People just realized that girls have money to spend, but noone really marketed to there wants and needs. They are not just parasites that get money from there parents. Market-research firm Desgrippes Gobe calculates that Generation Y has a buying power of up to 100 billion-that's bedrooms full of cd's. (Andrew, Karger 22). That is when teen pop bands came into the picture again. Pop bands are great not only for fans, but also for the people behind the distrobution and marketing,and production of the bands. Everyone gets what they want, the girls can buy there posters of there idols and the band and everone behind the scenes can make money.
Since the popularity of these bands especially with the Spice Girls, Hanson, and the Backstreet boys people are realizing all the potential possibilities, and because of this for better or worse, "every stupid label in the world is signing young make vocal groups and Britney clones" says Jive president Barry Weiss. (Andrew, Karger 22). "There's gonna be a lot of crap records."(Andrew, Karger 22).
This brings an interesting issue because of this the good pop acts might see a backlash effect because when something is around too much or if it is shoved in our face that happens. Yet still retailers are egging the labels on.(Andrew, Karger 22).
One thing is for sure Says John Grandoni, VP of purchasing for National Record Mart: "this thing is getting young people in the habit of buying music. Eight year old girls in the stores portend well for our future."(Andrew, Karger 22)
The bands are not always too happy about all the merchandising. "That's was all from the merchandizing company," Brian protests about the merchandizing of the Backsteet Boys. "When we saw it ..." "We freaked out," Says Nick. "We were like, "We didn't approve that," seconds Brian. (EW online backstage report). It seems to me that the bands themselves are aware of the exploitation of there likeness, and the many effects it can have.
Nine-year-olds with disposable income are the ones usually buying the records and merchandise. A reporter commented at a Spice Girls Concert. The Garden looked like a Woodstock for third graders packed with prepubescent types (mostly girls) and their dedraggled parents. Never before have so may missed there bedtimes (Ryan).
The pop craze back in the 50's lead to growth and maturation of a teen market; for distinctly teen clothes, magazines,entertainment, and accessories. If advertisers and marketing men manipulated teens as consumers, thay also, inadvertently, solidified teen culture against the adult world. Marketing strategies that recognized the importance of heightening their self-awareness of themselves as teens,It seemed so commercial to me, and so degrading that millions of us would scream on cue for these four guys the media dangled out in front of us. But at the same time it was something intensely personal for me and, I guess, a million other girls. The Beatles seemed to be speaking directly to us and, in a funny way, for us. Lewis. Elvis knew its importance, and so did the Beatles. So did movie makers, publishers, and manufacturers of saddle shoes, bell-bottoms, Afro combs, and pimple creams. The teenage girl of the postwar era was boisterous, free-spending, suggestible--a budding consumer, doted on by marketers hoping to line up her allegiance for life. (Munk).
But then a funny thing happened: The adolescent girl became invisible. Once the baby-boomers began hurtling toward middle age and having babies of their own, the teens who came after them--Generation X--didn't seem to count much anymore. Maybe Xers were making a statement about the materialism of their elders. Or maybe marketers were just so fixated on the 78 million boomers that they ignored--or misunderstood--the 45 million Xers born between 1965 and 1977."News flash!" screamed Time magazine in a June 1997 cover story about how--golly!--Xers weren't so different after all. "They are confident, savvy, and, [a new] survey concludes with a measure of relief, materialistic.") (Munk) .
Plenty of boys saw Scream. But the girls --well, put it this way: One 17-year-old girl I spoke to has seen Scream seven times. It is the teenage girl who will line up for hours, even in a heavy rain, to see your movie on opening night. If she likes it, she and her friends and her friends' friends will return again and again. If she's moved by your CD, she'll buy your licensed T-shirt, book bag, candy bar, screen saver, lip gloss, cola, umbrella.... After declining for 15 years, the number of teens is now finally on the rise. And their ranks are growing at a faster rate than the overall U.S. population. By 2006, teens will number nearly 30 million, the highest level since 1976. All told, this generation (call them what you will--echo boomers, Generation Y, generation wired, the digital generation, millennials--they're kids born since 1978) totals 77 million. Retailers are falling in love again.
Kurt Salmon Associates' 1997 Annual Consumer Survey reports that only 55% of Americans ages 21 to 62 "enjoy shopping"; that's down from 58% in 1993. In sharp contrast, 88% of girls between 13 and 17 say they just "love to shop." No surprise, then, that according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, teens make nearly 40% more trips to the mall than other shoppers do. (Munk)41% of teens ages 16 to 18 work full- or part-time. If you add in jobs not recorded by the government, like babysitting, three-quarters of teens earn at least some money from working, says TRU. (Munk). Girls spend lots of their parents money too boys spent money too but it's girl who move markets. (Munk)"Things are really going well for me. I've worked hard to get where I am and feel I'll always be successful."
You can spot the perkiness in the sorts of music girls between 12 and 17 are buying: In the first eight months of 1997, 21% of the money they spent on music went toward "alternative" bands like Smashing Pumpkins--down from 27% just a year earlier. Meanwhile, saccharine pop bands like Hanson (three home-schooled brothers from Oklahoma) or the Spice Girls (five saucy girls from London) now account for 7% of spending, up from just 2% a year earlier. (Munk).When we first met with retailers, they said they didn't want teens in their stores because teens take things," says Don Pettit, 42, one of Jane's founding partners.(Munk).
People always stereotyped girls as boy crazy and with out money. The last few years have proved them wrong. Girls would buy any thing from Spice nails, hair, games, cologne body wash to Nsync stamps.
MTV's cuteness as an element of visual packaging became a great aspect of marketing (revenge). In addition subbculture teen magazines etc more than * of a bands income(revenge). Bob bell, music buyer for the Wherehouse chain, called Nsync:"unstoppable" a few days before days before an April 16 date at the 17,5000 seat Forum sold out in 10 minutes (Shuster).
RCA international A&R director Vince Degiorgio, who signed the group, recalled "it was me, 11,000 girls, and the band. I thought, I get this so much."(Andrew, Karger 22) . "We have 2 to 3 years is the life span of a group like this and you have every second to make money." said Five manager (revenge). Everyone agrees, and is happy with that.
