European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Idol thoughts Why teens Are becoming passe by Elizabeth Kolbert the new York times d avid Cassidy crooned Donny Osmond cooed and the monkeys did whatever the monkeys did and millions of girls in training bras ran out to buy their albums. It was 1970, give or take a few years and the heyday of teen idol Dom. For magazines like Tiger beat and sixteen it was a Golden age a time when every Sweet Young thing in Bell Bottoms pined for Mickey Dolenz and knew the words to i m a believer. Until recently it seemed to Fanzine readers that those Days were always on the verge of returning in the person of Kirk Cameron or men Udo or Michael j. Fox. But the reality is that teen idol or like America s High school Reading scores May be on a slow and irreversible decline. Since new kids on the Block started to fade and Luke Perry s hair receded teen idol Dom has been in a slump no new heartthrob has managed to excite the passions or Force open the purses of America s adolescents. At Best the teen magazines have had to Market characters like Joey Lawrence Blosso Jonathan Brandis St of just div and Mark Paul Gosselar saved by the �/<.�?�. A with disappointing results. Teen agers have tuned out. Subscriptions have plummeted. A i to creation of idols has always depended on chemistry and hormones a notoriously unpredictable mix. Consider Elvis Presley but those in the business a the men and women who know All those Quot fab facts a like Why Joey wants to marry Young a say forces larger than adolescent desire Are at work. Quot in the history of teen idol Dom starting from Frank Sinatra and the beatles the teen idols who have become real icons have All been musical a said Randi Reisfeld editor of sixteen Magazine who has worked in the Field for 23 years. She ticked them off the monkeys the Jackson five the Osmond new kids on the Block. Quot those Days Quot she said a Quot music has become so a polarized it s hard. There Aren t that Many outlets for the Type of music traditionally associated with teen idols a Ai c Esible music with a pop sound. If you re not Garth Quot Brooks or a rap group it s hard to get your stuff Carla Lloyd a professor of advertising at the . Newhouse school of Public communications at Syracuse University in new York who has studied the Way Young women Model their appearance on entertainment. Images blames the idol drought not on changes in the. Music world but on changes in the Way teen agers live. Quot my teen idols were the monkeys and Bobby a Sherman Quot she said. Quot now i think there s a lot More stress to devote the kind of attention that girls of my generation did to construct our shrines to Mickey Dolenz seems rather frivolous and out of , even the phrase teen idol is somewhat outdated Many of the girls who carry the Torch Are actually pre teen agers 11 and 12 years old. Louise Barile editor of Tiger beat Magazine said that her readers have been getting younger Over the years until now the median age is 13. Quot kids Are a lot More sophisticated today Quot she said then quickly added Quot but crushes happen regardless of How sophisticated you a the acceleration of adolescence and the shrinking number of teen idols Are probably related. What girls Are looking for in teen idols May be practice boyfriends. Quot in their minds they re trying out what a real Boyfriend would be like but they re not really ready Quot Reisfeld said. Lisa Morra a sixth grader from basking Ridge n.j., who has a poster of the saved by the Bell Crew in her room said that what makes stars attractive to teen agers is Quot their attitude and the Way they act on the and she noted they have to be "cute.&Quot. At age 12, though Lisa said she thought her interest in teen stars was on the Wane. Quot i think when we were really the most excited about it was last year and the year before Quot she said. Virtually All teen fan magazines acknowledge a fall off in readership since new kids lost their Luster four years ago. Teen beat the Only Magazine for which audited sales figures Are available saw its average circulation drop 32 percent Between december 1992 and december 1993, going from 132,000 to 90,000. The culprit the teen press most often blames for this decline is radio. Over the last decade or so radio has become increasingly fragmented with top 40 stations giving Way to alternative music classic Rock hard Rock rap and country stations. The music from which teen idols Are made a songs like the Partridge family s i think i love you or new kids the right stuff a do not fit easily into any of these formats. And the music video channels avoid it As Well. Mtg Reisfeld said Quot could be very helpful Quot to the cause of creating new teen idols. But she said Quot they have absolutely no interest in cultivating that audience. Mtg has gone the generation a hipper than thou perhaps because of this hipness problem even some of today s teen idols seem ambivalent about being identified that. Way. Joey Lawrence who produced several popular songs in addition to starring on Blossom said that he was now focusing on moving beyond teen idol status. Quot the teen thing is something that is Cool for a while and then you grow out of it Quot he said. Quot there s a transition. The Lucky ones make it and survive and the ones that Don to Don idols past and present clockwise from above teens raved about the monkeys in 1967 Frank Sinatra is credited with beginning the phenomenon in the 1940s and Joey Lawrence May be among the last of the Breed. Abc file the new kids on the Block take in the sights of London during a tour in 1990. A amps Ken George Angela Harrop 15, keeps the lines of communication Busy in Germany. Teen agers and telephones an inseparable combo by Jerry Zezima the Stamford Conn advocate n March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made what was in effect the first Telephone Call. Everyone knows of course that Bell was trying to reach his assistant Thomas Watson. What most people Don t know is that when Bell spoke into his new invention and said Quot or. Wilson come Here i need you a he heard the voice of Watson s teen age daughter who replied Quot can i have my dad Call you Back or. Bell i m on with my Friend Jennifer. Thanks. Bye Quot. Poor Watson never again got another Telephone Call that was for him. Now More than 115 years later my wife and i find ourselves in the same situation the phone is never for us anymore. That s because we have two daughters Katie 13, and Lauren 11 a who spend about 98 percent of their non school waking hours talking on the Telephone. The situation has gotten so bad that i am now convinced that through a Fluke of nature a subsidiary of at amp tothe phone has evolved into a vital Organ. If for example you had to take a teen Ager or a pre teen to the Hospital for an Sci tests would reveal a Small phone shaped Organ located next to the spleen with an Extension leading directly to the brain. This has Given me a great idea for a new Telephone a feature the caller in which would enable Young people to have tiny phones surgically attached to their Heads so they could receive Calls intravenously without having to get up from in front of the television. Even on those rare occasions 2 a.m., for example when they Are not on the phone it does t pay to answer it. That s because it s never for me. Occasionally when the phone rings i have this fantasy Thabit is de Mcmahon or publishers Clearinghouse or the state lottery or someone representing some fantastic Giveaway contest calling to Tell me that i have won $87 billion and can collect Only if i answer the phone now so in a fit of Giddy anticipation i do answer it Only to hear a chirpy voice on the other end say Quot i is Katie there Quot most of the time even if i am sitting or standing right next to the phone when it rings i won t pick it up not just because it s never for me but because my daughters who ordinarily exhibit All the Speed and agility of wounded sloths have been known to answer the phone a Mere nanosecond after it rings. And it does. Incessantly sometimes one of my daughters will talk on the phone a Day with the same person. A this raises an interesting question what do they talk about answer about 20 minutes or longer. When out of curiosity i posed this question to my daughters Lauren said Katie was More forthcoming. She said As far As i can Tell there Are three main topics of Telephone conversation among teen age and pre teen girls / a . A soap operas. A school. A Troy Aikman. From the snippets of conversation i have been Able to pick up especially on those impressive occasions when one of my daughters has been talking on the phone and watching to at the same time i have concluded that a Jagger was dying on general Hospital. A All teachers Are it s a Good thing for Aikman that my daughters and their friends Don t have his Home phone number. To be fair i have been told that teen age and pre teen boys talk on the phone just As much As girls do. This is a new one on me because when i was a boy the length est Telephone conversation i had went something like this my Friend Frankie Wanna go outside and throw rocks at cars me sure Bye a. Today i live in fear that teen agers and pre teens will become emergency dispatchers meaning that when i tall 911 to report that i am having a heart attack i will invariably hear a chirpy voice on the other end say Quot i m on with my Friend Katie. Can you Call Back Quot a amps file 16 the stars and stripes saturday september 17, 1994 the stars and stripes 17
