Tokio Hotel: Bill
Fandom content at long last!
I've fallen in love with a new fandom, Tokio Hotel, which is a German band. This is my second RP fandom and first in a very long time. I've felt shy to post until now, after three months, but now I want to share some things that make this fandom so special to me.
I'd heard about Tokio Hotel months ago, but what really piqued my interest (and got me to finally find out what exactly it was) was a picture of Bill Kaulitz -- the lead singer of Tokio Hotel. Then I went to look for some more pictures of him and I was astounded. Here's why.
What I found was that Bill Kaulitz wears make-up and is interested in fashion, which means many interesting choices of clothing, and that he's in a famous, award-winning (EMAs, VMAs) band where he's (been) presented as an object of love and sexual interest for teenage girls. This is what hooked me. Simply the fact that there exists on this planet a sexy male teen idol who wears make-up:
Look at that picture. He's so pretty! His eyes! His gorgeous smile! Yeah, I'm not saying that my being intrigued was a purely anthropological interest in a current celebrity phenomenon, although there was a fair deal of that, too. I don't remember a single male celebrity in the nineties who would have looked like that. And there have been some singers who have worn eyeliner and nail polish in the past few years (that I've known of), but seriously, they have not looked like this:
Just -- the way he looks up from under his lashes. *flails*
So, I learned that Bill and his twin brother founded a band with two others when they were thirteen or so. They've been famous and successful since they were fifteen -- they're twenty now. There's lots of material about them online, and it's rewarding to look for the old stuff too because Bill has always looked... interesting.
This is from last year:
And this is from 2008:
Isn't he pretty? And hot? Lots of people have mistaken him for a girl, and I've seen fans tell about how they briefly wondered if they were interested in women after seeing photos of him for the first time. I myself love how he plays with feminine and masculine in his looks. In a way, he doesn't do much -- some eyeshadow, an unusual hairstyle -- but just the fact that he exists and does this makes me feel better about the world. Seriously. If I met him that would be what I wanted to tell him: to thank him and say that he makes me feel better about the whole world. I don't know what it says about the (my) world that it's so.
Any other reasons why I love him? Let's see. The way he laughs:
Seriously, he smiles so widely and brightly and laughs so uninhibitedly that seeing it always cheers me up:
He seems enthusiastic and energetic and generally like a lovely person. This gif with the lip bite is one of my favourites:
Also I simply really like his looks. And his attitude:
I think this picture was the first I saw of him -- he's on a catwalk, opening the DSquared2 Autumn/Winter 2010 show:
Back then, I was so amazed by the picture that I couldn't even process it. This singer of a band was opening a fashion show and he was wearing... whatever it was *handwave* and there were guys with bared mid-riffs around him and a couple of the guys seemed to be eyeing him in an interested manner. I mean -- what? who? huh? I think, looking at the gif below, he kind of knew he was affecting people this way:
Here are a few older pictures of him, for comparison and scientific purposes.
Yeah, okay, not so much with the science. Sometimes, like with this paparazzi picture that makes me feel kind of guilty to have it (but not so guilty as to get rid of it), you just have to stop and stare.
Another older picture (and also without make-up):
Here's another adjective for Bill and his smile: radiant.
I don't have any adjectives for the combination of Bill and a bed, except that I can say I think fondly of that one interview where he said he was going to spend 24 hours having an intimate relationship with his bed as soon as he got home from tour. Poor thing!
I couldn't resist including this:
Not that I think Bill doesn't have thoughts. But what I love about fandom (my fannish experience) is that it's possible to have intense feelings about something and to mock it (and yourself) gently at the same time. And also create different kind of narratives around the objects of your fannish love -- and Bill as an attractive person who only pretends to have thoughts is one of them, if only for the duration of this macro.
I still have a few pictures to share! First, a couple of gifs with some funny expressions:
This might comment on the macro kind of well, come to think of it!
This is one of my favourite gifs of Bill -- it's just so expressive, and I love that he even rolls his eyes, hee. I have no idea what he's hearing or watching; that's the downside of coming in late and saving gifs wherever you can, without being able to trace down the original context anymore.
The last picture is an icon by hiyami. To me, it symbols one of the things that I think about when I think about Bill -- the will and the courage to do what you want, without caring about what other people think you should do or be.
It's about sexuality but in my mind it also applies to gender and appearance and other things that are kind of heavily regulated. It says to me, Be yourself. and Be what you want to be.
I've fallen in love with a new fandom, Tokio Hotel, which is a German band. This is my second RP fandom and first in a very long time. I've felt shy to post until now, after three months, but now I want to share some things that make this fandom so special to me.
I'd heard about Tokio Hotel months ago, but what really piqued my interest (and got me to finally find out what exactly it was) was a picture of Bill Kaulitz -- the lead singer of Tokio Hotel. Then I went to look for some more pictures of him and I was astounded. Here's why.
What I found was that Bill Kaulitz wears make-up and is interested in fashion, which means many interesting choices of clothing, and that he's in a famous, award-winning (EMAs, VMAs) band where he's (been) presented as an object of love and sexual interest for teenage girls. This is what hooked me. Simply the fact that there exists on this planet a sexy male teen idol who wears make-up:
Look at that picture. He's so pretty! His eyes! His gorgeous smile! Yeah, I'm not saying that my being intrigued was a purely anthropological interest in a current celebrity phenomenon, although there was a fair deal of that, too. I don't remember a single male celebrity in the nineties who would have looked like that. And there have been some singers who have worn eyeliner and nail polish in the past few years (that I've known of), but seriously, they have not looked like this:
Just -- the way he looks up from under his lashes. *flails*
So, I learned that Bill and his twin brother founded a band with two others when they were thirteen or so. They've been famous and successful since they were fifteen -- they're twenty now. There's lots of material about them online, and it's rewarding to look for the old stuff too because Bill has always looked... interesting.
This is from last year:
And this is from 2008:
Isn't he pretty? And hot? Lots of people have mistaken him for a girl, and I've seen fans tell about how they briefly wondered if they were interested in women after seeing photos of him for the first time. I myself love how he plays with feminine and masculine in his looks. In a way, he doesn't do much -- some eyeshadow, an unusual hairstyle -- but just the fact that he exists and does this makes me feel better about the world. Seriously. If I met him that would be what I wanted to tell him: to thank him and say that he makes me feel better about the whole world. I don't know what it says about the (my) world that it's so.
Any other reasons why I love him? Let's see. The way he laughs:
Seriously, he smiles so widely and brightly and laughs so uninhibitedly that seeing it always cheers me up:
He seems enthusiastic and energetic and generally like a lovely person. This gif with the lip bite is one of my favourites:
Also I simply really like his looks. And his attitude:
I think this picture was the first I saw of him -- he's on a catwalk, opening the DSquared2 Autumn/Winter 2010 show:
Back then, I was so amazed by the picture that I couldn't even process it. This singer of a band was opening a fashion show and he was wearing... whatever it was *handwave* and there were guys with bared mid-riffs around him and a couple of the guys seemed to be eyeing him in an interested manner. I mean -- what? who? huh? I think, looking at the gif below, he kind of knew he was affecting people this way:
Here are a few older pictures of him, for comparison and scientific purposes.
Yeah, okay, not so much with the science. Sometimes, like with this paparazzi picture that makes me feel kind of guilty to have it (but not so guilty as to get rid of it), you just have to stop and stare.
Another older picture (and also without make-up):
Here's another adjective for Bill and his smile: radiant.
I don't have any adjectives for the combination of Bill and a bed, except that I can say I think fondly of that one interview where he said he was going to spend 24 hours having an intimate relationship with his bed as soon as he got home from tour. Poor thing!
I couldn't resist including this:
Not that I think Bill doesn't have thoughts. But what I love about fandom (my fannish experience) is that it's possible to have intense feelings about something and to mock it (and yourself) gently at the same time. And also create different kind of narratives around the objects of your fannish love -- and Bill as an attractive person who only pretends to have thoughts is one of them, if only for the duration of this macro.
I still have a few pictures to share! First, a couple of gifs with some funny expressions:
This might comment on the macro kind of well, come to think of it!
This is one of my favourite gifs of Bill -- it's just so expressive, and I love that he even rolls his eyes, hee. I have no idea what he's hearing or watching; that's the downside of coming in late and saving gifs wherever you can, without being able to trace down the original context anymore.
The last picture is an icon by hiyami. To me, it symbols one of the things that I think about when I think about Bill -- the will and the courage to do what you want, without caring about what other people think you should do or be.
It's about sexuality but in my mind it also applies to gender and appearance and other things that are kind of heavily regulated. It says to me, Be yourself. and Be what you want to be.