Let’s Hear it for the Girls
The listening habits of teenage girls have long defined the music industry, so why are people so quick to disregard the legitimacy of this audience?
In popular culture there seems to be a correlation that the more popular something is with teenage girls; the less that thing is going to be taken seriously. It happens with books, movies and most prominently with music, to the point where, as soon as a something has a fan base of this demographic, the credibility disappears into thin air.
As a former teen girl, I understand the trials and tribulations all too well. Over the ages of 13–19 I dabbled in every teen girl craze that has passed in the last decade. Twilight, Justin Bieber, One Direction you name it! As my interests evolved over time, so did my perspective of the associated stigma that came from screaming at concerts and imaging a world where me and Harry Styles live a long and happy life together. Why was it that I, as a capable and competent young woman, not allowed to fully enjoy the things I liked because of the way it looked to outsiders?
Young Adult author Kerry Winfrey spoke about the ‘un-coolness’ of teen girls by stating that “once a teenage girl starts liking something, its over” and this is a demographic that artists actively try to avoid. The perspective on this issue is that it’s not necessarily what girls like, but it’s the way in which they express it. The word hysteria gets thrown around a lot when discussing the way that teen girls interact with music and musicians. Hysteria has been a blanket term since the 1950’s to diagnose the “female condition” and came to prominence with the age of the Beatles to describe the behaviour of female fans. The negativity around this is tied to the assumption that girls are not in charge of their emotions and lack control over how they express themselves.
The root of this is misogyny. At it’s core, the issue it exposes the notion that girls should not be seen to be emotional. Language used to discuss the way teen girls express themselves is reserved exclusively for women, where hysteria itself is seen as a salient female condition which has become synonymous with irrational.
We live in a world where women are judged for expressing emotions, and girls can pick up on this from an early age through these sorts of activities. While a pack of teen girls screaming at the top of their lungs for a boy band does not sound like a stellar example of emotional maturity, the misogyny jumps out in comparison to the benefit of the doubt afforded to the way grown men express themselves at sporting events. In this case the level of “hysteria” would put a teen girl to absolute shame. This just shows that the content of the media that is being consumed is irrelevant, if it is being consumed by teen girls, the emotional component of their engagement will completely erode any artistic integrity as it is perceived by outsiders.
While as it stands today, these musical artists are often overshadowed by their fans, the way fandoms operate through social media in the 21st century play a key role in the reason why the artists are so successful. If you look critically at the success of artists that are loved by teen girls, the defining narrative should be that teen girls are the taste makers in music, and their engagement has redefined social media and marketing in music in recent years.
The way that teen girls can organise themselves as a collective on social media and work out of a labour of love to promote their favourite artists has almost made traditional music marketing obsolete. With social media and globalisation on their side, all it takes is a strong female fan base to turn an act into an overnight international success, demonstrating that teen girl interests are grossly overlooked and teen girl fandoms are grossly underestimated.
While I don’t think my love for One Direction was destined to change the world, I do believe a lot of good could come from encouraging teen girls and de-stigmatising the attitudes around their interests. If a girl is a gun, a fandom of teenage girls is an army, and if these same girls are encouraged to pursue their interests without judgement, they might just channel their energy to change the world.
