ASH, Kol Isha, and Boybands
Dec. 25th, 2002 05:00 pmListening to Music for Elevators (Anthony Stuart Head's CD), I've decided that incredibly sexy British men shouldn't be allowed to sing in French. Because, mmmmmmmmmmm, and I'm supposed to be working here.
Now, before I go any further, I want to issue a disclaimer lest anyone reading this were to decide to buy the CD, and then choose to blame me. The music is incredibly mediocre. ASH's fabulous voice is wasted on this project -- I love the man, but he is no songwriter.
Despite all this, I've got the damn thing on repeat in the CD player. So, I am forced to face the extent of my fixation on the man's singing. Friends of mine had been trying to pimp me into Buffy fandom for years before I succumbed. They don't know that what finally pushed me over the edge was seeing a rerun of "Where the Wild Things Are". (Of course, the concurrent discovery of the Wonders of Wesley provided an almost immediate distraction, but that's another discussion entirely.)
My current musical obsession brings to mind growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community, and being bound by the rules of Kol Isha. Kol Isha is a restriction on women singing in front of men because it is considered immodest, or, put more bluntly, arousing. (Before anyone asks, as in most of the Jewish laws concerning modesty, there are no similar restrictions on men. However, interestingly, the reason for this seeming double-standard is that men are considered to be far less able to control their desires than women.) This, growing up, always seemed to me to be one of the ultimately silly laws that I was being forced to adhere to. I remember thinking, "Come on, who is attracted to someone's voice?" [smile] How wrong I was!
All this leads me to wonder how much of the appeal of the boyband fandoms is in the actual music, as opposed to the sparkly-dancingness of the gentlemen involved.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shinetheway? Anyone?
Now, before I go any further, I want to issue a disclaimer lest anyone reading this were to decide to buy the CD, and then choose to blame me. The music is incredibly mediocre. ASH's fabulous voice is wasted on this project -- I love the man, but he is no songwriter.
Despite all this, I've got the damn thing on repeat in the CD player. So, I am forced to face the extent of my fixation on the man's singing. Friends of mine had been trying to pimp me into Buffy fandom for years before I succumbed. They don't know that what finally pushed me over the edge was seeing a rerun of "Where the Wild Things Are". (Of course, the concurrent discovery of the Wonders of Wesley provided an almost immediate distraction, but that's another discussion entirely.)
My current musical obsession brings to mind growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community, and being bound by the rules of Kol Isha. Kol Isha is a restriction on women singing in front of men because it is considered immodest, or, put more bluntly, arousing. (Before anyone asks, as in most of the Jewish laws concerning modesty, there are no similar restrictions on men. However, interestingly, the reason for this seeming double-standard is that men are considered to be far less able to control their desires than women.) This, growing up, always seemed to me to be one of the ultimately silly laws that I was being forced to adhere to. I remember thinking, "Come on, who is attracted to someone's voice?" [smile] How wrong I was!
All this leads me to wonder how much of the appeal of the boyband fandoms is in the actual music, as opposed to the sparkly-dancingness of the gentlemen involved.
shinetheway? Anyone?
