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Teenybop

The first time I can remember taking a profound interest in music was probably in the third grade. This was when I first became a fan, bought my own cassettes, and plastered my room with pictures of my favorite group. And who were they? A sort of one-year, four-hot wonder called Ace of Base. Although I can't remember exactly where I was when I first heard Ace of Base, I remember how their music made me feel. It was good dancing music (for my third-grade bopping around that I called dancing), had catchy tunes, and lyrics that made me feel mature ahead of my time. I learned all the lyrics, thought that the lead singer was the most talented vocalist on the planet, and would even write down the lyrics on paper by pausing and rewinding the tapes a thousand times. In a song called "Don't turn around," the singer is talking about leaving her boyfriend in a painful breakup. Being only in the third grade, I felt like a musical connoisseur, so into this "adult" kind of music, with songs about love and life. And so, Ace of Base spawned my 5 year bout as a teeny bopper: listening to specifically targeted music that made me feel mature and sexy before I had even hit puberty.
In class, we discussed that cock rock is an aggressive expression of male sexuality. It is dominating and boastful, and is certainly a hard sexuality. But instead of being exposed to Jimmy Hendrix, AC/DC, and The Rolling Stones as a child, I was surrounded by peers and the media pushing teeny bopper music: Britney, Backstreet Boys and N'Sync. The sexual message delivered by these "bubblegum" pop bands is much softer, but nonetheless jump starts a life full of sexual awareness. The teenybopper music industry is definitely aimed at young kids and tweens, who are naive and gullible. So how come, then, this music is full of unrealistic images, and sexual messages? There seems to me to be a double standard for kids and tweens listening to this kind of music- this music is for you, and all your friends are...