Band members are people too!

It’s interesting to consider the individuation of band members in recent bands like the Backstreet Boys or N’Sync. While as a whole they were successful in terms of topping the charts, there always seems to be more focus on the best looking one, and more success assigned to them when apart from the band to which they owe their fame. Justin Timberlake (from N’Sync) and Nick Carter (from BSB) went onto have successful careers post-band, whereas the rest of the band members seemed to have disappeared off the radar. It goes to show how much emphasis consumers place on the looks of an artist in order to have the willingness to hear them out. The favouritism and singling of band members is always going to exist because of the desire that people have to relate to a member who most tickles their fancy. Take novelty pop groups for example. How many times were you asked, in 1998, who your favourite Spice Girl was? (Mine was Posh, coz she was hot). Or who your favourite Hanson was? (Mine was Taylor, coz she was hot). This ranking of band members is to be expected because of the audience’s natural inclination to assign identities to members of a band rather than see them as one entity.