In the defense of Boy bands and their fans….

I have often wondered why. I mean, music is music after all, surely? Why do people go "oh YUCK" at the mention of a boy band? Not just boys but many girls display this reaction too. This is especially common among the "cool" crowd – "oh aih listen ONLY to Georgie Michael and Fiona Apple and Puff Daddy" and among the already cooler music channel VJ crowd. I have a question for all these people – what is it that you have against these poor defenseless boy bands?

Some years back, New Kids On The Block created a sensation in becoming the first official boy band. After that came Britain’s very own Take That. Till date, TT is termed as the #1 boy band ever (to some, that might actually be a compliment!!!). In fact, any band that came after them had to put up with the tag "TT wannabe" (even the Spiceys had their own TT tag – "female TT"). A short while after Take That came East 17 and Boyzone. Of these, E17’s music wasn’t strictly boy band music though they were one. Then TT and E17 broke up – violently, in the case of the former where the band members ended slagging each other in every possible way. Boyzone continued on their solo route – but not for long. America’s very own boy band Backstreet Boys hit the pop scene a year later and this triggered the formation of bands in every available nook and corner. 911, Ant & Dec, Damage, Hanson, Moffats, Bed & Breakfast, Ultra, N’Sync, 5ive – and the list goes on.

Being a staunch fan of a popular boy band myself, I always get irked when the cognoscenti informs me that I am juvenile to be a boy band follower. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what’s wrong in listening to a boy band. I do agree that some of the boy bands’ are nothing more than the manufactured band variety. But that doesn’t warrant the toffee-nosed attitude towards them either! Some of these bands can actually sing (surprise!!!) and produce some lovely music.

Personally, I am a BIG TIME fan of Boyzone myself and have been following them for quite some time now. (You can drop that smirk, ye Boyband hater, I do actually dig Pink Floyd and Guns N’ Roses and Oasis and Verve :-pp) I was even a part of the team that maintained their official web site and attended their press conference when they were in B’lore last year. It was quite a lot of fun – working for somebody you see only on TV and getting in touch with similar loonies around the world and talking about the band members like you socialize with them every day of the week. I ended up making quite a lot of friends around the world as a result and am mighty grateful to the Boyz for that. The many hours that I spent chatting online, making the phone bill zoom upto mercurial heights while I …. Ah, I am digressing!

What I am coming to say is (at last!) that – do stop behaving like it is a sin listening to boy bands and being a groupie. It is a great experience and one that I strongly recommend. It is loads of fun and life is too short anyway! You can’t chase young lads when you are a doddering ole maid of 65, can you? So you might as well make the most of it and live it up while you can. Listen to boy bands all you want and don’t stop because Big Brother or the Tactless Tilly next door says so. Just remember to do your own thing! And while you are still waiting for your very own Casanova to woo you with a serenade, you might as well be satisfied with Stephen Gately saying "you’re the key to my life".

"Boy bands = girl music"; in other words, the Boy band kind of music is something that no self respecting male would ever be caught dead listening to.

- Lavanya