There’s a clear and definitive feeling and rhythm to belonging. It’s in the rituals that we have as music fans and concert goers whether that be pulling on a homemade shirt, painting a lyric across a shoddy cardboard sign, or stepping into a crowd already singing the first line before an artist has hit the stage. Fandom has always been emotional, but for Gen Z, it’s visual, performative, and deeply personal.
According to AEG Europe’s 2025 study, Gen Z Leads the Superfan Revival Through Community, Costumes, and Tattoos, younger audiences are redefining what it means to be a fan: 70% say they feel “at home” among people who share their musical passions, and many express that devotion through tattoos, costumes, and visual storytelling (AEG Europe, 2025). In a post-digital era, the fan experience has become a space for self-expression, a live-action design system powered by emotion.
Designing Identity
These rituals of fandom, the outfits, body art, banners, and social visuals, echo design theory itself. They’re systems of semiotics: colour, typography, and gesture forming a visual language of belonging. In Gestalt terms, individuals become part of a larger whole, a collective pattern that only makes sense when seen together (Arnheim, 1974).
This is more than decoration. It’s identity design. A tattoo of a lyric becomes both logo and manifesto; a costume is wearable communication. Each fan builds a visual hierarchy of emotion, the band name at the top, the details layered beneath.
Emotional Architecture
Music events aren’t just sonic; they’re spatial experiences, constructed environments charged with emotion. Sociologist Émile Durkheim called this collective effervescence (Durkheim, 1912): the surge of shared energy that binds people in ritual. Modern crowd studies suggest that this emotional synchrony enhances empathy and social cohesion (Pearce et al., 2017).
Within design thinking, this is affective space, emotion mapped onto light, sound, and movement. The fan body becomes part of the design, performing identity through gesture and rhythm.
Beyond the Feed
In an age of algorithms and endless scroll, Gen Z’s fandom is a counter-design, one that favours physical connection over digital noise, breaking through the gumpf of algorithmic trash. Tattoos and handmade signs resist ephemerality. They last. They claim space.
This echoes Bruno Munari’s (1966) idea that design is a synthesis of function and emotion, an object becomes meaningful only when it’s lived with. These fan artefacts function exactly that way: they’re both tool and testimony, recording experience through creative form.
Resona’s Take
At Resona, we see this movement as design in motion, a living, breathing collage of sound, colour, and emotion. The superfan revival isn’t about obsession; it’s about authorship. Fans are no longer passive spectators, they’re co-designers of culture, a new culture which is growing year on year.
Every tattoo, outfit, or chant is part of a larger visual composition, a reminder that music doesn’t just play through speakers. It resonates through people, living breathing emotion.
A Snapshot of AEG Presents’ Report
| Behaviour | Percentage | Context |
| Live music fans strongly identify with fan communities | 48% (all fans) | Increases to 65% among Gen Z |
| Live music creates a sense of community digital cannot match | 79% | Supports argument for emotional & social impact of live events |
| Felt “at home” among like-minded fans at events | 70% | Emotional connection / belonging |
| Made immediate connections with strangers at live events | 63% | Social bonding & shared experience |
| Felt more understood by fellow fans than everyday contacts | 53% | Highlights unique social dynamics of live music |
| Experienced excitement at live events | 70% | Emotional intensity |
| Experienced joy at live events | 63% | Positive affective impact |
| Experienced euphoria at live events | 32% | Peak emotional experience |
| Fans prioritising live events during economic uncertainty | 46% | Shows value placed on experiences |
| Gen Z dressing in a way to show fandom | 41% | Costumes, fashion, visual identity |
| Millennials dressing in a way to show fandom | 33% | Engagement with community through visual means |
| Gen Z making / buying homemade signs for artists | 21% | Active participation, creative expression |
| Gen Z queuing >5 hours for tickets / entry | 16% | Commitment & ritual behaviour |
| Gen Z calling in sick to attend events | 15% | Extreme fandom behaviour |
| Gen Z getting tattoos to show fandom | 12% | Permanent visual identity; highest among metal (17%), folk (16%), K-Pop (15%) |
About the research
The study, developed by AEG’s Global Partnerships Research and Insights team, surveyed 3,000 UK adults aged 18+, with quotas for age, gender, region and other demographics to approximate the national online population. Interviews were conducted between 19 April and 7 May 2025.
References
- AEG Europe (2025) Gen Z Leads the Superfan Revival Through Community, Costumes, and Tattoos. Available at: https://aegeurope.com/gen-z-leads-the-superfan-revival-through-community-costumes-and-tattoos/ (Accessed: 17 October 2025).
- Arnheim, R. (1974) Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Durkheim, É. (1912) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Paris: Alcan.
- Munari, B. (1966) Design as Art. London: Penguin.
- Pearce, E., Launay, J. and Dunbar, R. (2017) ‘The effects of synchrony on social bonding and connectedness’, Music & Science, 1(1), pp. 1-10.
