Why Do Young Girls Scream at Boy Bands?
Never thought about it, actually. I just figured it was something the young female of the species is programmed to do. The Washington Post tries to figure it out.
Why do young women assembled at pop concerts express their collective ecstasy with the most alarming sound available to their bodies? Why do they scream?In some ways, today’s young fans are simply imitating the ritualized shrieks of the generations that preceded them, from the Beatlemaniacs to the Beliebers. And while today’s tween screams aren’t reserved exclusively for young male heartthrobs, concerts by Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift don’t seem to generate quite the same sonic fervor as a performance from One Direction or Ed Sheeran.
Since the splashdown of Elvis Presley in 1956, the American media has often characterized the din of young female fans gathered in the presence of a pop idol as “hysteria” — “a description that denigrates their musical engagement,” according to a 2003 article written by Australian researcher Sarah Baker.
