hmm.

[retro_geek]

When Take That originally split up nearly 12 years ago, it caused a meltdown amongst a certain sector of teenagers. Crisis hotlines had to be set up to deal with suicidal girls, and broadsheet newspapers were filled with with pictures of distraught, crying, fainting fans with messages of love scrawled on their faces. Now, the band have reformed and thier come-back album has become the biggest selling record of thier career. Yet despite them selling more records now than they have before, I bet if they were to split again tomorrow it wouldn't cause anywhere near the same scale of chaos as it originally. Why? You could argue that it''s because they're now appealing to an older, and so calmer and more grounded, market. But if a more recent boyband (say, Mcfly, for example) were to suddenly disemband, I doubt it would cause more than a small ripple through the nation. Are teens and pre-teens just less obsessive than they used to be? And if so, why?

Comments

[retro-geek.livejournal.com]

I think you may be right. The whole high school musical frenzy largly passed me by (I hadn't even really heard of it till I saw some specially themed jewelary in the window of Claire's Accesories one day), but even I've gathered that Zac Effron is a bit of a teen heart-throb. By contrast, there are so many little ways to find out about new music these days (zines, clubs, myspcae, spotify, etc etc etc) that have replaced the titans of top of the pops and smash hits that it's probably quite difficult to launch a new pop phenomenon on an increasingly media-savvy play ground audience. But films are marketed differently, hence the shift from popstars to film stars.
I have to say, I find the image of a cinema full of 11-16 yearolds squealing in unison at the sight of a pretty boy in a vampire movie quite amusing. I bet there were quite a few exasperated parents also in the audience rolling their eyes at that point...