Dream Street and Jesse McCartney

Dream Street and Jesse McCartney by Nicole Ruikka

I think almost every girl in our generation would recognize the song "It Happens Every Time" or as my roommate called it 'the Dream Street' song.

"It Happens Every Time" - Dream Street

 Dream Street was a band that, as girls, we remember and love because it had the cute boys our age, and lyrics that really made us feel special. When the producers were picking members for Dream Street "a primary qualification for Dream Street was that you had to be a real boy" (White). The producers wanted a band that girls could fall in love with and therefore have a possibility of gaining the popularity of Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC (White). Girls really did go crazy for the band, but in 2002 "Dream Street broke up in the wake of a legal battle between the boys' parents and the band's producers" (White). Almost all the boy bands during our childhood broke up and many of the members went off to have solo careers. One of the members of Dream Street, Jesse McCartney went on to influence the girl population of this generation with song that were also targeted at capturing the hearts of teenage girls.

Since we heard and loved him in the '90s, when Jesse McCartney came out with his first album in 2004, girls were crazy for it. The lyrics in his songs make girls feel beautiful and wanted, his song "Because You Live," makes girls fantasize about how they one-day hope to have someone feel that way about them. As children and young women, listening to songs about love shape our perception of how it is supposed to be and feel.

"Because You Live" - Jesse McCartney

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

"Beautiful Soul" - Jesse McCartney

The clip above of Jesse McCartney singing "Beautiful Soul" on the children's show The Suite Life of Zack & Cody shows how crazy fan girls can be in order to see and listen to him sing. Shows and clips like this, make it seem like it is okay to be an obsessed fan girl. When girls you look up to in shows and media act a certain way, you want to be just like them, so you are more likely to go listen to the artist they are obsessing over, which makes the artist even more popular with the people. 

One of Jesse's other songs "Why Don't You Kiss Her" was on the children's show Kim Possible. This song talks about how the boy is in love with his best friend and so he should tell her how he feels. I know when I heard that song, especially as I watched that show (yes, I did watch it), that my heart was in it and I wanted Ron and Kim to be together. I really believe that the music, especially background music for shows, effects how we view the situation that is happening on screen. 

Kim Possible

"Why Don't You Kiss Her" - Jesse McCartney

Dream Street, Jesse McCartney, and other boy bands have all affected the way we look at love and the way we respond to it. Research shows that "music and song lyrics have the ability to influence people’s behaviour" (Guéguen). Whether that means being an obsessed fan girl because you love the music so much, or fantasizing about what your future man will be like, I think that is the way that most of these boy bands have influenced us, by capturing our hearts and minds.

Guéguen, Nicolas, Céline Jacob, and Lubomir Lamy. "'Love Is in the Air': Effects of Songs with Romantic Lyrics on Compliance with a Courtship Request." Psychology of Music. Sage Journals, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://pom.sagepub.com/content/38/3/303.short>.

White, Emily. "THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 12-8-02: KIDS; After They Were Stars."The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Dec. 2002. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-12-8-02-kids-after-they-were-stars.html?pagewanted=all>.