Earlier this week the fandom of teen pop sensation One Direction reached critical mass when their new live DVD release managed to go six times platinum within 7 days. That means that just in Australia, Directioners (as their fans are affectionately called) bought in excess of 90,000 copies of the DVD.
For context, Adele’s live DVD, which has been on sale for over six months, has sold somewhere in the vicinity of 60,000, and that includes the sales from Mothers Day and Christmas.
When the boys toured our shores back in in April of this year, their fans virtually shut down whichever capital city the band were in. They upstaged every Australian celebrity at the Logie Awards and instigated a camp out in Sydney’s CBD.
The boy band, who got their start on the UK’s X-Factor talent show, seem to be overwhelming every Australian girl (and some boys) under 16 and while their influence is transcontinental, it seems that Aussie teens have been hit harder than any others.
The five-piece’s live DVD sold a mere 76,000 copies in its first week in America. Considering America has 15 times the population of Australia (which in turn means 15 times more teenagers willing to shell out cash for the DVD) it really is quite pitiful. Compare this to the 90,000 copies sold here in Australia and you have to ask, why do Australians love a teen idol?
Is it their wholesome image? Their 5-part harmonies? Their perfectly tousled hair? Australia has a history of gushing over teen idols. Renowned for having intense ‘Beatlemania’ in the 1960s, Aussies lost it when the foursome came in ‘64. Streets were shut down, fans passed out and the music was impossible to hear over the high-pitched screaming of thousands of teenage girls.
Cut to 1974 and teen sensation and pseudo bad-boy David Cassidy toured the east coast of Australia to a similar reaction with three fans fainting and having to be hospitalized at a show. It’s a trend that has continued to this day, with everyone from New Kids on the Block to Justin Timberlake causing a mania so intense it seems made up.
Perhaps our obsessive tendencies have something to do with Australia’s distance from the rest of the world. Like a sex-starved spinster craving some attention from a younger man, Australia seems to latch onto boy-band exports in a uniquely obsessive way.
Or maybe it’s our convict’s complex: maybe we all feel a bit insecure about how we stack up against Brits or Americans so we obsessive over their icons for want of acceptance. Like a whore in a nightclub latching onto a womaniser for attention, Australia’s obsession with teenage boys dancing on stage would indicate that our collective self-esteem as a country is pretty damn low.
Or maybe not, maybe it’s something else altogether.
It’s easy to blame the media for our consumption of popular culture and the trends associated with that consumption, but in this case it could be a pretty valid accusation. When One Direction came to Australia this past April, every news outlet, radio station and TV show was both reporting and promoting the trip. It’s no coincidence either considering two companies own most of Australia’s mainstream media and all outlets are writing about the same boy band.
This lack of diversity in media ownership, the overlap of ‘news’ stories and the uniform agenda behind those stories is a huge part of how we decide what to care about. And what we care about right now, it seems, is One Direction.
Maybe the solution (if we’re considering it a problem) it to produce more on-shore icons so we wont obsess over foreign imports. Yes, we’ve tried with artists like Jason Donovan and 90s boy band Human Nature and while those acts have the fading into obscurity part of being a teen idol mastered, they’ve never really gotten the hysteria part down pat.
But while One Direction are climbing from strength to strength, American boy-toy Justin Bieber’s new single ‘Die In Your Arms’ debuted at a crumby 31 on the Australian charts. Far be it for us to say his career is over (he did just sell out Madison Square Gardens in less than 30 seconds) but it does seem like Australia can only handle one dose of perfectly coifed pop at a time.
Aussies seem to love these icons obsessively and intensely, then discard them when the next big thing appears. Now that One Direction has come to the fore, it seems we’re forgetting about our apparently-not-do-undying love for Bieber. But why is Australia only able to focus on one icon at a time? Is blaming the media entirely for concentrated coverage a fair call? Or is it just a symptom of a small and admittedly isolated population?
We might never know why our fleeting obsessions exist, but don’t worry ; if history has taught us anything it’s that Aussies love a teen idol.
So even if we do happen to tire of Bieber and One Direction, the next big teeny-bob sensation is just around the corner waiting to shut down entire cities and be smothered by thousands of prepubescent girls. And when that time does come, Australia will be ready and more than willing to answer the call.
