Boy Bands: Confort y Música para el Desahogo

Abstract

Band fanaticism was consolidated during the 1960s with the explosion of Beatlemania. Beginning with the iconic Beatles, this phenomenon evolved to form the well-known “Boy Bands” such as New Kids on the Block, followed by the emergence of global phenomena such as BTS. Historically, fanaticism has been an essential component and constant in popular culture for decades. This passionate relationship includes not only the love for music, but also a number of social, communicative, psychological and even commercial elements that deserve to be explored.

Since the 1950s, social psychology has studied these interactions under the concept of parasocial relationships, in which fans develop one-way, emotional and imaginary bonds with band members. Although they rarely receive direct feedback from their idols, these fans generate unconditional affection for them. These fans may come from diverse socioeconomic, cultural and generational backgrounds, but they are united by a common passion: the music of a particular Boy Band.

In Colombia, for example, since the formation of these Boy Bands, hundreds of people have faithfully followed these groups, showing a fervor comparable to that of a soccer fan for his or her team. This connection acts as a sort of invisible thread that transcends common understanding, where passions, emotions and feelings, similar to those of an interpersonal relationship, intertwine.

This degree work investigates the parasocial relationships that fans maintain with artists, trying to understand the psychosocial processes involved in the formation of these bonds. In addition, it performs an ethnographic exercise to understand the dynamics of fan groups as identity communities. This way, a profile of the Boy Bands fan is constructed and the influence that these cultural products have on the construction of narrative discourses and values that individuals re-signify according to their context is reflected upon.