Teenage Fanclub

Harry Styles, of One Direction, recently made headlines when he came to the defense of teen girls and their choices of music. He says their tastes are unfairly maligned, and are just as legitimate as those of a thirty-something hipster.

In the general point that we shouldn't be so critical of teen girls' favourite music, I have to agree. And we definitely shouldn't (as many do but won't admit it) hate music because it's liked by teenage girls. But I can't go along with the everyone's-equally-discriminating-and-a-People's-Choice-Award-is-better-than-an-Oscar philosophy Styles and the above article supporting him are pushing.

I'll give you "we respect girls' music less than boys'." We tend to ridicule the targets of girls' fandom as talentless pretty boys, while giving a free pass to boys' idols, who are often talentless expressions of meaningless rage and rebellion. I'll also concede that there's often an ugly motivation behind the criticism of girls' idols, in which the critics attack a boy-band or sensitive singer-songwriter for seeming unmasculine. But they hide the homophobia in these attacks by wrapping them in high-minded musical notions.

But I can't go along with Styles's main thesis. The fact is, teens - of any gender - have some bad musical taste. It's not universal of course; many do have better taste than most adults. But when I look back at the history of artists propelled to the top by teen fandom, it's hard not to conclude that a big portion of teens have been listening with their hormones and little else. Yes, you can - as Styles did - point to the Beatles as an example of teens getting it right before anyone else. But for every such example, there are dozens of artists chosen by teens that turned out to have no talent behind the facade.

You can certainly point to many examples of hipsters who like something just because others do, or to try to look cool. But if we put aside the outliers on each side and just ask whose ear you trust more, the hipster or the youngster? Sorry Harry, but my money is on the hipster.