Disillusioned Generation: Who Are Mylène Farmer’s Fans?

Our work, Sociology of Mylène Farmer (Double Ponctuation editions), devotes an in-depth study covering not only the singer but also her fans. Through testimonies, a statistical survey as well as an immersion during her “Nevermore” tour, which began in the summer of 2023, we can today take a sensitive as well as scientific look at the 40-year career of the most appreciated by French people.

[Un article de The Conversation écrit par Marielle Toulze – Chercheuse en communication, Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Ouen – et Arnaud Alessandrin – Sociologue, Université de Bordeaux]

Generation X vs “Disenchanted”

Mylène Farmer released “Disenchanted” in 1991. The 1990s imposed a new reality: free competition on financial markets and the liberalization of goods and cultures, different economic crises, unemployment, the decline of communism and its lost illusions…

This single, “Désenchantée”, however, appears as a breath of freedom more than fatalism; something that speaks to each of us. More than 800,000 copies have been sold. The song became the anthem of an entire generation: generation X. This famous X that she used on costumes designed by her friend Jean-Paul Gaultier.

In the choreography of “Disenchanted”, this X – scarlet – will be embroidered on the back of the costumes of its dancers. The almost monochrome clip is inspired by the Warsaw ghetto. It is filmed in Budapest. How can we not think of this other sign, the yellow star, which an entire people was forced to wear during the Second World War?

A shared feeling of anger

This disenchanted generation also hears Pope John Paul II declare that HIV/AIDS is divine punishment in response to all the sins supposedly committed by sexual minorities. Sinead O'Connor then decides to tear up her photo on stage as a sign of protest.

There is a feeling of anger in this generation, a desire to shout, to throw everything into the air as she does in the “Disenchanted” clip. Overturn the tables, the chairs, the established order. A mirror effect is established between this audience caught in the turmoil of the 90s and its multiple crises and this clip which claims the universalism of rebellion when all seems lost.

This is the Act-Up generation (an association for which Mylène Farmer will design a t-shirt in 2023), divided between commitment and the temptation to withdraw. In a world where everything seems upside down, is it really worth fighting for? And for whom? For which so-called guru or savior? To this she will respond:

“When reason collapses/To which breast to devote ourselves/Who can claim to cradle us in their belly? »

So, run away… But to go where? Mylène Farmer never gives a simplistic answer. The horizon at the end of the song's video is not a vanishing line. Sky and icy earth intertwine in a snowy gray.

Is snow really a symbol of purity (any more than the children around it!) or does it rather evoke a sterile world? She says it:

“However, I would like to find innocence/But nothing makes sense, and nothing is right. »

Innocence is not permitted for everyone. It is a luxury in a world where disillusionment continues to rain down.

Build yourself as a fan

In her article entitled “Desirable France”, journalist Cécile Peltier writes:

“The favorite singers of 18-24 year olds are called Aya Nakamura or Gims while their parents continue to favor Mylène Farmer. »

This observation is reminiscent of the age profile of our respondents who, overwhelmingly, entered into a “career” as fans in the 1980s and 1990s. The experiences of fans are thus located both in subjective life contexts and learning of the prescriptions made to this community (knowing how to recognize songs, lyrics, finding out about the artist, etc.).

Undeniably, we do not construct ourselves in the same way as a fan of Mylène Farmer today and in the 1980s.

The testimonies collected in the questionnaire attest to these fan journeys through each decade, as evidenced by our respondents:

“In the 1980s or 90s, you said that you were a fan of Mylène was directly considered “weird”, especially for a boy. »

“Before the arrival of the Internet, there were magazines about Mylène. I subscribed to L’instant Mag and to “Mylène Farmer Magazine”. It was like before dating sites and applications, we placed ads there to exchange items or to meet fans. »

According to the figures from our survey, Mylène Farmer's fans belong more to sexual minorities (50% in our study) than the average French person. We are also talking about an audience that is certainly equal in gender, but an audience that has aged with the artist, and this is reflected in their modes of musical consumption, much more focused on physical media, in a period where streaming dominates. the music industry market.

Nostalgia, adolescence and fan community

But is Mylène present for all fans in the same way, and in such a central way?

If, overwhelmingly, fans respond that the singer was important to them (89%), 11% say that she is or has not been important in their lives. These people are more likely not to call themselves “fans”. They are also more clearly heterosexual than the rest of the respondents and belong almost exclusively to the category of “managers” or “higher intellectual professions”.

As for the fans who testify to the importance of Mylène Farmer in their lives, they largely highlighted the singer in terms of “support” in “difficult times”, during adolescence or in reference to adolescent memories.

We read in these testimonies that Mylène Farmer's songs are emotional refuges, echoing moments of sadness and that they offer bubbles of cognition (“By listening to it, I find myself”). But moments of joy are also mentioned:

“I came out and afterward I only listened to Mylène Farmer. »

“This will be the opening song at my wedding next April. »

“You put me on “Without counterfeiting” or “Disenchanted” and I’m in a trance. Recently it’s been happening to me with “Yes but no” too. »

Family transmissions

Speaking of “generation”, one last element appeals to us: some of the testimonies relate the importance of intergenerational transmissions, of emotions shared with children and parents. The practice of fans is communicated:

“I always listened to Mylène and my mother couldn't take it anymore. Now I bring her with me to concerts and she loves it. I'm so happy to share this with her. »

Finally, in our investigation, this sensitive dimension of the relationship with the singer was translated in the form of questions linked to the memories or emotions which connect to Mylène Farmer.

We first asked what words best describe the singer according to her fans. Clear trends appear. On the one hand, superlatives: “majestic”, “magnetic”, “exceptional”, “incredible”. We expected this lexical field to appear. But far from the prejudices attributing a series of irrational behaviors to fans, we observe that these qualifiers are statistically marginal. Mostly, we see the creation of two sets of words: those relating to attraction and charisma; and those relating to secrecy, mystery and shyness.

Two supposedly incompatible lexical fields but which show us ways of interpreting the singer's world on the one hand, and the intimate world of the fans on the other.

Then, at the center of the words that come up most often, the term “mysterious”, which comes up not only in the writings of journalists but also in the qualifiers of fans, both men and women, homosexuals. than heterosexuals.

This mystery makes the artist, who literally plays with all possible facets without ever trying to give a smooth and completely coherent reading. His universe is multiple, he shows as much as he conceals. He brings together what seems incompatible without ever confusing them. In short, it is the expression of a poietic relationship to the world: an enigma whose answer is its own enigma.