FANGIRLS

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hysterical fangirls have become so commonplace in popular music that we hardly pay attention to them anymore, no matter how loud they scream. But there was a time when the screaming, crying, fainting teenage fan was seen not only as a psychological puzzle but also as a major threat to the American empire. Today we’ll cover four eras of landmark swooning starting in the mid-1800s and heading through to Beatlemania, taking a look at the moral panics they inspired and the new power these teenage girls were able to create with just the power of their screams. Our next episode will pick up right after Beatlemania to explore how the music industry capitalized on fangirls’ tastes by manufacturing what we now know as Boy Bands. American Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Sound design by Clear Commo Studios Research and co-writing by Riley Smith Co-produced and edited by Miranda Zickler Voice Acting by Will Rogers and by Riley Smith Become a Patron and support our show! Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Find our merch at americanhysteria.com Head to greenchef.com/hysteria130 and use code hysteria130 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, conspiracy theories, and urban legends, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the stories that create the realities we share, and sometimes the realities
0:24.0	we don't.
0:25.7	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is American Hysteria.
0:32.5	Have you ever been this crazy about any other entertainer?
0:34.9	And that's what so may be.
0:36.4	We don't know why we're like this.
0:38.2	It was the biggest fan club in the world
0:40.9	was outside the Paramount Theater.
0:43.1	Now, ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley.
0:45.8	He's gorgeous.
0:49.2	He's gorgeous.
0:49.2	He's got a beautiful nose.
0:51.1	Ringo.
0:51.8	Ringo has a sexy nose. By now, Ringo, we are so well accustomed to the scene that we hardly even notice the fanfare anymore.
1:05.0	The massive stadiums teeming with screaming seas of hysterical fans, all swarmed around their most beloved
1:14.9	teenage idol, lost in the fevered dream of the words he sings about love, lost in the perfect
1:23.3	swoop of his almost enchanted hair. We know they're out there, those teenage girls who are
1:31.0	screaming and weeping and fainting and peeing their pants at the sight of any number of these
1:37.0	cleanly manufactured parent-approved boy wonders of the week. And though we might poke fun at these
1:43.6	diehard fans, at this point
1:45.8	our culture considers it relatively harmless. But there was a time not long ago when these
1:52.8	hysterical teenage girls were not only ridiculed mercilessly, but actually inspired moral panics that presented the fan girl as acutely dangerous
	...

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