Listening With Our Eyes

I went to a Ryan Cabrera concert a few years ago, and it was fun ... but I was uncomfortable the whole time. I was one of the very few male, post-teenage audience members, and I went by myself ... undoubtedly the reason for the handful of bewildered and amused looks I got from other attendees, which of course made me rather self-conscious. But the real reason I was uncomfortable was the incessant screaming, from the beginning of the first song through the end of the last, by the throngs of teenage and pre-teen girls in attendance. It wasn't the squealing itself that bothered me, but rather what it meant.

It meant that those of us in the audience who weren't screaming (all of whom I bet would fit comfortably in one Volkswagen Bus) were the only ones paying attention to the music, rather than -- shall we say -- Ryan's aesthetic attributes. I suppose it's the excitement of seeing a favorite singer live and in-person with your friends that gets you caught up in the moment, but still ... if they're screaming at the top of their lungs, they can't hear the music, no matter how loud it is. Don't they care that he's playing guitar and singing, talents that we all know are hard to come by? I sure do.

That got me to thinking about other young male singer/songwriters from recent years, like Tyler Hilton and Teddy Geiger, as well as bands like Hanson and McFly. I enjoy them all very much because they're genuinely talented. And that's what I kind-of resent: the fact that I feel like I have to defend myself, like those guys who buy Playboy magazine and say they "read it for the articles" ... there are some heterosexual guys who do, you know. Just like there are some gay guys who listen to young male singer/songwriters because they like the music, and not necessarily because they're hotties.

Sure, they're hotties, but I have to wonder how the artists feel about being peddled for that reason above all others ... about having their self-penned music and lyrics half-buried under a slicked-up production gloss, and marketed to the masses inside meticulously composed photo layouts, usually in which no instruments (or anything else of a musical nature) are anywhere to be seen. It's almost as if the people who make the decisions regarding the packaging of such artists' releases are trying to remove all visual evidence of the person in question actually being a legitimate musician. Do they think that the consumers are going to forget they're buying a music CD? It's illogical, when you think about it ... guys who strum guitars and sing have been casting mysterious spells of romance over girls for over half a century.

There's another downside to the "fast track to fame": for every girl who pins a poster (or two or three) of one of these singers or bands up on her bedroom wall, there's a teenage or twentysomething (or sometimes even older) guy who scorns, mocks, and derides them. It's usually just jealousy, but it can also be peer pressure: I can't help but wonder how many guys out there actually like the music, but forsake fandom for the coolness of dissing a musician just because all of his friends do ... or, worse yet, don't even know how good his music is because such peer pressure won't even let them sample the music with an open mind, lest they themselves be just as savagely taunted and jeered. Heck ... only now is John Mayer finally winning over a fair share of male fans, after spending years with an almost exclusively female fan base.

I don't envy these young male musicians in the decision they have to make when they get their big break. Do they choose to put their artistic integrity on hold in order to get the exposure they desire which, in today's revolving-door world of major-label music, might or might not lead to a long-term career? Or, do they pass up their golden opportunity and linger in obscurity for years, whereby their chances for long-term musical success are possibly even more iffy? Whichever route they choose, I don't blame them either way. As I said, I love these guys for the music, and I've probably happened upon as many of them who've taken the high road to success as have the low road.

So, next time you pass by a CD by Teddy Geiger, Tyler Hilton, Ryan Cabrera, Kyle Riabko, Hanson, McFly, Ben Lee, Ben Kweller, Landon Pigg, John Mayer, or any other young musician (or group of musicians) who just happens to be young and good-looking ... don't dismiss them out-of-hand as talentless wanna-bes, or presume that their looks got them a record deal, because you never know what great music your ears might be missing.