By, Alana Saucier
For as long as music has been around, music artists have had groups of fans, which are also known as “fandoms.” A fandom is a group of dedicated fans who heavily support and consume media from the same artist on a multitude of platforms. Unfortunately, according to the media, fandoms mainly consist of “crazy and obsessive” teen girls. With the rise of popular music in the 1950s-60s, we started to recognize the power of fan groups for the first time, like with Elvis Presley’s and Beatles’ fans. Many of the groups that supported these artists happened to be women who supported them ferociously. This narrative of women and girls being crazy and obsessed with artists became apparent then and still continues to be apparent in the music industry today. This leads to artists with female-dominated fan bases not being taken as seriously.
Even though the media and music industry caters to young women and girls with a large amount of their profit coming from them, they continue to devalue and belittle their interests. Subsequently, musicians and bands that have more male-dominated fan bases, or even a male following in general, are glorified and treated as “real music.” In reality, it has nothing to do with the artist or even the music in general. The problem is the media and music industry’s problem with women and girls. Music enjoyed by men has always been and continues to be more legitimate and meaningful than music enjoyed by women, because women are seen as “crazy” in society, which correlates directly into the music industry.
Artists that continue to be extremely affected by misogyny in the music industry are boy bands and female pop artists. While most fans of boy bands do happen to be young girls, a narrative is presented that men should not be fans of boy bands, because a) they do not make “real” music, and b) they will be seen as girly. The stigma around boy bands is that they are more of a silly, younger idea for teen girls or a “phase” that they will grow out of due to the fact that they have never been taken seriously and continue to be devalued by society.
However, “tougher” and less “girly” bands are consumed and supported by men without that stigma, no matter the success levels of the two compared. Similarly, female pop singers have female-dominated fan bases, because they relate to them. This shows men that they should not be listening to this music, or else they will somehow relate to teen girls. Some female pop artists are even portrayed in the media as “obsessive and crazy” just like their fans. For example, Taylor Swift is portrayed by the media like this due to her many songs about breakups. Although she has ten albums with songs on many other topics, the media and society would rather paint her in this negative light.
Teen girls and women have been and continue to be portrayed as obsessive, hysterical, and fanatic when it comes to the music they love. Although women and girls are constantly being ridiculed by the media, the media continues to cater content to them and profit off their devotion.
