A teenybopper is an early teenage girl who follows adolescent trends in music, fashion, and culture. The term may have been coined by

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

professionals and

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

s, later becoming a

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

of its own. The term was introduced in the 1950s to refer to teenagers who mainly listened to popular music and/or

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

and not much else. ''Teenybopper'' became widely used again in the late 1960s and early 1970s, following an increase in the marketing of pop music, teen idols and fashions aimed specifically at younger girls, generally 10–15 years old.

Subcultural aspects

The subculture is exclusive to early adolescent girls. As a subculture, it is a retreat, allowing girls to relate to their peers and have "girl culture" without male mockery. While the subculture allows girls to have a space of their own with their peers, the subculture magazines also offer idealized teen idols, allowing girls to fantasize about future marriage. The narrative fantasies elaborated around teenyboppers serve as distractions for aspects of life felt to be unrewarding, such as school or work. When shared with other teenyboppers, it allows for defensive solidarity. It allows its members to define themselves apart from younger and older girls. It has a commercial origin and is "an almost packaged cultural commodity", emerging from the pop business and relying on commercial magazines and TV. As a result, it has fewer creative elements than other subcultures. Membership has very few restrictions, does not require elaborate spending, and requires much less expertise and money than certain school activities. The subculture is suited to being followed at school or home, and girls can hold a party with just a bedroom, a music player, and permission to invite friends.

Musical preferences

In the 1960s, a new type of music appeared, different from the

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

music school, but molded by it. It was no longer written by the old established songwriters of Tin Pan Alley, but by young people. They helped to establish the new

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia East Asia possess ...

s and wrote the so-called "teeny bopper songs", which "blend

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

with

pop ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. Cur ...

". The difference that the 70s' "Teeny Bopper syndrome" had with prior idol phenomena was that these new teen idols were directed at even younger girls, down to 15 years old, who were too young to have heard

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

and were not attracted to the new

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

music of the time that their elder siblings listened to. This new market has a quick turnover potential and it boosted the benefits of many broadcasting companies. The teenybopper idol image is that of the young boy next door, with "girlish" looks and singing about longing for romance. Their music is consumed by young girls, who collect posters and pin ups.

Subcultural aspects

Musical preferences

See also

References

Further reading