Highbrow Magazine - justin bieber https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/justin-bieber en Racial Dynamics and Latin Music in the U.S. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8512-racial-dynamics-and-latin-music-us <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Music</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 13:39</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1luisfonsi_depositphotos.jpg?itok=mDrCxJLv"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1luisfonsi_depositphotos.jpg?itok=mDrCxJLv" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>When it was first released on January 13, the song <em>Despacito</em> was available only as a digital download. It was the first single from Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi’s upcoming ninth studio album, and it featured fellow Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee. Less than a month later, on February 4, it <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/7669777/luis-fonsi-highest-debut-hot-latin-songs-chart">debuted</a> on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart at number 2 and at number 88 <a href="http://www.billboard.com/biz/search/charts?page=1&amp;artist=Luis%20Fonsi&amp;f%5b0%5d=ts_chart_artistname%3ALuis%20Fonsi&amp;f%5b1%5d=itm_field_chart_id%3A379&amp;f%5b2%5d=ss_bb_type%3Achart_item&amp;type=2">on</a> the coveted Billboard Hot 100. In just about two months, the single would climb the Hot 100 chart to peak at number 44, while it crowned the Hot Latin chart at number 1 for, at the time of writing, 3<a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a>4 weeks.</p> <p> </p> <p>On April 17, a remix version featuring the vocals of Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber was released. A month later, the remixed single reached the top spot on the Hot 100, where it would remain for a historic 16 weeks, the most weeks at No. 1 ever in the 59-year history of the Billboard chart, sharing the spot with Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day," which set the record in 1996, unmatched until now.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are many reasons why <em>Despacito</em> is such a massive success – harmonically and lyrically, the song is a textbook pop song. But the fact remains that a mostly-Spanish song has broken a long-held record in the American music industry, and that it was a momentous event in Donald Trump’s America is not lost on many.</p> <p> </p> <p>There have now been only three mostly-Spanish songs to hold the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart. The first was Ritchie Valens’s <em>La Bamba</em> in 1987, followed by the <em>Macarena</em> in 1996 during the dance craze of the 90s, a catchy tune by Spanish duo Los del Río. That only three Spanish songs have hit the top spot in a country with nearly 57 million Latin-Americans (that’s more than the entire population of Central America) is telling in and of itself, but perhaps even more so is the fact that these milestones did not occur without a nudge by the English language.</p> <p> </p> <p>While <em>La Bamba </em>remains the only all-Spanish-language song to hit No. 1, it is not in its original iteration. <em>La Bamba </em>is a traditional Mexican folklore song, originally from Veracruz, best known by Ritchie Valens’s 1958 adaptation. The song gained wide popularity and entered the Top 40 chart just 2 weeks before 17-year-old Valens, who was of Mexican descent, was killed in the same plane crash that <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/la-bamba-is-a-1-hit-for-los-lobos-and-posthumously-ritchie-valens">took</a> the lives of Buddy Holly and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson in 1959, a date famously dubbed “the day the music died” by songwriter Don McLean.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine ranked Valens’s version of the song at number 354 on its <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/ritchie-valens-la-bamba-20110526">list</a> of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; it is the only song on the list sung in a language other than English. But it wasn’t until 1987 when the rock band Los Lobos recorded a version of Valens’s song for the soundtrack of the movie of the same name (starring Lou Diamond Phillips), that the song finally hit No. 1, becoming the first Spanish song to reach the spot, where it spent three weeks. Interestingly, Valens, who was born in California and was still a high school student when the song was released, did not speak Spanish.</p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, Los del Río’s <em>Macarena </em>did not even place on the Hot 100 chart when it was originally released back in 1993 as a rumba. A second version of the same song, also released by Los del Río that featured a more flamenco-driven rhythm, was a significant success in many Spanish-speaking countries, including Los del Río’s native Spain, Mexico, and Colombia. The song was also a huge success in Puerto Rico, where it was being used as the <a href="http://mix1041.cbslocal.com/2015/08/06/throwback-tidbits-1996-when-literally-everyone-embraced-the-macarena/">unofficial</a> campaign song by governor Pedro Roselló while seeking reelection (in a remarkable resemblance to the infamous 1996 Democratic National Convention).</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1ritchievalens.jpg" style="height:600px; width:612px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/getting-bad-reception-Confessions-occasional/dp/1435714962" title="I'm Getting a Bad Reception: Confessions of an (Occasional) Wedding Dj - Pg. 146">attribute</a> the spread of the song to American cities with large Hispanic populations, such as Miami and New York City, to the fact that Puerto Rico was a popular destination for cruise ships, where visitors were constantly exposed to the catchy tune. Years later, in 1995, the Bayside Boys <a href="https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1996/dec/19/straight-macarena-origin-song-saint/">released</a> a remixed version of the song with only a passing resemblance to the original. This version added a more techno dance beat, sanitized the story of the sly, loose woman named Macarena referenced in the song, and added English lyrics. The remix was created unofficially when two Miami DJs commissioned it, and it was only after it started to gain popularity that RCA bought the rights to the song, launching it to global recognition.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 1996, three years after its original release, the English remix of the <em>Macarena </em>went on to spend a noteworthy run of 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. In a striking similarity with <em>Despacito</em>, it debuted at number 45 when it was first released. The song actually <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7793159/luis-fonsi-daddy-yankee-despacito-justin-bieber-number-one">fell</a> off the chart at the beginning of the year, and it was only after WKTU New York added it to its pop roster that the song finally reach the top spot in May of 1996.</p> <p> </p> <p>On its part, <em>Despacito</em> was poised to be an international hit from its inception. Melodically, the song borrows from a number of tried-and-true cadences. Most notably, it features the clave as its basic layer, a remarkably old beat that traces back generations and can be found in various musical melodies, including the ring shouts—one of the oldest African-American musical institutions—Cuban church choirs, and it was even the main element in the composition of Valens’s <em>La Bamba</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>More on the surface, the song features a heavy beat of what most Puerto Ricans would call “dembow,” a rhythmic pattern deeply connected to the African diaspora that was made popular in the 80s by Jamaican producers. The <a href="http://www.waxpoetics.com/blog/features/articles/digital-rhythm/">term</a>, in fact, is taken from Shabba Rank’s 1991 song “Dem Bow.” Meaning “they bow,” the song was an explicit anti-colonialism anthem heavily laced with anti-gay rhetoric. The rhythm is what would eventually become the basis for the origin and rise of reggaeton. </p> <p> </p> <p>And perhaps most recognizable are the song infectious chord progression of vi-VI-I-V, an arrangement of the four chords most commonly used in popular music over the last century (this was humorously showcased in Axis of Awesome popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ">video</a> “4 Chords”). These chords are what lend the song the romantic lift that Fonsi is known for. The song shares these chords with some of pop music’s biggest hits of the past 20 years, including Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disarm” (1993), the Cranberries’ “Zombie” (1994), Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” (2002), OneRepublic’s “Apologize” (2006), Akon’s “Beautiful” (2008), Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” (2008), Eminem’s “Not Afraid” and “Love the Way You Lie” (2010), and Tiësto’s “Red Lights” (2013), among many others.</p> <p> </p> <p>In other words, <em>Despacito</em> was composed to be a Latin smash hit, in addition to the fact that it was performed by two of Latin America’s biggest stars. Daddy Yankee had been in the industry since the 1990s, when Reggaeton was still an “underground” genre circulating around Puerto Rico. He was a popular performer even before his smash hit “Gasolina” hit the airwaves in 2004, launching him to international stardom and scoring his first spot in the Hot 100 chart, when Americans were first introduced to the artist. Fonsi, on his part, is currently working on the release of his ninth studio album. No less than 30 of his singles have charted on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs since he first rose to fame in 1998.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/26/why_luis_fonsi_and_justin_bieber_s_despacito_is_no_1.html">speculate</a> that it is this pop-driven beat that Fonsi is known for that created the perfect environment for Justin Bieber to collaborate. Even though a version of the dembow sound is sampled in his hit “Sorry,” the cuatro that features prominently in <em>Despacito</em> is ideal for Bieber’s soft, buttery vocals that harmonize seamlessly with Fonsi’s crisp voice.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1loslobos.jpg" style="height:446px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/26/why_luis_fonsi_and_justin_bieber_s_despacito_is_no_1.html">According</a> to Fonsi, Bieber heard the song in a club in Bogota while touring in Colombia. He immediately called his producers and arranged for the remix of the song, which was recorded four days before it was released. While the song remains widely unchanged, Bieber opens the tune with an English verse before resorting to singing in English alongside Fonsi during the contagious chorus. Fonsi attributes this collaboration to the spread of the song’s popularity in the American music mainstream, introducing it to a wider audience who would have otherwise stuck to the conventional pop songs saturating the airwaves.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is interesting to note that even though this was the first time that Bieber recorded in Spanish, other major artists have certainly tried before. Current hit-maker and fellow Canadian Drake, for example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-eIhp4j0">collaborated</a> with the immensely popular Dominican-American bachata singer Romeo Santos, where Drake sings in Spanish. Nicki Minaj and Usher did <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sPnEFaNhfQ">similar</a> collaborations with Santos, who is a fully bilingual artist born in New York City and who has famously refused to accommodate English-speaking American artists when they wish to collaborate on his tracks.            </p> <p> </p> <p>What sets <em>Despacito</em> apart, certainly in political terms, is the presence of the reggaeton dembow beat that percolates through the song. As mentioned above, the beat and its EDM cousin “moombathon” have been prominently borrowed in other genres; in addition to Bieber’s latest hits, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” could be easily confused with dancehall reggae, and Ariana Grande’s “Side to Side” is built on top of that <em>thump-tha-THUMP-thump </em>beat that powers <em>Despacito</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>But <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/remixing-reggaeton">historically</a>, reggaeton has been a genre of music deeply immersed in the racial dynamics of Central America – particularly in Panama, where the genre “reggae en español” first saw the light, and Puerto Rico, where it was fully developed into reggaeton and is generally considered its place of origin.</p> <p> </p> <p>Much like American Hip-Hop, reggaeton was first an “underground” genre that came from urban, predominantly black, working-class communities. In the Puerto Rican context, reggaeton’s emergence in the 1990s is tied to public housing developments that were part of anti-crime initiatives in the island. <a href="http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/culr/2015/01/31/stepping-out-of-the-shadow-of-mano-dura-policies/">Dubbed</a> <em>Mano Dura contra el Crimen</em> (Iron Fist against Crime), it was enacted in 1993 by then governor Pedro Roselló (the very same one who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmNG8cJDcdk">danced</a> to the Macarena in his campaign rallies). With uncanny resemblance to President Clinton’s 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, the <em>Mano Dura</em> imposed tougher sentences on petty crimes and funded more weaponry and larger ranks of the police departments. And like America’s controversial Crime Bill, it disproportionally targeted black and indigenous individuals. In this tense political climate, reggaeton flourished.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now widely known for its misogynistic and sexually explicit lyrics and undoubtedly tied to <em>perreo </em>(derived from the word “dog” in Spanish, this is the lewd sexual dance moves it involves), a reggaeton-laced song is now the No. 1 in America. Though this is perhaps not so surprising. After all, Latin-Americans are the <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/06/23/census-bureau-race-age/">second</a> fastest-growing minority in the U.S. (Asians are the first). What is surprising is that <em>Despacito</em> is only the third mostly-Spanish song to top the American charts, even though the overall number of Latino, African-American, and Asian students in public K-12 schools now <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/student-teacher-demographics_n_5738888.html">surpass</a> the number of non-Hispanic whites. And while Latin representation on the charts should be celebrated, a reggaeton-pop fusion song claiming the No. 1 spot may feel like a good antidote to the current divisiveness on immigration reform and to the increased ICE raids and deportations, but its success also serves to underscore the hurdles the genre still faces.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Despacito </em>can also claim to be the most-<a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2017/07/luis-fonsi-daddy-yankee-despacito-most-streamed-song-ever">streamed</a> song of all time, and its music video the most-<a href="http://nypost.com/2017/08/05/despacito-becomes-most-viewed-video-on-youtube/">viewed</a> video on YouTube in the world. Despite these milestones, the music video <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/7934291/despacito-vma-snub-media-latin-blind-spot">failed</a> to claim a single MTV Music Video Award nomination in any of the categories, a decision that garnered much backlash and that MTV explained as a simple <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/08/14/despacito-vma-nomination/566969001/">misunderstanding</a>. MTV eventually bequeathed the song—the remix version of it featuring Justin Bieber—with a nomination on the “Song of Summer” category, which was announced almost a month later.  It <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2017/08/27/wait-what-despacito-loses-song-summer-mtv-vmas/606736001/">lost</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Angelo Franco is the chief features writer for</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Photo Credits: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>; <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GoJohnnyGoRitchieValens1959.jpg">Wikipedia.o</a>rg; Pete Souza, WhiteHouse.gov (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Los_Lobos.jpg">Wikimedia.o</a>rg, Creative Commons)</strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/latin-music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">latin music</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-dynamics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial dynamics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hispanic-music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hispanic music</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/raggaeton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">raggaeton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/luis-fonsi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">luis fonsi</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/justin-bieber" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">justin bieber</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/los-lobos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">los lobos</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/richie-valens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">richie valens</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/la-bamba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">la bamba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/macarna" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">macarna</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:39:34 +0000 tara 7742 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8512-racial-dynamics-and-latin-music-us#comments Can Music Survive Without the Teenybopper Fangirl? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4423-can-music-survive-without-teenybopper-fangirl <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Music</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 13:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1musicfans_depositphotos.jpg?itok=lyFhmJ6k"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1musicfans_depositphotos.jpg?itok=lyFhmJ6k" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>It seems counterintuitive to call a Justin Bieber concert “Kafkaesque,” but that’s just the feeling I got walking around downtown Brooklyn when the boy wonder was scheduled to play Barclays Center last year. Throngs of preteen girls crushed the streets, the sidewalks, and the subways with imminent devotion in their eyes, shrill excitement in their squeals, with a very nearly propagandist smattering of Bieber’s cherubic face filling the fronts of T-shirts, homemade posters, and concert programs for blocks in every direction from the auditorium.</p> <p>To an outsider, the gathering of Beliebers in such large proportions can be dizzying, if not downright menacing: strange words to ascribe mostly prepubescent girls in the awkward middle stages of growth spurts, hormonal changes, and corrective braces and eyewear. But the apparent strength of their allegiance to Justin – whose music and lyrics are mostly innocuous, if not downright dumb, to most grown adults or “serious” music fans – is what is most disorienting. The communal desires, the vast groupthink, and the worship of a (false?) idol smells of blind consumerism at best and fascism at worst.</p> <p>Justin Bieber’s mindless, pandering puppy-love songs (and, more recently, his douchey <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/09/02/justin-bieber-is-reportedly-in-trouble-yes-again/">antics</a> and run-ins with the law) have made him an easy target for the butt of many jokes, especially within the music press. But is it really the music we all so love to hate, or is it the seemingly unflappable popularity of the man himself? Even after his DUI arrest in Miami Beach earlier this year, Twitter fan groups poured out a hashtag of love for the Biebs: “#wewillalwayssupportyoujustin”.</p> <p>To say that the Belieber phenomenon is anything new or unusual would be a grave discredit to the generations of fangirls that have fueled popular music since the end of World War II. From Elvis to ‘N Sync and David Cassidy to New Kids on the Block, fervent fandom, especially from young girls intent to follow musical and fashion trends – “teenyboppers” – has been both encouraged by the music industry and largely disdained by the general public.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1justinbieber_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:448px; width:672px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Nowhere was the fever pitch of teen pop star devotion more apparent, or maligned, than in the early stirrings of rock’n’roll with the mass hysterical outbreak of Beatlemania on both sides of the Atlantic. A 1964 piece from Britain’s <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/08/archive-menace-beatlism"><em>New Statesman</em></a> reads just as well about fans of the Fab Four then as it might apply to Directioners (fans of boyband One Direction) today: “While the music is performed, the cameras linger savagely over the faces of the audience,” future <em>NS </em>editor Paul Johnson wrote. “What a bottomless chasm of vacuity they reveal! The huge faces, bloated with cheap confectionery and smeared with chain-store makeup, the open, sagging mouths and glazed eyes, the broken stiletto heels: here is a generation enslaved by a commercial machine.”</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s no questioning that the archetypal corporate executives in the music industry, the ones we imagine to be greedily counting their stacks of fortunes in high-rise corner offices like a well-groomed Scrooge McDuck, play a huge role in generating pop stars like One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, the Backstreet Boys, or the Monkees – perhaps the most direct precursor to modern boybands as one of the first completely industry-designed-and-fabricated groups. Acts like these are created precisely because, if the formula is right, they will sell, sell, sell – especially to that all-important demographic of 10-17 year old girls. Not just through album or single sales, not just through concert tickets, but especially through the commodity merchandise: posters, T-shirts, fanzines, documentary films, necklaces, headbands, perfumes (like the one called “Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend”). Anything put out with a heartthrob’s name attached, the girls – it is almost guaranteed – will gobble up.</p> <p>This is what is disdained most about young fangirls: their apparent gullibility, their obsessive devotion, their compliance with the forces of consumerism – the “commercial machine” – that not only promotes conformity among the girls but aggressively sucks the pennies from their pockets. Teens and preteens, who are often granted disposable income for the first time through parental allowance or part-time jobs, feed their money directly into the already-obese wallets of the record company executives when they participate in the planned obsolescence of teenybopper trends. What’s hot one month is likely to be passé the next; staying cool and hip is a constant process of purchasing – which is exactly how the industry likes it.</p> <p>But is this really the whole story? Are young girls merely unwittingly brainwashed by capitalism? Are they truly slaves to the corpocratic regime of “coolness”? Is this all there is to being a fangirl?</p> <p>The most obvious and distinctive thing about fangirls is that they are, of course, girls. It is important that they are not boys. It may sound Eisenhowerian, but it still holds largely true that boys have more ways to become men than girls do to become women. Boys are offered a variety of expressions on the path to manhood: they can be athletes, brains, rockers, skaters, or any number of things. Girls, on the other hand, tend to have far fewer options. A girl is defined first by her sex: her path to womanhood hinges largely on her ability to become a girlfriend, wife, and eventually mother. Boys may define themselves, but girls are defined through their relationship to boys.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/thebeatles.jpg" style="height:487px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The teen boy idol is a safe, idealized space for girls to project their emerging fantasies of love. In many ways, this kind of daydream man-worship – as evidenced by the doodles in hearts of “Mrs. Bieber” scrawled across countless school notebooks – reinforces stereotypical gender norms. It encourages female subservience, heterosexuality, and dictates modes of desirable behavior to the girls themselves (like 1D’s “You don’t know you’re beautiful / But that’s what makes you beautiful”). On the surface, fangirldom is perhaps not the most revolutionary or empowering course of action for young women today.</p> <p>But there are deeper levels at play. Fandom does not exist solely within a vacuum, especially in today’s Internet age. There are legions of sites, Facebook groups, and Twitter conversations that, while born out of fandom, often develop into meaningful bonding moments between girls. Belieber and Directioner forums combine threads of celebrity gossip with conversations about love, relationships, and understanding one’s own body in a communal space largely between and within other like-minded girls. By actively participating in an audience fan culture, teens can also find meaningful experiences outside the realm of the commercial machine.</p> <p>Evident, again, is the way teen girl crowds gather at concerts. As much as the concert-going experience is about the love of the performer, it is also an opportunity for young girls to bond with each other in a public sphere, an all-too-rare occurrence in a society that prefers women to be confined to the home. Fandom allows girls an avenue through which to explore and discuss their emerging identities and attitudes with other girls, especially toward taboo (for girls) subjects such as sex and desire. There is a community-building aspect to fandom that has little to do with the politics of consumerism and everything to do with the politics of gender. In some ways, the commercial machine offers girls tools – however small – for resistance and change.</p> <p>To what extent fangirls can or will use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house is debatable, perhaps even downright idealistic. But bonding over stars is simply the first step in bonding as humans. While the answers to self-actualization and empowerment might not be expressly found in the pages of the latest issue of <em>Tiger Beat</em>, the opportunities for interaction and communality between girls offers distinct spaces for the development and growth of the self, of what it means to transition from a girl to a woman. It is in these spaces that identities and meanings emerge, defined not by what the girls consume, but what they say and do with each other and for themselves.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><br /> <strong><em>Sandra Canosa is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief music critic.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Photo Credits: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>; <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beatles_ad_1965_just_the_beatles_crop.jpg">Wikipedia.or</a>g (Creative Commons)</em></strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/justin-bieber" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">justin bieber</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fan-girls" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fan girls</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teenyboppers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teenyboppers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Music</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/musicians" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">musicians</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hysterical-fans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hysterical fans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/beatles-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">beatles</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rolling-stones-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rolling stones</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rock-and-roll" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rock and roll</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elvis-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elvis</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Canosa</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 06 Nov 2014 18:03:57 +0000 tara 5397 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4423-can-music-survive-without-teenybopper-fangirl#comments