Fan Song

Synonyms:	Fan Song
See also:	AMV, Filk, Mechanical License, Vid, Vidding
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Fan music is music produced by (and primarily) for fans of a given source work, much as fanfiction is prose written by and for fans of a particular creative work. This takes in a great deal of territory (as, indeed, does “fanfiction”), the boundaries of which are evolving in modern fannish culture.

Filk is the largest and best-known body of fan music. Filks are broadly defined as the music of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) fandom originally set to traditional folk music and later more commonly, to tunes and themes of popular music, and often include the notation, to the tune of. In the 21st century, however, the broadening of organized fandom and the emergence of a greater variety of fannish communities has produced types of original fan music that arguably exist outside the filk umbrella.

Categories

Original Music

These are songs that have completely original music and lyrics for which the topic is a fannish one.

An early example is Leslie Fish's Solar Sailors which delves into space exploration and general science fiction themes, with a few Star Trek songs. Fish described it as "the kind of music you might hope to hear in a 22nd-century coffeehouse... or maybe in a spaceport bar."

Arrangement/Remix

This type of fanwork is common among gaming fans (for example, players of Touhou), who create remixes or new arrangements of a video game soundtrack.

Many people in the music industry differentiate between remixes, which are altered versions of a song's sound recording, and covers, which are new recordings of a pre-existing song that don't incorporate the original sound recording. Under United States law, cover versions can be released on streaming platforms by obtaining a compulsory mechanical license from the copyright owner of the musical composition. This license is automatically granted as long as mechanical royalties are paid. On the other hand, remixes require explicit permission from the copyright owner of the sound recording. However, these terms are often used loosely in VGM fan communities – for example, GlitchxCity labels most of her covers as "remixes".

Fandub

In Vocaloid or anime fandoms, fans often sing versions of existing songs, sometimes with the original lyrics, sometimes translated into other languages. These covers are particularly popular for anime OPs.

Fanmix/Playlist

As the name suggests, this is a listing or grouping of musical works whose creator dedicates to or associates with a particular source work. In particular, it’s becoming more common for authors of SFF and young adult fiction to circulate the playlists to which they listened while writing a given story or novel.

Song

Fan songs may consist exclusively of lyrics (in which case they’re usually though not always identified as being set to the tune of an existing song), or of both lyrics and original music. While the roots of these songs, filk, are closely tied to folk music, and a significant proportion of filk continues that tradition, today’s fan songs and performers – both within the filk community and beyond it - draw on a broader range of musical genres, including rock, jazz, rap, and even classical music.

Vid

Also known as fanvids or songvids, these are one of the most recent forms of musical fanwork. In their earliest form, they were essentially slide shows – sequences of still images shown with a curated soundtrack as accompaniment. Today, fans use modern video editing software to merge filmed material with music to create works that amplify the themes and connections between the source material (for instance, a vid featuring images from Muppet Treasure Island and music from Pirates of the Caribbean).

Examples

Albums

• Wriolette Album Project, for the Genshin Impact ship Wriolette - several authors (fanartists and composers), run by archonsoflove, posted 2025-2026

Arrangement/remix

• Bad Apple!!, the theme song from stage 3 of the 1998 Touhou game Lotus Land Story, has been remixed by fans myriad times.

Fandub

Original-Language Fandubs

• Raon Lee's cover of Silhouette from Naruto, posted 2015
• EUPHEME's cover of Like a Dog, a Vocaloid song by Ferry, posted 2021

Translated Fandubs

• Geekyfandubs' English-language fandub of Again from Fullmetal Alchemist, posted 2009
• Lili Sanchez's Spanish-language fandub of Watashi-tachi ni Naritakute from Sailor Moon, posted 2015
• Hikarin's Spanish-language fandub of GOODBYE by K-pop group 2NE1, posted 2017
• Amanda Lee's English cover of The Baddest from League of Legends, posted 2020
• English cover (Will Stetson's) of Idol by Yoasobi from Oshi no Ko, posted 2023, lyrics translated by sayiris. Particularly notable in that some fans prefer this version to the official translation by yoasobi due to some of the creative liberties in translation.

Fanmix/Playlist

• The Hanson Project, an album of sorts of 25 songs inspired by Hanson's music and career (with a few covers thrown in as well).
• CloudAtlas(note: works are archive-locked) made a fanmix for Move Dust Through the Light, the main fic of a series RedStar featuring James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov in a Band AU. One notable aspect of this work is the in-universe excerpts of a music biography and other outsider POV treating these albums as works.

Song

See also filk and Anime Rap.

• The Ballad of Jensen and Jared, a Supernatural RPF song
• Five Nights at Freddy's fandom is known for having a popular fansong community.
• The Baby Is You, a Homestuck fan album released by Toby Fox about Dave Strider giving birth to John Egbert.
• Let the Wind Tell You a Genshin Impact song by ChilliChill
• 全职高手OP&ED&同人歌曲串烧——十年热血写信仰，荣耀永不散场（朋友，你听说过K大吗？233333, a medley of (The King's Avatar) popular fansongs and the season 1 OP/Ed by Kyle钢琴
• Lullaby for a Princess a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic song by ponyphonic
• A Certain Family's Tea Party, a Vocaloid song written by Kururingo, which presents itself as a story about a group of non fandom OCs but is in fact a fansong about the Arclight family from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.

Instrumental

Composers

• Firjii The Novel Composer

Vid

See also vid, vidding.

• Arkham Rock Opera, a Batfamily fansong.