Why Young Girls Like Boy Bands
Okay, so for some reason,
boy bands haven't gone away yet. This in itself is astounding. Remember
New Kids on the Block? They were fiercly loved for like
37 seconds, and then they were ridiculed up the
wazoo.
I have patiently waited for this to happen again. I neither
feared the Back Street Boys nor
NSync because I
knew that soon... oh so soon... they would get theirs.
Sadly, this is not to be. And I have a theory as to why.
Bands are as popular as their
fan base. Let us examine the fan base of a boy band:
young girls. Screamy, giggly, pink toting,
glitter hurling,
blink command crashing groves of young girls have made the corporations behind America's most popular whined voice harmonizers quite wealthy indeed.
Hmmmm. Why is this? Let's see... When I think "boy band" a certain
image comes to mind. On a whole, boy bands are
trendy and diverse. Well, ironically diverse anyway. Sure, we always have the "
rebel" and the "
sweetheart," the "
tough guy" and the "
boy next door..." That's diverse, I guess, but because such "diversity" is so common, it kind of
defeats the purpose, yeah? Anyway. Among this "diversity" of characters, a young girl safely gets a
panel of boys to crush on. Boy bands teach a young girl how to crush. The members of the band are safe, sincere, talented... and
effeminate.
Being effeminate is key to the success of a boy band. Notice how the young,
girly looking boy is always the most popular. My theory is that young girls learning how to crush go for the most
innocuous target.
Baby steps. Because
Justin Timberlake or
Nick Carter does not look so disimilar from them, they are least threatening. Same with
Leonardo DiCaprio or... uh...
Elijah Wood.
Girly men! These idols allow young girls to slowly build up a tolerance for
masculinity. In this vein, a preteen will start with Nick Carter. She will then move up to
Carson Daly... She then might go for
Enrique Iglesias. And then, all hell breaks loose. She might even, one day, work herself up to the likes of
Billy Zane or Jeff Fahey.
God, I love
Jeff Fahey.
So, there you have it: boy bands remain because they teach young girls how to crush.
Very logical when you think about it. Then again. Maybe not :D