Boy bands: we all want it that way

In middle school, when I was too cool to play with legos, I had a passionate interest in boy bands—especially the Backstreet Boys. Kevin, Nick, Joey, Howie, and AJ were all the rave of the late 1990’s. They were the best looking boys on the planet and were talented too. They sang what any awkward, love seeking, junior high girl wanted to hear. The songs typically consist of stories involving emotions entering or ending relationships conveyed through romantic and rhyming lyrics with a catchy beat. In the song I Want It That Way, from the Millennium album it begins with the lines: “You are my fire, the one desire…” lines any preteen would die to hear from an admirer.

Most middle school girls are exposed to boys of their own age that are only interested in burping, eating, making fart noises, and video games. For a middle school boy, any sort of romantic endeavor involving a girl is either considered gross or never thought of. So, that’s why there were boy bands. They replaced the disinterested, voice cracking middle school boys for much finer substitutes. The typical boy band fan was a young girl--young teenager or preteen who has smartly given up on awkward boys in hopes of snatching a glance from Kevin or Nick. With this smart and popular transition, pretty soon, the boy band appeared everywhere. The Backstreet boys were on posters, t-shirts, notebooks, and even pencils. In junior high Kayla, a fellow classmate and a good friend, drove down to Florida with her family over spring break, saw the Backstreet Boys in concert, and came back with an autographed t-shirt. The following weekend I was invited to her sleepover. The other girls and I stared in awe at the autographed t-shirt. We gathered around it like a sacred relic knowing that only a week ago each one of the Backstreet Boys touched the shirt and signed it. Today, as a college student and an almost twenty year old, I still on occasion play a Backstreet Boy song, dance, sing along, and reminisce about my days spent as an advocate for boy bands.