The main focus of my investigation is the social function of popular music. The popular music genre helps us to prepare for adulthood and it is a factor in how our gender identity is formed.

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Lara Weston

Don’t forget the songs that saved your life: popular music as cultural communication.

Love’s young dream: boy bands and the teenybopper.

The main focus of my investigation is the social function of popular music. The popular music genre helps us to prepare for adulthood and it is a factor in how our gender identity is formed. We are socialised through many mediums. One main medium is the mass media which is a big influence of us making choices about what bands we listen to. Sometimes we listen to particular music because our friends do and we don’t want to feel isolated if we didn’t. Family and religion can influence whether we are allowed to listen to certain styles of music due to beliefs and whether they allow us to.

In our teenage years the emphasis switches from dolls to boys. Because of this, the music industry is ready and waiting so they can offer a selection of boy bands for us to switch are attention to. Now, it’s no longer a picture of horses but Justin Timberlake that adorns our bedroom walls

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The main fan base is pre-teenage girls who are beginning to explore crushes and are starting to enjoy listening to music. As the girls grow up, the boy bands lose their appeal, but are still an impact on this stage of their fans personal development.

The obsession of boy bands is not a new phase. The Beatles in the 1960’s started a new craze, “Beatle mania” a specific group which consisted of obsessed fans, especially teenage girls. This carries on to the 80’s with boy bands such as New Kids on the Block and New Edition being popular. Unlike ...

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