Power, fame, and celebrity are alluring. For some people, chasing fame or power themselves isn't satisfying, but chasing someone famous or powerful is. These people are groupies.

The word “groupies” is sometimes used to describe anyone who hangs around a certain group of people, usually celebrities. Primarily, however, groupies are women who attach themselves to musical groups. The era of the modern groupie seems to have begun in the sixties with big rock bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.

The stereotype of the groupie is of a woman who makes herself sexually available to a band she likes. However, groupies would tell you that they are more than just unimportant playthings. They are muses, friends, and support systems. They were sometimes called “road wives” for those reasons. Not all musician-groupie relationships are fleeting. Some groupies develop deep emotional bonds and even marry band members. Groupies pop up in songs: Sweet Connie” in the song “We're an American Band” refers to Connie Hamzy; “Plaster Caster” by Kiss is about Cynthia Albritton. And not all groupies are sexually available; groupie Cassandra Peterson hung out with or was involved with some famous musicians, but only as a friend.

Author Pamela Des Barres is outspoken about her time as a groupie. “The groupie is just a girl who loves music and loves to be around the people who make it. She is the fan that takes it to the next level to experience the whole shebang,” she said at the screening of a documentary about one of her books.

For many groupies, forming a relationship with a musician is about getting close to the music. Des Barres says, “Any good groupie loves the music so much that it’s part of the bloodstream.” Getting close to a band member through friendship, love, or sex was simply about trying to get as close as possible to the creative force behind the music they loved so much.

Of course, try telling that to their parents.

權力、名氣，及名人都很吸引人。有些人自己追求名氣或權力還不夠，追逐有名有權的人才能得到滿足。這些人就是追星族。

「追星族」這個名詞有時被用來形容圍繞在某群人（通常是名人）身邊跑的人。然而，追星族主要是表示追隨著樂團的女性。現代追星族似乎是從60 年代跟隨披頭四、滾石合唱團及齊柏林飛船等大搖滾樂團出現的。

作家潘蜜拉• 蒂• 巴瑞斯對自己做追星族時的事直言不諱。她在根據自己著作所拍的紀錄片試映會上表示：「追星族只是一些喜歡音樂及音樂人的女孩，她只是將迷戀提升到另一個層次，並體驗一切的樂迷。」

對許多追星族來說，跟樂手建立關係是為了更接近他們的音樂。蒂• 巴瑞斯說：「追星族都非常喜歡音樂，那份喜愛在她們的血液中流動著。」透過友誼、愛情，或性來接近樂團成員，只是為了盡量接近她們喜愛的音樂背後那股創造力而已。

當然，你可以試試告訴他們的爸媽這種說法。