SearchResearch Challenge (3/20/24): When you're looking for a term or concept but can't quite say what it is?
Dan Russell
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
SearchResearch Challenge (3/20/24): When you're looking for a term or concept but can't quite say what it is?
There are lots of concepts...
 |
| P/C Midjourney |
... in the world that I notice, but can't quite articulate.
For instance, a while ago we searched for the concept of "wall paintings on the outside of buildings in Switzerland" and learned the term Lüftlmalerei. (See the SRS post from Dec 9, 2023 for details.)
This Challenge is similar in that I'm not sure what to search for these things I've noticed, but don't know what terms to use to search for them. Here's my problem...
You know how Taylor Swift has ardent fans? They're called Swifties. Likewise, the Grateful Dead has Deadheads, Phish has Phishheads, and the Insane Clown Posse has Juggalos.
But I was reading the other day about the ardent followers of Claude Debussy who call themselves Debussyists. That was a new word to me. I already knew there were huge fans of Richard Wagner who are called Wagnerians (etc etc).
I was then seized by an interest in learning what other composers / musicians have fans that name themselves after their musical leader. It's easy to find modern musical groups that have legions of fans (Beetlemaniacs, etc.), but what about earlier composers and musicians?
In the process of looking that up, I also learned that there are clubs and organizations that seem to have sprung up in their wake. How do I find them? The deep question here is how to go from an observed pattern or concept (e.g., legions of fans who follow a particular musician) to some practical way to search for that notion. What's that process? How to move from vague understanding to some language I can actually use for search purposes?
So, here are the Challenges for this week:
1. Can you find the terms / names for ardent fans of particular composers from the classical era? (I mean this expansively, anything from 1700 to 1920.) "Debussyist" is one example, "Wagnerian" is another--can you find others? In particular, what kind of search term(s) do you use to find such fan labels?
2. Can you find clubs that were formed to celebrate and fête musicians from that time period? (I found some clubs that astonished me. Perhaps you will too.)
As always, be sure to tell us HOW you found the answers to these little Challenges. (Perhaps you'll have an easier time of it, but it took me a while to get the answers to these.)
Let us know how you did.
Keep searching!
