Foo Fighters
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[edit] Introduction
This is a BandFic fandom. Its existence predates July 2005. Material for this fandom can be found several places on the Internet including FanDomination.Net.[1] It is most strongly represented as of 2007 on RockFic[2] and livejournal. It is generally believed that there is not an off-line, convention and fanzine based fan fiction community related to this community. It is a relatively small bandom, although connected closely to several others including Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, The Police and Queen by way of the musicians in the group.
[edit] The Band
The Foo Fighters as a band exists as the brainchild of by multitalented musician/songwriter Dave Grohl, and was formed in 1995. Coming out of the grunge scene of the 1990s, the band's music has been labeled as "post-grunge", "alt-rock", "modern rock", among other things, but can be difficult to really pin down. Their sound has changed from album to album, as personnel has come and gone and Grohl's song writing has evolved (though not always necessarily for the better, at least to the minds of some fans.) The band's name refers to the term "foo fighter," used in World War II to refer to mysterious aerial phenomenon.
David Grohl already had a long musical career before forming the Foo Fighters. Growing up in a Washington DC suburb in Virginia, he first began playing guitar at the age of twelve and soon became interested and involved in the DC punk scene. Playing in a few hardcore bands here and there, he also picked up the drums, and at 17 got his first significant gig as a drummer in the DC-area band Scream. He eventually dropped out of high school to play drums full time. While touring with Scream in 1990 on the West Coast he met and became friends with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana. They liked his drumming and when Scream suddenly disbanded, Grohl auditioned for and got the gig with Nirvana. In 1991, Nirvana released their album Nevermind which brought them and the entire grunge scene to mainstream success and notoriety.
Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 left Grohl uncertain where to go next musically. He went back to the studio to quickly record more demos, singing and playing virtually all instruments himself. He briefly played drums with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was rumored to be a replacement drummer for Pearl Jam, but by then significant studio interest was being shown for turning his demos into an album. Despite having recorded all the tracks himself and only professionally remixing the demos instead of re-recording them for the album, he did not want to go out at the time touring as a solo artist. Instead he pulled together a group of musicians to perform and tour the material: former Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear, and two members of the band Sunny Day Real Estate: drummer William Goldsmith and bassist Nate Mendel. In 1995 the self-titled debut album Foo Fighters was released.
After touring through the spring of 1996, the band entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record their second album. But there was conflict between Grohl and Goldsmith by now over Goldsmith's drumming, leading Grohl to re-record some of Goldsmith's parts himself. Upset at these actions, Goldsmith quit the band, they scrapped the sessions in Seattle, and instead went to Los Angeles to re-record the album (with Grohl doing all drumming for the sessions). The result was released in 1997 as The Color and the Shape.
In need of a new drummer to tour, Grohl had previously met and befriended Taylor Hawkins, who had been playing and touring for Alanis Morissette. When Grohl went to Hawkins looking for recommendations for a replacement, Hawkins volunteered himself. The following September, in 1998, Pat Smear announced his departure from the band in a rather shockingly public fashion on the street outside the MTV Video Music Awards. He cited wanting to retire from a lifetime of touring as his reason. At the same time, though, he introduced his replacement, Grohl's former Scream bandmate Franz Stahl. But Stahl did not last long in the Foos lineup, and was already out before they began recording their third album.
After auditioning a number of potential replacements, they eventually settled on Chris Shiflett, who previously performed with No Use for a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Initially added as only a touring replacement, Shiflett would eventually become a full-fledged member of the band and at this point the lineup of the band would remain set as it is through this current day.
[edit] Terminology
This section needs more information.
[edit] Timeline
Below is a partial timeline of events that took place in this fan community.
[edit] 1995
[edit] 1997
[edit] 1998
- On August 23, 1998, the yahoogroup foofightersanonymous was created.[3]
- On September 9, 1998, the yahoogroup foo-fighters was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[4]
- On September 21, 1998, the yahoogroup foofightersclub was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[5]
[edit] 1999
- On February 14, 1999, the yahoogroup thefoofightersclub was created.[6]
- On March 8, 1999, the yahoogroup foofightersfans was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[7]
- On May 5, 1999, the yahoogroup Foo_Fighters was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[8]
- There is Nothing Left to Lose is released on November 2, 1999.
[edit] 2000
- On May 7, 2000, the yahoogroup foofightersbrasil was created.[9]
- On September 19, 2000, the yahoogroup theofficialfoofightersclub was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[10]
[edit] 2001
- In August of 2001, Hawkins collapsed at a festival performance and nearly died from what is now called an overdose of prescription pain killers mixed with alcohol. This event has been a major factor in much angst fic in the fandom, particularly in Dave/Taylor slash fiction.
[edit] 2002
- On April 3, 2002, the LiveJournal community foofighters was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[11]
- On April 6, 2002, the LiveJournal community foofreaks was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[12]
- One by One is released October 22, 2002.
[edit] 2003
- On February 1, 2003, in response to the deletion of the LiveJournal community fanficdotnet, the LiveJournal community music_fic was created. (Herongale) It would host Audioslave, Eighteen Visions, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Good Charlotte, Green Day, HIM, Hoobastank, Linkin Park, Lostprophets, Mest, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Rancid fan fiction.
- On May 7, 2003, the LiveJournal community big_me was created for Foo Fighters fans.[13]
[edit] 2004
- On September 23, 2004, the LiveJournal community foo_forum was created for general Foo Fighters discussion.[14]
- On June 15, 2004 the LiveJournal community _bandslash was created for bandfic of all kinds. Foo Fighters were heavily represented on this community.
[edit] 2005
- On February 24, 2005, the LiveJournal community _tangledstars was created specifically for Foo Fighters related fiction. It is predominantly slash oriented although some het also is posted there.
- On May 11, 2005, an official MySpace page for the Foo Fighters was launched.[15]
- On June 6, 2005, the LiveJournal community foodaily was created for Foo Fighters photo-sharing.[16]
- In Your Honor is released on June 14, 2005.
- On August 25, 2005, the LiveJournal community foo_icons was created for Foo Fighters icons and graphics.[17]
- On September 8, 2005, the LiveJournal community oneshotnothings was created for a Foo Fighters-centric RPG.[18]
[edit] 2006
- Skin and Bones is released on November 2, 2006.
- On December 31, 2006, the LiveJournal community a_quiet_room was created for Foo Fighters and Nirvana fanfiction.[19]
[edit] 2007
- This bandom was represented in the 2007 xmas_rocks exchange, with 5 stories posted in January of that year.[20]
- Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is released on September 25, 2007.
[edit] 2008
- This bandom was represented in the 2008 xmas_rocks exchange, with 3 stories posted in January of that year.[21]
- In June 2008, according to The Daily Mail, the band's music and culture surrounding the fan base were contributing factors in the death of 13 year old Sam Leeson who was mocked by his peers for being an emo. [22]
[edit] Kerfuffles
This section needs more information.
[edit] Influential Fanworks
This section needs more information.
[edit] Fandom Members
This section needs more information.
[edit] Fandom Size
[edit] External Links
[edit] See also
This section needs more information.
[edit] Sources
This section needs more information.
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