I think you can be passionate and fanatical about any form of music, for example some of you may know that my late father Alf Bicknell used to work for The Beatles from 1964 through to 1966 when they stopped touring, for many years from about 1990 my Dad was invited to the many Beatles conventions as a special guest speaker around the world which i was lucky enough to go with him on several occassions, now let me tell you Beatle fans are as commited and passionate as anyone perhaps more so, collecting the records, memrobilia, autographs etc. in Chicago the first time we went there must have been seven thousand people there.
Any band or music style has it's hard core fans some are more serious than others but i suspect it's the music that drives them firstly and then the desire to know everything, collect everything the band/artists/music produces, there are fanatics i would suspect on pretty much every entrtainer, band and music style out there be it Cliff Richard, Queen, Abba, The Rolling Stones etc. etc.
Music is certainly the food of life just that Northern/Rare Soul is our Holy Grail...lol
Regards - Mark Bicknell.