There are fans, there are haters, there are fakes, then there's, well, the guy above. If your the guy above your one of several things, but one of those things just might include being a "real fan."

However, in today's mixed up world where "suspicious packages" could either be the name of an Islamic Gay Bar or it could actually mean suspicious packages, you just never know.

We'd be willing to wager that your not half the fan you claim to be. If you are, we'd like to know about it so we can report you. We'd also be willing to wager than you might really hate your so called favorite artist.
So in order to rule yourself in or out, we've prepared the following litmus test:

You might really hate your 'favorite' artist if....

10. You don't own any of their albums. - Now this one is really a first-line given, but you just can't call yourself a "fan" of so and so if you don't have one of their albums. A fair-radio-fan just isn't a fan.

9. You don't check their : website, twitter or facebook daily. These people are the type that need attention. They need their egos stroked. If your a real fan, you'd be there.

8. You haven't worn their shirt in a month. - You don't have money for a shirt? You should have at least pulled a shirt out of the dumpster of your local Goodwill and made your own fan shirt. There's really no excuse.

7. You don't have their poster hanging above your bed. - Now don't pull the money thing again. And no, I don't care that their merch company is really a front for money laundering. Take a piece of paper and draw their picture on it. Then staple or tape said picture above your bed so that it is the first thing you see when you wake up. Now there can sometimes be an exception to this one, like I never had a poster over my bed, but I made up for it by having a certain artist plastered over the entirety of my bedroom wall. There may be another exception where posters of an artist the same or opposite sex might cause an uneasy feeling, but generally speaking, if you only have one poster (and that barely makes you a fan) the rule book states it should go directly over your bed, or wherever you are likely to open your eyes first and look toward in the morning.

6. You don't have one of their songs set as your ringtone. - If you have a cell phone, you have to have one of your favorite artist's songs as your ring tone.

5. You let your fan club membership expire.  Gasp! You never had one! (they don't have one? that's no excuse! You should have been the fan club captain. A real fan would have started one up.)

4. You don't like every version of the artist. - Fakers try to say "well, oh they changed." Fire! Fire! A wolf in sheep's clothing here! Fake Fan! Fire! It's hard not to pull that one, I know. A band like Yes is a perfect example. There is the "original" Yes: the original line up and the original progressive sound. Then there is the "post-progressive" Yes, which is loosely defined as anything after Bruford left. But that's not quite accurate, because even to their most recent studio album, Magnification, Yes are still rather progressive. So a real fan would take all parts of the group and appreciate it for what it is. The Bruford part, the Buggles-lead-singer part, and the current Anderson-less part, and everything in between. Although I can recognize that Journey without Steve Perry is really just Perry's backing band with another sound-alike singer. Even though Steve Augeri and Arnel Pineda are fine singers in their own right, it's just not Journey. I guess I can't call myself a true Journey fan. But then again, I never was one. Like most people, I was only a fan of their "real" greatest hits album, Greatest Hits, and a few Steve Perry solo songs.

3. You don't know their real name. - For instance, Bono's name ain't 'Bono," it's..., no wait, I'm not going to tell you! Cause if your a real fan, you already know, and if your not a real fan, you won't remember to look it up.

2. Your best friends don't know who it is. - Do you even have any friends? We'll if your strange enough to have gotten the previous eight (8) items in the bag, the likelihood of you having any friends is remote, at best. If that is the case, then just make one up and tell them who your favorite artist is. You can also make it official by telling us in the comments section, called R&R Engage.

1. You steal their songs from file shares. - Obviously we are not talking about times when the artist themselves put the files up for free like "x and x" did. Putting aside the "thou shalt not steal" thing for a moment because some of you are too stupid to understand that taking something by force against the will of the owner is theft. We'll just focus on the fact that it just ain't cool. It hurts the artist especially when they sell directly and everyone of those downloaded files is laced with a 'fingerprint' that you cannot remove and calls home from time to time. I'm just sayin'.

....and the numero zero reason: you might really hate your 'favorite' artist if...

0. You haven't checked ROCKandREVIEW.com for a review of your favorite artist. Now you may have a point if we don't have them listed. After all, R&R is a really, really, small set-up. But then again, if you were really a fan, you'd send in a review that you've written for us to post. I'm just sayin'.

-1. You don't have a tattoo of something about your favorite artist. - Hum, this one really deserves it's own post. The level of love here is is so low that words can not even say. If you have all of the previous collection but are missing out on this one, then you might still be considered sane, but your not a real fan. If you already have the tattoo, your legit. Too Legit. 2 Legit 2 Quit.

If your so much of a fan that you can think of some things that we over-looked, do all of the other fans out there a favor and post it in R&R Engage below.