The 21st Century Teenybopper: Gender, Pop Music Artists, and Their Fans

Abstract

With the dawn of the internet has come the dawn of the mega-celebrity, with their fanbases being more prominent than ever. There’s been a stereotype of what these fans typically look like - white, fanatic women who become too invested in a celebrity. These are often teenage women (ie teenyboppers), an already marginalized group. The purpose of this survey study is to investigate teen girl pop music fandoms and their relationship to their perception in the public eye for a wide variety of age and gender demographics in the United States through a quantitative survey. Participants were asked their gender before answering 1-5 on a series of artists/fandoms while keeping a prompt in mind.  Results found that there is notable bias from both sides of the independent variable, both male and female, but, surprisingly, in some sections (ie seriousness), the bias from women is more statistically confident than men. purity culture specifically targets women, their role in society, and their virginity’s role within society. Considering this standard, it is logical that women had more disdain towards male artists than female artists, the ones similar to them who have, in the past, been criticized for their femininity- something inherently shared amongst all women. Their blame was externalized and directed towards others. This study fills a previously empty space in gender/music research, providing quantitative data, despite having issues with too much data. A solution to this issue is normalizing women’s position in the music industry by offering scholarships and bonuses.