爱华网追星族为何会如此狂热？
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贾斯汀?比伯的粉丝们可能正经历着生理与情感的自然成长阶段。图为本月早些时候，为一睹巨星风采，比伯的粉丝们聚集在纽约。
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热追星的症状包括无法控制的尖叫、激动得晕倒、连续数小时挂在Twitter和Facebook上等候偶像更新消息。它主要影响到的是接近青春期和青春期的少女，不过它具有极强的“传染性”，也会使妈妈们受到传染。在一些比较严重的案例中，有些追星族甚至连续几天在人行道上扎营守候偶像。
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图片：流行音乐史上的“比伯热”
康涅狄格州麦迪逊(Madison)的15岁女孩爱玛?里夫斯(Emma Reeves)参加过两次贾斯汀?比伯(Justin Biebe)的演唱会，她谈到这名18岁的流行歌手时说道，“说到他对我的吸引力，当然就是他长得英俊。你很难找到一个既成功、又亲和，而且还关心别人的人，他就具备所有这些特质！”随着比伯最新专辑《相信》(Believe)的发布，借用疾病的严重程度衡量，“比伯热”已经算得上是一场全球性的流行病。
相较于以往爆发的追星热，如今科学家们对青少年、尤其是青春期的少女为何如此痴迷于一些音乐明星有了更好的了解，同时唱片业对这种现象的利用也比以往更娴熟了许多。专家们称，为偶像倾倒的“B宝粉”的家长们大可放心，那些看似歇斯底里的群体行为实则是青春期一个并无害处的发展阶段。音乐史学家称，早在甲壳虫乐队(Beatles)、猫王(Elvis)和弗兰克?西纳特拉(Frank Sinatra)出现之前，19世纪钢琴家兼作曲家弗朗兹?李斯特 (Franz Liszt)的疯狂女粉丝们就曾把自己的衣服脱下扔向他，甚至还为了他的几缕头发发生争夺。
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贾斯汀?比伯5月份在拉斯维加斯演出。
神经学家丹尼尔?莱维汀(Daniel Levitin)指出，听自己熟悉的最喜欢的歌曲能够刺激多巴胺的分泌，这种神经递质与愉悦感和上瘾存在关联，它给人带来的快感如同吃了巧克力或者是嗜赌成性的赌徒赢了钱一般。莱维汀博士是《大脑音乐电台》(This Is Your Brain on Music)一书的作者，在转行研究神经学之前是一名唱片制作人，他的实验室位于蒙特利尔的麦吉尔大学(McGill University)，他在实验室中通过功能性核磁共振扫描观察了音乐刺激多巴胺分泌的过程。
莱维汀博士的研究还表明，在青春期形成的音乐品位会成为大脑内部的神经回路系统的一部分，因为这时正是某些神经传导通路正在强化、而其他一些神经传导通路被挤掉的时期。这也是为什么成年人常常会怀念自己在十几岁时所听过的歌曲的原因所在。
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猫王的粉丝们此刻的反应可能是神经递质多巴胺大量分泌的表现。
专家们称，男孩们也会在这个人生阶段形成自己的音乐品位，但是女孩们会更加容易迷恋流行歌手，因为这时她们的浪漫情怀和性意识已经开始萌动，这些感觉既让人陶醉又让人害怕。喜欢自己不可能遇到的明星则是一种从安全距离尝试这种感情的一种方式。盐湖城威斯敏斯特学院(Westminster College)的社会学教授及讲座教授马克?鲁宾菲尔德(Mark Rubinfeld)说，“很多女孩儿将自己的初吻献给了一张海报，我认为这种情况在现在也没有什么改变。”
心理学家认为，男孩们可能会更加崇拜运动员，一部分是因为他们想去模仿这些运动员，另一部分是因为支持某支球队能够给他们带来某种身份认同感。这种感觉有些会延续至成年时期，比如一些成年男性会在自己的身体上涂抹球队队服的颜色，或者在比赛日翘班看比赛。
俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨大学(University of Tulsa)的传播学教授朱莉?詹森(Joli Jensen)说，“有些社会评论家担心追星族都是些歇斯底里、容易激动的女孩儿和性格孤僻、爱跟踪别人的男孩儿。这两种观念都没有准确描述大多数追星族的体验：开心的经历、内部消息、出于好玩虚构出来的和形象具有独特吸引力的公众人物的关联。”
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青少年粉丝的大脑能使其对甲壳虫乐队歌曲的喜爱持续永远。
音乐产业竭尽全力为外形甜美可爱的明星展开的长期宣传攻势也助涨了女孩们的幻想。莱维汀博士说，“在上世纪60和70年代我还年轻的时候，《Tiger Beat》等面向青少年的音乐杂志会在后期图像处理时擦去青少年偶像脸上的胡渣。”
从“甲壳虫”的《我想握住你的手》(I Want to Hold Your Hand)到比伯的最新歌曲《男朋友》(Boyfriend)，很多歌曲本身都经过了精心打造以迎合年轻女孩们的浪漫幻想，比如《男朋友》中就有这么一句歌词──“如果我是你的男朋友，我绝不会让你走。”(比伯的经纪人未回复记者的置评要求。)
此外，社交媒体也拉近了名人与粉丝之间的距离，或者说它至少带来了这种错觉。纽约韦斯特菲尔德(Westfield)的护士玛蒂尔德?福塞尔(Mathilde Forsell)说，“在我年轻的时候，肖恩?卡西迪(Shaun Cassidy)是当红偶像，我们要想再在电视上看到他得等上一个星期。如今他们可以一天24小时随时下载(偶像的)视频。”福塞尔的女儿卡莉?杜根(Carley Dugan)也是一名B宝粉。
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对后街男孩的热爱使女生们尝试新奇而害怕的浪漫感觉。
比伯在Facebook和Twitter分别拥有4400万和2300万粉丝，他们几乎每个小时都能收到关于比伯的最新消息，比如他在哪里，他现在在想些什么等等。前不久的一个周日，他在Twitter上发送信息表达对粉丝的爱，同时发送的还有这一消息──“《相信》的《Zinepak》杂志限定盘只在沃尔玛超市有售哦，内含豪华版CD、所有独家照片、访谈记录以及收藏卡等物品。”
专家们称，如果孩子们为了追星而忽视学业、日常事务并为了虚幻的情感而忽视现实中的关系，那么这种追星热就有些热过头了。精神病学家艾伦?莱维茨(Alan Ravitz)指出，“每晚挂在电脑上五六个小时等待贾斯汀?比伯的博客(更新)太过头了。”莱维茨在纽约的儿童心理研究所(Child Mind Institute)工作，这是一家非营利性研究和治疗机构。
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钢琴家兼作曲家弗朗兹?李斯特的粉丝们曾把自己的衣服脱下来扔向他，甚至还为了他的几缕头发而彼此拳脚相向。
此外，家长在助长追星方面也会做过头。宾夕法尼亚州维拉诺瓦大学(Villanova University)的心理学家帕特里克?马基（Patrick Markey）说，“有人为了去纽约(追星)把房子抵押出去，然后睡在人行道上，这是一个大问题。不过，如果家长从工作中抽出一些时间来帮助孩子做一些他们真正喜欢的事情，那也未尝不可。”
另外一些专家则认为这种追星行为是不健康的。例如，《青春2.0：从青春期的煎熬中拯救我们的孩子和家庭》(Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence)一书的作者、心理学家罗伯特?爱普斯坦(Robert Epstein)认为，“与人们普遍的看法相反，‘比伯热’和类似的青春期极端主义行为对于成长而言丝毫算不上正常或健康。”他指出，做家长的应该帮助孩子识别炒作和商业化。爱普斯坦博士说，“在我六七岁的时候，头脑中满是幻想。但是过了某个特定的时间点，圣诞老人就得见鬼去了。”
年少的乐迷们可能会比家长们所意识到的要更能看破这些幻象。康涅狄格州麦迪逊的莉莉?福格(Lili Foggle)有两个女儿，一个14岁，另一个12岁。她说，当贾斯汀?比伯开始与演员兼歌手塞琳娜?戈麦斯(Selena Gomez)约会时，她的女儿们就对他丧失了兴趣。福格说，“(追星)整个的吸引力在于他可能真的会成为你的男朋友(的这种幻想)。”
福塞尔11岁的女儿卡莉说，“我以前可以说是疯狂地迷恋贾斯汀?比伯，我现在依然喜欢他，但是并没有那么爱他了。”卡莉说她现在更喜欢英国新成立的男生组合“一世代”（One Direction）。
Melinda BeckInside the Brains of Bieber Fans
The symptoms include uncontrollable screaming, swooning and spending hours on Twitter and Facebook. It primarily affects preteen and teen girls, yet it is highly contagious and can infect mothers, too. In severe cases, sufferers camp out on sidewalks for days. 'The appeal for me is, of course, that he's beautiful,' says 15-year-old Emma Reeves of Madison, Conn., who has seen Justin Bieber twice in concert. 'It's hard to find people who are successful, nice and care about other people and he has it all!' By disease standards, 'Bieber Fever' is approaching a global pandemic with the release of the 18-year-old pop star's latest album, 'Believe,' last week.
Compared with past outbreaks of fan mania, scientists now have a better understanding of why teens -- girls in particular -- become so passionate about some musicians, and the recording industry is far more adept at exploiting the phenomenon. Parents of star-struck 'Bieliebers' -- as his fans are sometimes known -- can be assured, experts say, that what looks like mass hysteria is a harmless stage in adolescent development. Long before the Beatles, Elvis and Frank Sinatra, frenzied female fans threw their clothing at 19th century pianist and composer Franz Liszt and fought over locks of his hair, say music historians.
Hearing familiar, favorite music stimulates the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and addiction, providing the same rush as eating chocolate or that winning does for a compulsive gambler, says neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, who was able to observe the process using fMRI scans in his lab at McGill University in Montreal.
Dr. Levitin's research also showed that musical tastes formed in the teen years become part of the brain's internal wiring, as that is the time when some neural pathways are solidifying and others are being pruned away. That's why the music adults tend to be nostalgic for is the music from their teenage years.
Boys also develop musical tastes in this phase of life, but adolescent girls are far more likely to become infatuated with pop stars, experts say, because they are awakening to romantic and sexual feelings that are both intoxicating and scary. Having a crush on a celebrity they are unlikely to meet is a way to try out such feelings at a safe distance. 'A lot of girls I know practiced their first kiss on a poster. I don't think that's changed at all,' says Mark Rubinfeld, professor and chair of sociology at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
Boys are more likely to follow athletes intensely -- partly out of a desire to emulate them and partly because rooting for a team conveys a sense of identity, psychologists say. Some of that carries into adulthood, as men paint themselves with team colors or skip work on game day.
'Social critics worry about fans as hysterical, emotional girls and loner, stalker boys,' says Joli Jensen, a professor of communications at the University of Tulsa, Okla. 'Neither stereotype captures the experience of most fans -- pleasurable, insider knowledge, playful imaginative connections about a public figure whose persona has particular appeal.'
The music industry fuels girls' fantasies by promoting stars with sweet, boyish looks for as long as possible. 'In my era, in the '60s and '70s, Tiger Beat and other teen music magazines would airbrush out the stubble on the teen idols,' says Dr. Levitin, author of 'This Is Your Brain on Music,' who was a record producer before turning to neuroscience.
The songs are carefully calculated to play into young girls' romantic fantasies, from the Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' to Mr. Bieber's latest song 'Boyfriend' with lyrics 'If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go.' (Representatives for Mr. Bieber didn't return requests for comment.)
Social media has brought celebrities closer to fans, or it at least gives that illusion. 'When I was younger, it was Shaun Cassidy, and we had to wait a week to see him on TV again,' says Mathilde Forsell, a nurse in Westfield, N.Y., whose daughter, Carley Dugan, is a Bielieber. 'Now, they can download videos 24 hours a day.'
Mr. Bieber's 44 million fans on Facebook and 23 million followers on Twitter receive almost hourly updates on where he is and what he's thinking. On Sunday he tweeted love for his fans, and also this: 'so the GBP Believe Zinepak is ONLY at Walmart. It has the deluxe CD and all the exclusive pics and content including interview and cards.'
Fan fever has gone too far when children neglect school work, chores and real relationships in favor of fantasy love, experts say. 'Too much is being on a computer for five or six hours a night following Justin Bieber blogs,' says psychologist Alan Ravitz at the Child Mind Institute, a New York nonprofit research and treatment organization. Parents can go overboard in facilitating an infatuation, too. 'A person who mortgages their house to go to New York and sleep on the sidewalk -- that's an issue. But a parent taking time out of work to help their kid do something they really enjoy, that's OK,' says psychologist Patrick Markey of Villanova University in Villanova, Pa.
Other experts say this sort of fan behavior isn't healthy. 'Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing even slightly developmentally normal or healthy about 'Bieber Fever' and similar teen extremisms,' says psychologist Robert Epstein, author of 'Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence' and other books. He argues that parents should help their offspring recognize the hype and commercialization. 'I'm all about fantasies for my 6- and 7-year-olds. But past a certain point, Santa Claus has to die,' Dr. Epstein says.
Young music fans probably see through the fantasies more than parents realize. Lili Foggle, mother of two girls, ages 14 and 12, in Madison, Conn., says her daughters lost interest in Justin Bieber when he started dating actress and singer Selena Gomez. 'The whole attraction was that he could really be your boyfriend,' she says.
'I used to be, like, madly in love with Justin Bieber. Now I still like him, but I don't really love him, and I don't scream so much anymore,' says Mrs. Forsell's daughter, Carley, age 11. She says she now prefers One Direction, a new boy band from Britain.
Melinda Beck
