The document discusses the history and definition of "Teeny Boppers", who are defined as young teenagers between 12-16 years old who are avid followers of pop music trends and artists. It traces the origins of Teeny Boppers to fans of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra in the 1950s. Over subsequent decades, fans obsessed over artists like The Beatles, The Archies, and boy bands. Record labels intentionally marketed bubblegum pop and boy bands to appeal to and target young teenage girls. While some criticize Teeny Boppers' music tastes, the document argues they are simply consuming what is directly marketed towards them as developing teenagers.

1. Teeny Boppers: Victims of Marketing or Simply Cultural Idiots?
So what is a Teeny Bopper? A few highlights from a quick search on urban
dictionary:
- A teenager who is a pop-culture zealot. Most likely an MTV fan.
- Idiots who don’t know what music is.
- Stupid girls of ages 10-14 who squeal and giggle so much that Satan is willing to
drag them back to hell.
- The ethnic group Hitler would focus on instead if he were alive today.
Most of the results on urban dictionary were similar to these, bringing not much
insight into how a Teeny Bopper can actually be defined or how this subculture,
if it were, actually came to be. For the purpose of this presentation and through
the extensive research I’ve done on this topic I am able to define the Teeny
Bopper as the following:
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A young teenager (usually a girl) between the ages of around 12 and 16 who is
an avid follower of the latest trends in regards to clothing fashion and pop music.
Let’s start with the history of how the Teeny Bopper came to be.
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It’s most commonly believed that Teeny Boppers first emerged with the likes of
Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in the 50s. Teenaged girls were victims of stricter
parenting than their brothers. Usually discouraged from heading out at night
they would sit in their bedroom or the living room listening to records. This is
where the teenage girl’s obsession with pop stars would begin.
The apples of Teeny Boppers’ eyes would obviously change over the decades
with each generation.
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The 60s saw the rise of The Beatles and the corresponding condition of
Beatlemania.
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Bubblegum pop groups like The Archies and Bay City Rollers were the obsession
of the late 60s and throughout the 70s.
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The 80s saw the introduction of the boy band with New Edition and New Kids On
The Block.
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2. The 90’s continued this highly profitable idea with the Backstreet Boys and
NSYNC.
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Since the 00s we’ve seen artists like Justin Bieber and One Direction rise to fame
and the Teeny Bopper’s continuing obsession with these artists, resulting in their
labels Beliebers and Directioners respectively. But lets take it back a bit to the
late 60s when record companies’ targeted marketing to teenage girls really
began.
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The musical genre of Bubblegum pop was created in accompaniment with kids’
cartoons like The Archies and Josie and The Pussy Cats along with TV shows like
The Monkees and The Partridge Family. These ‘made-for-TV’ bands performed
simple, boppy songs that most often featured feel-good lyrics and themes of love,
both ideas that appeal to an innocent, teenage girl. The name ‘Bubble gum pop’
came about, as the music was cheap, sugary and of no nutritional value, much
like bubblegum itself. Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider were the men who
created The Monkees, a “hand-picked” band of musicians who, initially, weren’t
allowed to play their own songs and never played live during episodes of their
TV show. Maurice Starr, the man who later put together the boy bands New Kids
On The Block and New Edition, got his inspiration from Rafelson and Schneider
after seeing their success with The Monkees even though they were essentially a
fake band.
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Starr defined the boy band formula with New Kids On The Block who were most
successful through the 80s and 90s. They were all white with a tailored suburban
look as opposed to Starr’s previous, all black boy band New Edition.
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This boy band formula was further perfected by Louis Pearlman with his
creation of the Backstreet Boys. They were slightly more diverse in style and
look i.e. a couple of them look of Latino heritage and there is a slightly more
diverse range of hair colour. The boy band formula was narrowed down to the
following attributes:
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-3-6 young, singing and dancing males.
-Each band member represents a particular personality type e.g. the bad boy, the
nice guy, the cool guy.
-Each band member should at least LOOK of different background/ethnicity e.g.
different hair colours.
-Band and individual images carefully defined so as to be more easily marketed.

3. As a consumption based subculture these aspects are crucial to the marketing of
boy bands to Teeny Boppers.
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This diversity appeals to the Teeny Bopper as they can more easily pick their
favourite band member, perhaps the one with a more relatable style, ethnicity or
hair colour (I know I did).
So why do people, other than pubescent girls, say such things as “Teeny Boppers
are stupid girls” or “idiots who don’t know what music is”? It is most likely the
fact that the men cast for these boy bands don’t actually play instruments in
them and don’t usually write their own music. All they appear to do is sing and
dance which is cause for a lot of people to think they’re mostly talentless and
anyone who likes them either has bad taste in music or only swoons over the
band members themselves.
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But can you blame these girls for consuming something that’s being directly
marketed at them? If most of what they’re seeing in pop culture is artists like
One Direction and Justin Bieber (though he is a solo artist) how can these
pubescent individuals be blamed for developing a taste for such music? These
songs are structurally and musically simple, with a verse, chorus, verse, chorus,
bridge, chorus, chorus format. These artists’ songs are MADE for the aural
enjoyment of psychologically and emotionally developing teenagers who are
more or less encouraged to love the music and artists as a safe substitute for
what parents fear most for their daughters… real life boys. They’d much prefer
their hormonal daughter to hang out with her friends at home while listening to
One Direction than going out to parties with boys. But that’s another topic
altogether…
The point is that the music industry is marketing boy bands and the like to girls
of a young age before they’ve even had a chance to explore and become
interested in different musical genres. I have an eclectic taste in music which
rarely includes pop but during my research on boy bands I found myself
listening to a youtube playlist of One Direction songs and almost enjoying it… ok,
I was enjoying it. I think most of us can say we’ve listened to commercial radio at
some stage of our lives and enjoyed the pop music they played. The thing is that
most of us grow out of it and move onto “better” music and I believe most of the
Teeny Boppers will too.
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Having said that, I still sometimes bust out the Justin Timberlake CDs and
genuinely enjoy them.

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