Multiple damnations
deconstructing the critical response to boy band phenomena
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v7i2.185Keywords:
boy bands, exploitation, popular music, youthAbstract
While the boy band genre has mutated and evolved, its popular portrayal has altered little since groups like New Edition and New Kids on the Block conquered the charts back in the late 1980s. After examining recent critical commentaries from Facebook-based ‘anti-fans’ and music critic Paul Morley, the article suggests that four discourses—youth, exploitation, gender and fandom— interlock to determine how commentators discuss the genre. Collectively their result is a relative stasis in critical commentary which helps to allay wider anxieties about the idea that, in a capitalist society, any of us can actively and pleasurably engage with a musical genre led by its own marketing.
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Wild, D. 1989. ‘Puberty to Platinum: For the Teen Sensations New Kids on the Block, Success is Child’s Play’. Rolling Stone, 2 November: 15–17.
BBC Where I Live—Birmingham Music Reviews. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2005/10/27/back_street_boys_music_feature.shtml (accessed 12 May 2011).
Barendregt, B. 2006. ‘The Art of No-Seduction: Muslim Boy Band Music in Southeast Asia and the Fear of the Female Voice’. IIAS Newsletter 40: 10.
Bennett, A. 2005. Cultures of Popular Music. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Blake, C. 2008. Mad About the Boys: My Life as Take That’s Biggest Fan. London: John Blake Publishing.
Borthwick, S., and R. Moy. 2004. Popular Music Genres. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Brabazon, T. 2002. ‘Robbie Williams: A Better Man?’ International Journal of Cultural Studies 5.1: 45–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13678779020050010401
—2012. ‘Boy Bands and Men’s Studies’. In idem, Popular Music: Trends, Topics and Trajectories, 218–21. London: Sage.
Daily Mail. 2007. ‘Lucky Boyz Will Make £1m Each on Reunion Tour’, 1 March. Available online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-439126/Lucky-Boyz-make-1m-reunion-tour.html (accessed 12 May 2011).
Ehrenreich, B. et al. 1992. ‘Beatlemania: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. In The Adoring Audience, ed. Lisa Lewis, 84–106. London: Routledge.
Foucault, M. 2008. The Archeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Garafalo, R. 2007. Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the USA. Harlow: Pearson.
Gray, J. 2003. ‘New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and Non Fans’. International Journal of Cultural Studies 6.1: 64–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367877903006001004
Griffin, C. 2005. ‘Representations of the Young’. In Youth in Society, ed. Jeremy Roche, 10–18. London: Sage.
Hall, G. S. 1904. Adolescence: Its Psychology and its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education. New York: D. Appleton.
Hebdige, D. 1988. Hiding in the Light. London: Comedia.
Jenkins, H. 1992. Textual Poachers. New York: Routledge.
Lumby, C. 2007. ‘Doing it for Themselves? Teenage Girls, Sexuality and Fame’. In Stardom and Celebrity, ed. Sean Redmond and Su Holmes, 341–52. London: Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446269534.n31
Marshall, P. D. 1997. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Morley, P. 2010. ‘The Boy Bands are Always Back in Town’. The Guardian, 26 November. Available online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/26/boybands-pop-paul-morley (accessed 16 May 2011).
Sanders, M. 2002. ‘Singing Machines: Boy Bands and the Struggle for Artistic Legitimacy’. Cardozo Arts & Entertainments Law Journal 20: 525–88.
Stahl, M. 2002. ‘Authentic Boy Bands on TV? Performers and Impressarios in The Monkees and Making The Band’. Popular Music 21.3: 307–329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002209
Storey, J. 2009. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Waksman. S. 2009. This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Whiteley, S. 2005. Too Much Too Young: Popular Music, Age and Gender. London: Routledge.
Wild, D. 1989. ‘Puberty to Platinum: For the Teen Sensations New Kids on the Block, Success is Child’s Play’. Rolling Stone, 2 November: 15–17.
Published
2013-10-18
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Duffett, M. (2013). Multiple damnations: deconstructing the critical response to boy band phenomena. Popular Music History, 7(2), 185-197. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v7i2.185
