O.K. I’m going to have to disagree with something Polycarp said in this Thread.
Regarding teen pop singer, Jojo
I don’t disagree with the first half of the sentence. I don’t disagree with the second half of the sentence either. But, I disagree with the implication that adolescent and teenaged boys will buy music by a female pop artist because they consider her attractive.
They may fantasize about “popping” the pop singer, but actually buying and listening to the music?
The following is only directed at fluff pop acts, just the cotton candy manufactured junk.
I think young girls will buy music by young female performers who project an image that they admire/envy/hope to attain. I also think young girls will buy music by young male performers who they think are cute/want to marry/etc.
Many young girls may listen to the most horrendous god-awful crap simply because the boys in the group are attractive (in my day it was the New Kids on the Block). Many young boys will also listen to the most horrendous god-awful crap but not because of a romantic crush on or sexual fantasies about the performer.
My friend’s two daughters went to see Hillary Duff perform for a stadium full of young girls. Young boys however, though they may drool over images of Hillary Duff, will tend to be more macho in their choice of music.
Young boys who actually listen to Hillary Duff’s music? I may wonder if these boys went to see Cinderella Story to drool over images of Hillary or if, rather, they went to drool over images of Chad Michael Murray.
So, what do you think? Are teen boys as likely as teen girls to choose pop stars based on how “cute” they are?
I’ve chosen which music to listen to since I was nine years old and I’ve never listened to anything based on the attractiveness of who was performing. In fact, I’ve never known what my favorite artists have looked like until I went to their web sites, and that’s usually after buying their music.
Real life example from the late 90’s: In high school my friends and I would watch Britney Spears in her music videos, though the TV could have been on mute. No one was interested for the music. Maybe someone would buy a magazine if her photos were in it. I didn’t know any guys that owned a Spears CD. This could have been because no one wanted to admit it, but I don’t think so. I knew plenty of girls that bought CDs and attended concerts of whichever boyband was popular during those 15 minutes.
Well, we who were teenage boys in the 1970’s certainly watched some horrible movies and TV shows for a chance to see our favorite hot actresses (what, you think anybody was watching “Charlie’s Angels” for the clever dialogue and grippiong plots?), but music was a very different matter. Sure, we’d sit through godawful shows like “Battle of the Network Stars” for a chance to see Farrah or Adrienne Barbeau in a wet t-shirt… but if any of them had made a recording (for all I know, maybe they did!), there’s no way we’d ever have listened to it, let alone bought it.
I recall that Lynda (Wonder Woman) Carter DID try to make some records, and sang on a few TV specials and variety shows. After seeing that, a high school friend of mine taught me a phrase I’ve stolen and re-used a few times since: “I’d have sex with her in a second… but only if she promised not to sing while we did it.”
Tia Carrere has recorded albums, but as much as I’ve dug her since 1992 (the year Wayne’s World was released), I wouldn’t bother seeking out her music.
Of course, since I like the singers Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley) and Neko Case, who just happen to be drop-dead gorgeous redheads, I get the best of both worlds.
I agree with the OP, though I have no other evidence to back up my opinion than a general feeling of “Yeah, that seems right in my experience, and you put it pretty well.”
The OP only asked about boys and girls, but when it comes to grown-ups, I think something of the same thing still applies. My guess is that almost all female singers have far more women than men as fans (perhaps because their songs are written from a female point of view that women can relate to), but there are a not-insiginificant number of male singers whose fan bases consist primarily of women (maybe because a large part of their repertoire consists of love songs that the women can imagine as being addressed to them).
But this is all just IMHO, and as O’s go, this is one of the H-er ones.
When I was at school in the late 70s, early 80s, I knew several girls who had bought this album solely for the sleeve, and never actually listened to it.
That was the same with me (I’m guilty of slogging through episodes of “Battlestar Galactaca” just to see Maren Jensen). Incidentally, Cheryl Ladd (who I liked a lot better than Farrah) also put out a couple albums during her run on "Charlie’s Angels. Other than the albums’ covers, I had no interest in them and, apparently, neither did anyone else. For me, if I’m going to invest money and time in an album, a female singer has to bring more to the table than simply being attractive. I think that’s probably the same with most teenage boys.
