Commercial flops that devoted fans later turned into cult classics
The Velvet Underground's first album flopped in 1967 because radio and shops found it too controversial to sell. Critics and loyal listeners slowly rescued it. That pattern, a failure at release adopted by a small passionate crowd, sits at the heart of what gets called a cult following, from records to cancelled television.
A cult following is a dedicated fanbase that feels emotionally bound to a work or person and often sees itself as a community. Such works tend to serve niche audiences and carry an underground or anti-establishment air that keeps them from mass success. Fans frequently love them with a knowing irony, and many go further, writing fan fiction, making costumes and props, or producing their own videos.
Music offers plenty of examples. The Ramones' 1976 debut sold poorly yet shaped early punk, finally going gold in 2014. Nine Inch Nails peaked at number 75 on the Billboard 200 with Pretty Hate Machine in 1989, then kept selling underground until it went platinum in 1995, among the first independently released records to do so. Bilal's Love for Sale gained its reputation after it leaked in 2006 while its label kept it shelved, and the Japanese band Fishmans found a new online audience after their singer Shinji Sato died.
Television shows can win fans only once they have been axed, sometimes strongly enough to bring them back. Netflix revived Arrested Development in 2013, seven years after cancellation, and Star Trek, dropped after three seasons, grew in syndication into a lasting franchise. Twin Peaks, cut after two seasons on a cliffhanger, returned on Showtime in 2017.
The label reaches well beyond art. Reefer Madness, a 1936 warning film, became a favourite of the very audience it lectured because of its absurd plot and errors. The video game Ico sold badly in 2001 but influenced later designs. Brands such as Spam and cars like the Trabant have devoted fans too, and a 2021 AMC cinema advert starring Nicole Kidman turned into an audience ritual for its earnest camp.
Source: Cult following
