I’m now going to sound like an old lady with my “I remember back in the day…” stories.
I’m hoping some older fans can relate to this. Younger fans…you have it so easy.
I first had the internet in 1995. I remember searching for Selena stuff on Yahoo or Webcrawler. The source to go to was Ondanet. It had all the latest news, old songs, and information about the movie when it was being made. It actually still exists! It hasn’t been updated in about 17 years. But I love looking at it time to time. It’s such a great time capsule. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think it was the very first Selena website. There is still some good stories hidden in there.
I didn’t have Youtube with thousands of Selena clips. I had to go on websites and wait 2 hours for a short clip of the Astrodome concert. I don’t think it ever worked for me with the speed of my old Packard Bell computer and using a dial up connection.
I also learned about Ebay through the old fan sites. I remember back in the late 90s, you would be lucky if 30 Selena items would be up. There is now over 2000 easily. And if you won the auction, you had to send in a check or money order.
And the fans were so connected back then. There wasn’t a huge competition like there is now. They used to freely trade items with one another and even give each other videos of concerts. I was a part of this little group called Selena Pals and a fellow fan sent me 2 video tapes of hours of concerts and tv specials. Another one sent me a cassette tape of all her old LP recordings. They didn’t ask for money. They just did it as a favor from one fan to another. Looking back, probably wasn’t a wise idea to give my address to some stranger online but hey, it was 1997. I didn’t know better!
I now get a little sad that the fan community doesn’t seem to be like that so much anymore. It seems to be more about making money and getting tons of “likes” on Facebook or having the most exclusive information or news. I liked how it was more of a tight knit community then. I do know there’s some great websites out there who just aim to keep fans together and share information so I’m not grouping them all together like that. Maybe I just had some bad experiences!
However, I do believe the internet has helped her fan base as well. We now have connections directly with her family via Facebook (Suzette, Chris and AB are quite active), instant access to her music for free with the Selena radio website and of course, Youtube. Thank you to all the people who have taken time and dusted off their VCRs and put those clips up.
My 13 year old self’s mind would of been blown if I knew I could have instant access to hundreds of hours of concert videos of her in the future.
thoughts for the more than casual Selena fan. 