What is bandwagoning?
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At its simplest, it’s embarking on an idea, opinion, or thought process because it’s the popular one, not necessarily because it’s the correct one.
Becoming a fan of a sports team only while they are winning. As opposed to a fan that supports a team if they win or lose, a bandwagoner sees a winning team and decides that’s the team the want to support.
You remember when your mom said, “if everybody else jumped off a cliff would you jump too?”? Bandwagon is the idea that you should do it because lots of other people do it. It’s a frequent marketing tactic. “Don’t you wish you were a Pepper too?”
It’s when a concept and its popularity is imagined as a wagon, a physical object. The more popular the concept, the more people jump on the wagon, and the more inviting the wagon looks to others who may jump on.
Kind of like a snowball rushing down a mountain, except with regard to a particular societal or economic or political circumstance.
Mob mentality.
Bandwagoning is when you start supporting something just because it’s popular or everyone else is doing it. Like, if you suddenly start liking a football team because they’re winning and all your friends like them too.
Everyone loves a winner.
Bandwagoning is where people jump on ‘the winning team’ just because they are winning, not because they necessarily support that ‘team’.
It’s commonly used in sports – when a team is doing well, suddenly all these additional ‘fans’ appear at home games or wearing team hats, shirts, etc. Whereas when the team is doing poorly, they disappear. They are perceived to be not real fans because they are missing during the down years, they only start turning up when they know they’re backing a winner.
It’s also used sometimes in politics – there is a theory that if one side looks like they are going to win an election, or are simply popular, swinging/undecided votes will break towards that side. Again the idea is that these people don’t actually agree with or support that side, they are just wanting to be part of whoever wins.
Bandwagoning is almost always portrayed as negative, to label these people as flaky, shallow and vain. In contrast to ‘real supporters’ who are seen to be loyal and dedicated by sticking with their team even during very difficult times.
First, think about an [actual bandwagon](https://i2.wp.com/www.letstakeacloserlook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2017-09-18-at-8.13.35-AM-e1589995273593.png?fit=290%2C291&ssl=1)
Its like the wagon that a big band rides on while they play in a big parade. Like a celebration parade.
So the old saying “to hop on the bandwagon” means to join the party for something, after its already celebrating. Already successful and popular (and you are only jumping on BECAUSE its successful and popular, and you want to hang out at the party).
Its used in a negative way to describe people that join the crowd supporting something only when that thing is already obviously popular and successful, making being a part of that crowd fun and easy.
In sports terms, its describes fans that only jumped onto being fans of a team because that team is winning and popular. They weren’t fans before, and as soon as that team struggles, they will probably switch to some other team. They don’t actually care about “their team” they just want to go to the party and cheer for a winner.
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