Abelian Family: a Metaphor About the Relationship Between an Argentinian Artist and Its Public

Abstract

This article analyzes the metaphor “the public is the family”, composed by the singer Abel Pintos (1984, Bahía Blanca, Argentina) to communicate something about his relationship with his followers. Primarily, the study performs a brief account of the artist's life, its works and its current activity as an art promoter. After that, the study reviews the main characteristics of mass movements, particularly those related with the relationship between artists and their public (high level of cohesion, organized around common goals, support and admiration for a public character, internal references, common symbols, and use of products with the artist brand. After that, this text exposes its research methodology and presents the results of the discursive analysis of some of the publications and comments on Facebook in which the metaphor focalized earlier is present. From these, the study extracts the characteristics of the relationship between Abel Pintos and its followers and other conceptualizations will be set on stage to talk about this relationship. The most relevant of them consists of constituting a community with a bond as strong as a family bond. Another of the characteristics is the organization initiatives for making products or offering communal services, internal references, creation of identity vocabulary, (e. g., the adjective abelian), performative language, and great admiration for the Argentinian singer. Besides, the study points out the occasional inconsistencies between the metaphor “the public is the family and some events that contradict that conceptualization. At last, the study presents its conclusions.