Nonsense 3/52 Boybands.....suck? Pt. One

or

a brief history of my demise

part one


I promised in my last singing saturday that I would discuss the fact that I now listen to boybands. So here is part one.

Please imagine, if you will, the late eighties. I was in the eighth grade and my family moved from a small town in New Jersey to the middle of nowhere Georgia. We lived in the middle of our town in NJ, and I either walked or rode my bike everywhere, including school. All of my friends were within walking distance. So it was a big shock when we moved and our closest neighbors were cows. Directions to my house included turn left at the goats, then turn left at the cows. The town listed as our address was actually a good 20-30 minute drive away and was in a different area code, which meant it was long distance to call the town we lived in. Weird, yes? I had to call collect from my school to call my parents.

Anyway. Here I was, a new girl at a school where most kids came from families that had founded the county and had known each other since they were in diapers.

Being the totally awesome person I am, I made friends pretty quickly. Unfortunately for me, the girls who befriended me were very much into New Kids on the Block. I liked Pink Floyd. I don't know if they were just being friendly, but I suddenly found out that I could have Danny from nkotb as mine. I felt this was generous, especially considering I had no idea who he was or why I would want him. I eventually figured it out and in any lunchtime conversation I was expected to chip in with my feelings on Danny(of which I had none). Honestly, this is probably one of the few times I ever gave in to peer pressure. I pretended to like a boy band I had zero interest in. But I remained friends with those girls all through high school. Not like close bff's or anything, but just people I could talk to. So I guess it paid off in the end?

My feelings towards boybands like nkotb could probably be best described as contemptuous. The girls that loved them, I mostly just felt sorry for (and yes, I am was a total snob). I liked bands that wrote and played their own music. I have always maintained a safe distance from the people in the bands I liked. I was a huge U2 fan for years before I even knew what Bono's real name was. And there is something inherently fannish about a boyband. It's not about the music, it's about the people in it. I never understood this. I was more interested in the people around me than in people I would never meet.  Music was about music, not the people who made it.

end pt one (because I took a benadryl and now I am falling asleep.)