Okay, so I'll try.

[bubosquared]

I think Silvia and Bartleby have both made excellent points about this, but here's my contribution to the list of Theories On Why People Hate Boybands.

Now, I'm not usually one to draw the feminist card, but in this case, I'm going to. I think that (one of? part of?) the (underlying?) reason why so many people hate boybands is that they appeal to and are (largely) marketed towards young girls. As Silvia said, all bands are marketed, so why are the boybands catching the flack for it? My answer is, because they're marketed towards girls. Girls - or women in general, for that matter - are not supposed/allowed to have good musical taste. Any band or artist they like is automatically suspect, and if they like a band or artist that is generally liked by men, they're in it for the wrong reasons.

Women who don't play the male market (by playing on their sex appeal towards men) are often seen as whiny things, especially when their songs are about "women's issues" (quotation marks because I think rape is a universal issue, thank you; being a man does not absolve you from having to think/worry about rape). All-male bands appealing to a mostly-female audience? The horror! (Whereas bands like Limp Bizkit, who appeal primarily to a v. young male audience (and are thus as Silvia said a boyband for boys), get much less flack for it, because of course no matter how young they are, boys are allowed/expected to have musical taste.)

I'm not sure how much sense that made, but I'm hoping you got the gist of it.

Comments

[darksong.livejournal.com]

In the same respect, I think a lot of the flack that No Doubt's Return of Saturn took was because it was inherently feminine. Guys don't really want songs about girls wanting to get married an all of that.

Which is why I admired what Tori did with Strange Little Girls. It could've been better, but it did take very masculine songs and turned them around.

The critical press, like the music industry itself, is dominated by men, so they are going to say what is "good" and what is "bad." I don't see anything wrong with girls liking *Nsync because they're cute. And they are downright adorable. Attractiveness will only take you so far, but I do think sex appeal (outer and inner) is a very large element of music (and any form of art, actually). Boybands are presented in this sort of gooey, nonthreateningly sexual way, and I think a lot of men are uncomfortable with that. Male sexuality doesn't get expressed much, and while in the case of boybands, it's a sort of harmless sexuality, it's still there. Boybands use their sexuality much like women are trained to, and I think that's where a lot of the criticism comes in. Men don't know how to react to that, nor do they know how to react that women respond to that, so therefore they just decide to hate it.

That was a bit rambly...I think some of it makes sense.

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good call. I hadn't realised that, actually. I do agree with Missy that a lot of the reason their sexuality is expressed in such a non-threatening way is that girls aren't supposed to really like actual sex, but yeah, not knowing how to react to that kind of sexuality could definitely be a factor in the hatred.