GIRL POWER WHY TEEN POP ACT

S HAVE MADE SUCH A HUGE COME BACK

It seems like they are everywhere, you know what I'm talking about; cute boy and girl bands. You can't escape them. They are on the radio, television, and even the movies. "This teen stuff isn't just driving the music business," says one Elektra Records executive, "it is the music business" (qtd. in Andrew, Karger).

There popularity seems obvious. They are a bunch of cute people, who can dance, sing, and are young, around the same age as the fans. They sing about topics the fans can relate too. There music is about having fun. It's music you can dance to and escape your problems. They are teen idols.

Pop teen idols are by no means a new phenomena. They are mearly making a comeback in the mainstream. In reality "Boy bands are not so much a trend in many respects they have always been there they are just getting more attention on top 40 radio and MTV." (Never Enough). Past Boy bands can be traced to the Beatles, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, and even most recently The New Kids on The Block, which todays acts have many connections to. The early 90's lacked cute teen idols, grung rock and hip hop was most prevalent. The music was more depressing, and serious. Nevertheless even then we had grunge Gods like Kurt Cobain to look up too, but still something was lacking. That is why pop groups like the Backstreet Boys, Nsync, 98 Degrees, Boyzone , Five, Hanson , and girl groups like The Spice Girls, and Britney Spears came to fill the void.

Many dismiss this music as nothing but selling an image, but in reality there is more than meets the eye. These bands are talented,work with the respectable artists, and are even winning awards, best of all they are singing about possitive issues and are setting, positive messages and examples to there fans, something that hip hop and rock does not always do.

Fans are proud of the bands accomplishments and are not afraid to admit they are fanatics. Usually they show admiration for the group by buying merchandise bearing the bands name, logos, or likeness.
A band can make a tremendous amounts of money selling their official merchandise. And contrary to what people think the audience is not always the pawns in this area. Management is aware of the potential these artist have and make sure they can help them deal with and problems that might arise.

There are also many presures bands like these have to face, in terms of money, schedule, and freedom. Many times all the presures that the group have to go through is to much to bear with, and usually leads to the bands suing management, record companies, or leads to internal fights within the band, or break ups. Then always with teen idols, there is going to be people who just don't like them and call them unoriginal, and manufactured , and eventually a backlash occurs. Even the most diehard fans eventually lose interest. Yet the bands defentetly serve their purpose. They entertain us make us happy and that is all that matters at this moment.

May, 1999 Fundamentals of Mass Communications