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What Makes You Beautiful: Boy Bands as Mainstream Feminism Vessels

There is a lot of controversy surrounding media that is created for popular
culture, especially when it comes to pop music. It is widely accepted that pop music
caters to the most general audiencethus Top 40 radio playlists are mainly
constructed from the most current pop songs and rarely give spaces to other
musical genres like rock and hip-hop. This overtaking by the pop music genre has
created a sort of cultural elitism when it comes to pop music; pop artists are
continually dissected and ridiculed as being contrived and created for mass fame,
with the faction of boy band groups receiving the most backlash. It is no coincidence
that this backlash is increased tenfold when considering boy bands because boy
bands cater to teenage female consumers. In this sense, boy bands are lauded as the
least of the lesser and their female fan base is brushed off as faux-consumers more
likely to follow its developing libido than actual brainwaves. However, there is
something to be said for the prominence boy bands achieve within society as a
result of their female fan base and in spite of mass criticism, as can be seen through
the most recent boy band that has achieved worldwide success: One Direction.
Despite a widespread distaste for anything remotely related to boy bands, this pop
music phenomenon has created a market specifically through which teenage girls
discover themselves, and has fostered a new kind of feminism from something with
inherently masculine origins.
Before feminism and boy bands within pop music can be discussed as a
combination, they must be explored as separate entities. Charles Fourier, a French
philosopher, first coined the term feminism in 1837, though it did not appear in


the United Stated until 1910 (Goldstein 92) (Cott 13-5). The history of feminism is
divided into three waves, known as the first, second, and third. First-wave feminism
began in the nineteenth century and continued through the early twentieth century
in the United States. This movement was focused primarily around womens
suffrage and gaining women more political power, though it also concerned itself
around marriage and parenting rights for women (Freedman 464). Second-wave
feminism, by contrast, concentrated on the linkage of womens cultural and political
inequalities, and the movement encouraged women throughout the mid-twentieth
century to reexamine the ways in which they lived their personal lives as evidence
of sexist power structures within society (Echols 416). The slogan The Personal is
Political, coined by activist and author Carol Hanisch, became the definition of the
second wave (Hanisch). Third-wave feminism, which began in the United States in
the 1990s and continues to the present day, focuses on responding to the perceived
failures and the backlash against the second wave. The third-wave concentrates
itself on promoting female sexuality as a means of female empowerment, as well as
stimulating intersectionality within the movement as a means of giving more voice
to colored and queer women (Cameron). Though third-wave feminism, the feminism
that is prominent in todays society, seems to focus on the microcosms within the
movement, it is important to note that feminists today are still advocating for basic
gender equality as much as the feminists of the first and second waves.
Pop music received its legitimacy in 1926 when the first recorded use of the
term pop song occurred (History of Pop Music Timeline). In this case, the term
meant that a piece of music had popular appeal, which solidified the general


perception of the genre going forward (History of Pop Music Timeline). Major pop
stars, however, did not start appearing in regular culture until the 1930s and 40s.
Frank Sinatra, who is well-known for his fan base consisting of screaming teenage
female fans, is argued to be the first modern pop star in the same vein as boy bands
(History of Pop Music Timeline). Pop as a mobile music genre did not take shape
until 1952, when pop music charts began appearing in Billboard magazine alongside
charts of other genres (History of Pop Music Timeline). This mobilization is
credited to teenagers finding their music genre, and thus solidified another facet of
pop music characterizationits definition as music for teens (History of Pop Music
Timeline). The advent of the Beatles, though few are wont to admit it, was the
beginning of boy bands in popular society. The Beatles produced an era of pop
where artists were expected to write their own material, and the public opinion of
manufactured starsbetter known as artists who ranged from not writing their
own material to having a pretty face and minimal talentcontinued to decline,
resulting in shortened careers for many pop artists (History of Pop Music
Timeline). In the 1990s, though, boy bands came back in full force and took over
the genre despite being regarded as the ultimate in manufactured acts (History of
Pop Music Timeline). This era gave way to pop music groups like Take That,
Backstreet Boys, and N Sync, groups who cater to mainly female fan bases and
dominated the genre so much so that female groups or female solo artists were
pushed to the sidelines. Though the general consensus is that the boy band era came
and went in the 90s, the reunion of N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and New Kids on the


Block in late 2000s, combined with the advent of One Direction in 2010, points
toward the recent takeover evident in 2014.
After understanding the origins of both the pop music genre and feminism
within society, it becomes easier to explore the linkage between the two subjects.
Though pop music can be explored through feminism by examining the introduction
and prominence of female pop artists throughout the genre, the two can also be
examined simultaneously through the pop artists that are directly marketed to
teenage female fansboy bands. Boy bands within the pop genre are considered
among the most slickly produced and marketed youth/music industry products of
general culture, with their point of origin located within the music industry itself
rather than as an organic coming-together of musicians (Wald). As exemplified by
the creation of One Direction, whose five members were placed into a group by
Simon Cowell on the seventh season of the X Factor (a television pop singing
competition in the United Kingdom) when the members did not advance through
the show as solo performers, most boy bands find their origins from record label
heads or music industry producers who are attempting to tap into the cash flow of a
teenage female fan base (One Direction: This Is Us). This lacking of paying their
dues within the music industrymeaning a band beginning in humble origins, such
as parents garages, and working up through playing in gritty clubs until the band
has a name for itselfhas resulted in a cultural stigmatization of boy bands as
musical groups, but has also carried over into the cultural stigmatization of boy
band fans (Wald). In this sense, boy bands and boy band fans are lumped together


under the condescending umbrella of contrived and participate in an industry and
culture that continually devalues not only their prominence but also their existence.
In a survey of 100 students attending James Madison University, 80% of the
participants responded yes to questions such as do you consider boy bands to be
girl music? and do you think less of people who admit they are fans of bands like
One Direction? (Slattery). Though the vocabularies of college-aged students are not
replete with words like artificial and degradation, these terms do come to mind
when considering the results of the survey. This small sample size is indicative of
current cultures tendency to devalue the music catered toward and consumed by
teenage girls as facilitated by a gendered hierarchy of high and low popular
culture, with boy bands falling on the low end (Wald). The current societal culture,
rife with misogyny, has created this high/low hierarchy that has become based
around the cultural belief that girls desires are notions offickleness,
superficiality, and aesthetic bankruptcy of the material forms (Wald). Boy bands, in
turn, are forced to create a feminized masculinity where their performances are
characterized by the members playing with the codes of masculinity as a way to
present themselves specifically to and for girls pleasure (Wald). This forced
bastardization of what society deems to be normal masculinity, and the
subsequent devaluation of the boy bands and their teenage girl fan base because of
these acts, creates a sort of cycle that inevitably reinforces the implicit sexism of
current culture. Therefore, it is easy for popular culture to write off female fans of
bands specifically created and catered toward them as nothing more than a
temporary annoyance that will disappear when the boy band fad inevitably does.


However, this discussion on boy bands as music catered specifically toward
teenage female fans sheds light on the cultural imagination of girls as consumers,
citizens, and subjects (Wald). Not only does this participation in a large-scale
fandom give these teenage girls a means of cultural visibility, it also gives them a
shared social identity within which they can develop (Wald). This is a primary
example of the idea of social musical practices, where social positionings and
discursive frameworks shape how people experience, engage with and talk about
music (Williams). Through their connection to these boy bands and their shared
positioning at the low end of the social musical hierarchy, these teenage girls have
cultivated a sense of community within which they have means to develop and
explore their sexuality and their identity on both a personal and public level. The
examples of the benefits of fandom come from personal observations of and
interactions within the One Direction fandom. As the majority of fandom
communications occur online, the widespread social media developments enable
fandom expression to take on a multitude of forms. These expressions range from
artistic depictions of the One Direction members to fan fiction stories, which are
fictional stories about the band members written by fandom members, to feminist
discourses regarding the lyrical content of the songs. As these mediums are shared
throughout the fandom, the girls not only find a creative outlet through which to
hone their personal talents (as writers, artists, discussion leaders, and political
activists), but also create a sense of identity for themselves within a community.
Despite widespread ridicule from general society, these girls have fashioned a safe
space for growth and exploration out of manufactured origins and over-saturated


lyricism, and are not simply complacent with their residency as an annoying fad
within social culture, but thriving within this positioning. This online mobilization
has not only created a widespread web of girls with like interests, but it has also
catapulted One Direction to international fame and therefore solidified the fandom
as an integral part of shaping the way people socialize around music.
Though critics diminish boy band fandom as a fair-weather annoyance, the
girls continually succeed in taking a relatively small platform and creating a sense of
community for themselves to develop and explore. The girls take part in a forum
where discussions can be fostered from a shared interest. Their fandom turns into a
stepping-stone for social and political involvement, such as advocacy for feminism
and LGBTQ equality. In spite of patronizing, mocking condescension from general
society, these teenage girls not only continue to catapult boy bands like One
Direction to international fame, but also bring themselves along for the ride as more
and more news outlets discuss the legitimacy and relevancy of female fans. In
considering this, it can be said that teenage girls are one of the largest mobilizing
forces in society, which is quite a feat considering the still-prevalent misogyny
permeating current culture.



Works Cited
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Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975.
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Freedman, Estelle B. No Turning Back: the History of Feminism and the Future of
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Goldstein, Leslie F. Early Feminist Themes in French Utopian Socialism: The St.
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Hanisch, Carol. New Intro to The Personal is PoliticalSecond Wave and Beyond.
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History of Pop Music Timeline. Types of Music. MediaGrupa, 2012. Web.
One Direction: This Is Us. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. TriStar Pictures, 2013. Film.
Slattery, Julia. General Perception of Boy Bands and Boy Band Fan Bases. Survey.
19 March 2014.
Wald, Gayle. I Want It That Way: Teenybopper Music and the Girling of Boy
Bands. Genders Online Journal. Genders Journal, 2002. Web.
Williams, Christina. Does It Really Matter? Young People and Popular Music.
Cambridge Journals Online. Cambridge University, May 2001. Web.