Like most children, I listened to whatever my parents listened to. Like most children too, my musical tastes began to evolve around the time I began to hit puberty. I started to show interest in boys, which quickly followed by my love of boy bands. I wish I could say that I skipped over that trend of loving pop music and following what everyone else was doing, but I can't. I was one of the generals of the Backstreet Boys army in the major boy-band fued between Backstreet Boy fans and N'SYNC fans. The walls of my bedroom were wallpapered with the faces of Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, AJ McLean, and Howie Dorough (I'm actually not too surprised that I still remember their full names).
I was not alone amongst this craze of boy-band-crazy pre-teen and teenage girls. Boybands such as Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC, 98 Degrees, and LFO had swept the world during the 90s and the early 2000s. Boybands gave girls a perfect image as to what their boyfriends should be like and gave boys unrealistic expectations to live up to according to the girls they wished to date.
Every boyband follows a similar pattern. There's 3 to 5 good-looking "boys" of varying personalities. They sing songs about love lost and love gained, all while dancing to choreographed steps planned out for them and while wearing matching outfits. These bands are put together by record companies looking to make an easy dollar off of the impressionable female youth. MTV made a movie that later spawned the television series with the same name of "2gether". "2gether" (the television show and the movie) was made to satirize the boyband concept and make up. 2gether's band make-up consisted of the "Shy One", the "Older Brother", the "Rebel", the "Cutie", and the "Heart Throb".
What really strikes me as being odd is that while these bands are called "boybands" a great majority of their members are over the age of 18, and should therefore be considered men, not boys. Many parents would find it more disturbing, though that their children were listening to "manbands" rather than "boybands".
The social make-up of boyband fans is something that is very noticeable. The great majority of boyband fans are heterosexual white females between the ages of 9 and 15. While male fans exist, they knowingly exist sparingly. Any boy who dares to declare themselves a fan of boybands is immediately dismissed as being gay. Society has taught boys that it isn't "manly" to enjoy pop music in general. Even though these bands are comprised (mostly) of heterosexual men who sing their hearts out to girls with the hopes of winning their hearts, boys are taught that this is not acceptable behavior for a man.
When Lance Bass of the band N'SYNC came out as a gay man a couple years ago the media and society took the news with a mix of responses. While the gay community was accepting, the rest of society met this news with responses such as: "That doesn't surprise me"; "I always thought he was gay"; "He was the ugly one anyways"; and "He had to have been gay to be in a band like that." In my eyes I don't believe it was so much as Lance's sexuality that was being attacked as much as it was the sexuality of all boy band members of the past and present.
Nowadays boybands aren't as prevalent as they were during the times of Backstreet Boys and N'SYNC. Girls and boys these days now have the Jonas Brothers to to fill their boyband needs. The major differences are that the Jonas Brothers all play their own instruments, write their own songs, are actually biological brothers, and put out a clean-cut image that promotes Christian values such as their major value of abstaining from sex until marriage. Nickelodeon has also recently spawned a 2gether-esque show entitled "Big Time Rush". "Big Time Rush" is about a boyband with the same name working to make it in the music industry. While I have yet to see any of this show it appears to follow the boyband pattern that is more common.
There is definately a gap within the bridge between what society says girls should look for in a guy and how guys should portray themselves to girls. Girls are taught to look for the good-looking, sensitive guy who can dance and easily put their emotions into song. Guys are taught that being sensitive and showing emotions are both signs of weakness and dancing is something that only girls do. This blog will go on to explore which kinds of emotional music is "acceptable" for men within society today.
I was not alone amongst this craze of boy-band-crazy pre-teen and teenage girls. Boybands such as Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC, 98 Degrees, and LFO had swept the world during the 90s and the early 2000s. Boybands gave girls a perfect image as to what their boyfriends should be like and gave boys unrealistic expectations to live up to according to the girls they wished to date.
Every boyband follows a similar pattern. There's 3 to 5 good-looking "boys" of varying personalities. They sing songs about love lost and love gained, all while dancing to choreographed steps planned out for them and while wearing matching outfits. These bands are put together by record companies looking to make an easy dollar off of the impressionable female youth. MTV made a movie that later spawned the television series with the same name of "2gether". "2gether" (the television show and the movie) was made to satirize the boyband concept and make up. 2gether's band make-up consisted of the "Shy One", the "Older Brother", the "Rebel", the "Cutie", and the "Heart Throb".
What really strikes me as being odd is that while these bands are called "boybands" a great majority of their members are over the age of 18, and should therefore be considered men, not boys. Many parents would find it more disturbing, though that their children were listening to "manbands" rather than "boybands".
The social make-up of boyband fans is something that is very noticeable. The great majority of boyband fans are heterosexual white females between the ages of 9 and 15. While male fans exist, they knowingly exist sparingly. Any boy who dares to declare themselves a fan of boybands is immediately dismissed as being gay. Society has taught boys that it isn't "manly" to enjoy pop music in general. Even though these bands are comprised (mostly) of heterosexual men who sing their hearts out to girls with the hopes of winning their hearts, boys are taught that this is not acceptable behavior for a man.
When Lance Bass of the band N'SYNC came out as a gay man a couple years ago the media and society took the news with a mix of responses. While the gay community was accepting, the rest of society met this news with responses such as: "That doesn't surprise me"; "I always thought he was gay"; "He was the ugly one anyways"; and "He had to have been gay to be in a band like that." In my eyes I don't believe it was so much as Lance's sexuality that was being attacked as much as it was the sexuality of all boy band members of the past and present.
Nowadays boybands aren't as prevalent as they were during the times of Backstreet Boys and N'SYNC. Girls and boys these days now have the Jonas Brothers to to fill their boyband needs. The major differences are that the Jonas Brothers all play their own instruments, write their own songs, are actually biological brothers, and put out a clean-cut image that promotes Christian values such as their major value of abstaining from sex until marriage. Nickelodeon has also recently spawned a 2gether-esque show entitled "Big Time Rush". "Big Time Rush" is about a boyband with the same name working to make it in the music industry. While I have yet to see any of this show it appears to follow the boyband pattern that is more common.
There is definately a gap within the bridge between what society says girls should look for in a guy and how guys should portray themselves to girls. Girls are taught to look for the good-looking, sensitive guy who can dance and easily put their emotions into song. Guys are taught that being sensitive and showing emotions are both signs of weakness and dancing is something that only girls do. This blog will go on to explore which kinds of emotional music is "acceptable" for men within society today.
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