[michelej1]

Fleetwood Mac is the band that is famous for people breaking up with each other and famous for doing drugs, but a lot of people don’t know which couples broke up or who was sleeping with whom. A lot of them probably think Mick got a divorce from Christine. They have no idea who Jenny is.

They don’t read the details. They hear the summary and don’t put names to the stories or match faces with the names. Most people don’t research a band before buying a record or going to a concert. Despite the success of Rumours and the fact that I knew the songs, I really didn’t know that the band who sang SYLM was the same band that sang GYOW. It was only after Sara came out that I bought the haunting single, then I bought the album and then I dug my heels in, bought the older records, read all the articles and started going to concerts and learning everything there was to know. But I enjoyed their music for several years before I bothered to learn anything about the band’s background.

We all have favorite bands that we collect information on and then we just have bands that we want to tap our toes to and we pay little attention to the history. What we know here is not common knowledge and what we know here seldom spurs ticket sales or Billboard charts. Does it fill magazine articles? Yes it does but don’t think that more than 20% of people who attend a concert read magazine articles about the musicians.

OK, I know Alanis Morissette broke up with that guy who was on Full House and her album was about that, but if I bought the album it was because of the songs, not the gossip.

I don’t follow music fans on social media. But I follow people who enjoy a television show that I like (I am a Joshua Jackson fan). And I see someone who has a Stevie Nicks avatar. Her username changes but it is always a variation on Rhiannon. Well, even with Stevie as their internet face, you would be shocked at how little they know about Fleetwood Mac.