based on hundreds of interviews with fans from Europe, Japan and the US. The book was named a Book of the Year by the Financial Times, Pitchfork and more. It was co-signed by Kim Gordon and an extract was published in The Paris Review.

“Rejoice, then, for the Vice journalist Hannah Ewens’s calm, thoughtful and illuminating study of female fandom, which not only challenges such dismissive attitudes but actively highlights and celebrates young girls, their musical obsessions and their impact on the artists they champion.” – the Guardian

“Ewens intersperses historical context and insights from academic literature on fandom. One of her achievements is to reveal what has remained constant over the decades and what, as a result of various technological and cultural shifts, has changed…She comes across as introspective and restrained.” – Times Literary Supplement

“Her journalistic curiosity and willingness to camp overnight outside concert venues gives Fangirls a vibrancy… She is true to her word, listening to what the fans have to say and letting them guide her narrative, which she divides into chapters dealing with different music scenes and the multitudinous ways in which fans idolise their heroes.” – New Statesman

“Ewens lets older women who were obsessed with The Beatles or Elvis Presley speak for themselves, and their consistent, kind-hearted refusal to dismiss their own teenage passions is one of the book’s greatest strengths…At heart, intense fandom springs from a universal need for identification and representation – as much now as at any other point in history.” – Frieze Magazine