Fanfiction presents us with an energetic universe of literary production at a scale that is unprecedented in literary history. Tens of thousands of new texts, many of them novel-length, appear in popular fan communities every year. In this world of fan readers and writers, platforms become essential to understanding fanfiction for both literary criticism and internet cultural studies.

This working group focuses on how music functions within the creative works of specific online fandoms. Textually, authors might reference music that characters play or listen to. But fan texts often extend beyond the textual: authors create Spotify playlists for their works and link them for readers to listen to. Readers make their own playlists or fan videos based on fanfiction. Songs in fandom move from platform to platform. A fanfiction titled after a song on Archive of Our Own births a viral fan video on Tumblr.