Friday, June 15, 2012

the boy band resurrection

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Recently there has been a resurrection of something that makes me so happy, the twelve year old in me is bursting with excitement.  I’m talking about the sweet, sweet comeback of boy bands.  Here’s the thing, when I was a super youngin’ tween, the loyalty to your boy band was serious business.  Personally, I was a Backstreet Boys girl all the way.  I had the charm bracelet with their faces on it (Kevin’s which I cherished most) the stickers all over my lunchbox, and the cut outs from magazines lining every inch of my walls.  Whether you were into BSB, N*Sync, O-Town (hah!), 98 Degrees, Hanson or if you were of previous generations screaming for the Justins and Brians of your day like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, New Edition the Jackson 5 or the Beatles, you know what I’m talking about.  In those years of love and devotion for my favorite boy band, I was convinced I would die without their music and certainly without their pretty mugs to stare at all day. 
And then, suddenly when the mid 2000s hit, these men who had pimply, delusional girls screaming their names started to disappear.  For solo careers, for acting, and some even quit the good life to start a family.  Um, excuse me?  How could you?  And when BSB and NKOTB reunited to create some sort of fused aging, boy band super group, things just weren’t the same.  And not just because they were missing the perfectly groomed brows of my sweet Kevin.  What had happened to the beauty of the American boy band?  And don’t tell me the Jonas Brothers were a boy band for this generation because, really, who on Earth was going to see them? Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty satisfied with my selection of guilty pleasure pop artists today’s culture has to offer.  We have a girl that shoots whipped cream out of her bra, a girl that spills blood from her torso, and a guy that swims to stage on a river of teenage tears of joy.  But nothing taps the depths of a young girl’s heart like a bunch of well choreographed boys whose hair hasn’t come in on their chests yet. 
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But finally, the girl who wore overalls and bright pink jellies with a bobble watch can rejoice again:  boy bands are back.  Crazy hormonal girls can scream for the likes of One Direction and the Wanted.  And while I don’t see myself buying any of these perfectly groomed teenager’s albums, I sleep better at night knowing that the young generation of this country has boy bands again.  And really, this is the generation that needed a boy band the most.  My generation had struggle.  Spending hours cutting out pictures, walking to the Ticketmaster to wait in line for a concert that usually sold out in four minutes, recording every television appearance on my VHS.   But this generation has all the resources for obsession, without a lot of the effort.  You don’t need to get paper cuts that comes along with intricately cutting out photos of your beloved.  Tumblr exists now; you can have a virtual room of obsession.  Lines for a concert?  Psh, I don’t even think ticket booths exist anymore.  And you have YouTube!  No more asking mom to tape late night talk show performances because you have a bed time of 9:30pm. 
So thank you, to the sweet genius that realized generations are nothing without a love for boy bands.  I mean, I guess Bieber captures as much love as a boy band would hope for, but he doesn’t have three or four friends that show up to events dressed exactly like him.  And he doesn’t even lip sync.  So does he really have it all?

recent realizations

1.  My heart isn't dead on the inside!  What a relief!
2.  The ghost emoticon on the iPhone emogies is the best emoticon ever.  It really can apply to all situations.  Well maybe not all, but most.  That face will cheer up anyone!
3.  Woah, June gloom is seriously a thing this year.  And it's effecting my morning stretching.
4.  People who think you can't mix black with brown or navy/mix gold and silver together are crazy.  Or they just haven't seen it done right.