Here is a brief and choppy history on the dreadhead culture. Yes, it will be added to and refined in a short while, but let's finish our chow mein first, eh?
It all started in the American Idol site forums, on Valentines day.
February 14th, 2008: The Dreadhead name--suggested by Wahnchtre--was decided upon and the main forum thread "Dreadheads-Come On Down" was started by kateri315 at americanidol.com. It had been a toss-up as to whether the fans would call themselves Dreadheads (in reference to the peace, love and happiness vibe that Jason gave off, and modeled after the Grateful Dead's "Deadhead" movement of the 60s), or "Castronauts"--a very attractive second option, which was picked up by a second fanbase over at idolforums.com.
Dreadheads edged out Castronauts on rickey.org's poll by about 2:1.
On AI, Wahnchtre and Buckeroosky started the fanlist. Soonerlover--a key source of information as a member of the Jason camp--joined the thread and started motivatin' the Dreadhead Family.
Dreadheads-Come On Down grew to 13,000+ posts and 316,000+ views through good governance and the emergence of the peace-loving, brownie-sharing Dreadhead culture and community. It was THE dominant thread in Idol Male Contestants and a significant source of "buzz" on Jason--whom NO ONE HAD SEEN during American Idol's Season Seven Auditions due to copyright problems with his songs, which prevented them from being televised.
The Dreadheads quickly started developing a unique culture, with symbols (the colour blue and peace signs), art and foodstuffs (brownies and Kool-Aid) playing a prominent role. The buses--hippie VWs and other wild and wackily painted up vehicles--were early on the preferred mode of transportation and came to be a metaphor for Jason's journey to the finale. The fanlisting was growing in leaps and bounds. Each 50 fans got their own bus corresponding to blocks of Dreadhead numbers.
By February 20th, the day after Jason's first televised performance during Top 24 week, the fanlist exploded, growing to 200 fans overnight and the pageviews on the thread reached 30,000 unique visits.
Slogans emerged, especially: "CASTro your Vote" and "Spread The Love. No Time To Hate. Jason Castro for Idol in '08." The last, created by Crazy_Canuck as a bumper sticker slogan for the buses--was specifically developed as a values statement of the Dreadhead movement. These values were directly inspired by Jason's own and--with this as their model--the fanbase would emerge as one of the most creative, non-bashing, peaceful and tolerant on the AI Boards and in American Idol history. The fans loved and cared for each other and for their thread(s) and this environment attracted more and more like-minded fans. It again paralleled the social movements of the 60s and knit together disparate fans from all walks of life, whatever their ages, genders or prior American Idol allegiances.
February 23rd, 2008: The Dreadhead - Name Our Mascot thread was created. Random fuzzy beasts, especially those with a dreadlocked look, became a running joke and lighthearted theme among the Dreadheads.
March 6th, 2008: Jason makes Top 12, and the Contestant folders are created. The Dreadhead Express, as it came to be called, took the buses, the brownies and the mascots over to Jason's folder and continued partying. Threads sprang up faster than bunnies.
Some of the key threads included the Dreadheads!!! Chat thread and "Welcome to Castroville," among many, many others. The Jason forum was neck-and-neck with the David Archuleta forum by thread count and pageviews, but the Dreadheads clearly led the way in terms of organization, creativity and fan spirit. Each Dreadhead Bus had its own thread, and its own Bus Ambassador, to generate excitement and community events and activities among the HUGE Dreadhead fanbase. By March 23rd, we were loading Bus #25, representing 1,250 individual Dreadheads. Regular weekly "Bonfires & Love-Ins" united the Dreadheads around a theme related to the Castro Campaign.
March 19th, 2008: Jason made Top 10, the Tour and daydreamingboy.com launched. Hey, that's us...
To be continued .........