As a journalist there are times I am surprised by what I learn
on my travels and other times by what I learn near
home. Navigating a crowded Congressional
hearing, avoiding insurgents in Fallujah, and driving through a
drug gang neighborhood in east Baltimore is one thing. Braving the
waiting line for a sold-out concert by a 15-year old Australian
heartthrob is another.
I agreed when my 13-year old daughter asked me to
accompany her and a couple of friends to a Cody Simpson concert at the
six-month old
Fillmore concert hall in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Silver
Spring, Maryland.
Simpson is not a mega pop star and the folks at
Entertainment Weekly may not even know his name, but he is
definitely an A-lister for 10-to-16 year old girls. He ranks
alongside Greyson
Chance, Victoria
Justice and British boy band One Direction (“1D” to
those in the know) — all well known by today’s teens.
It is refreshing in an era when so many rappers
preach misogyny or violence toward cops or when international stars
have their lives cut short due to drugs or alcohol abuse (here,
here)
that there are wholesome and well-behaved performers for the young
to idolize.
The Simpson concert was general admission, which
translates into just how early are parents willing to arrive and
stand in line prior to the doors opening one-hour before the 4:00
p.m. show? We reached the Fillmore at 11:30 a.m. with drinks,
snacks, folding chairs, a blanket and a generous supply of Hot
Hands chemical hand and foot warmers.
About 75 concertgoers were ahead of us. About
two-thirds of them were standing on the sidewalk along Colesville
Road in front of the theater entrance and — most importantly — in
the sun. We were in the line that
snaked around the corner onto Fremont Street, which was in the
shade with the afternoon sun heading in
the wrong direction. The 5-10 mph breeze and 46 degree temperature
made the air feel much chillier.
My daughter and her two friends were not appropriately
dressed for the weather. But neither were any of the other of
the hundreds of girls in attendance. There is a very distinct
uniform worn by the teenybopper segment of the population. Leggings
or blue jeans and a T-shirt from any of Aeropostale, Abercrombie
& Fitch or Hollister with a smattering of American Eagle and
Tommy Hilfiger were present. Anything adorned
with the Old Navy logo is so yesterday.
A plurality of girls were wearing homemade fan t-shirts
with the standard “I (heart) Cody Simpson” inscription in
florescent craft paint sprinkled with glitter. This proves
that GOP
presidential candidates attacked by homosexual activists aren’t
the only ones wearing glitter this time of year.
A pair of high-top Converse All Star sneakers or Uggs
boots and a North Face jacket completed the ensemble. A few
girls wore the brightly colored Pastry-brand
high-top sneakers. Simpson aficionados know that Simpson’s
younger sister models the footwear.
The other distinctive physical feature of these girls
would make an orthodontist proud. There was a virtual sea of braces
and retainers each time they smiled. Apparently, families content
with crooked teeth don’t attend Cody Simpson concerts.
Countless girls carried signs professing love and loyalty
and offering matrimony.
Most of the attendees were from the Baltimore-Washington
metroplex such as Annapolis, Bel Air, Mt. Airy, Severn, and Upper
Marlboro in Maryland, and Alexandria, Arlington, and Burke in
Virginia. Some drove longer distances. Two sisters and their
parents from Frackville, PA (about a three-hour drive) were first
in line, having arrived at 11:30 p.m. the night before. They
pitched a tent for the evening.
They were closely followed by five high school-aged girls from
Hanover, PA who arrived at midnight and by four girls from Front
Royal, VA who got in line at 1:00 am.
The tired looking Frackville dad sheepishly confessed he
couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to turn down his
daughters’ request to attend the concert with them. He should have
felt proud of himself since the typical teenage girl would have
preferred her dad stay home.
(It is unknown if the Obama Administration will shut-down
the entire town of Frackville,
accusing it of contaminating central Pennsylvania’s water
supply.)
There were a few other dads in line, but not many.
Most adults were moms. Teenage boys were
also rare although the one standing near us was there because his
girlfriend asked him to join her. He also told anyone willing to
listen that he looked just like Cody Simpson. He actually did
bear a strong resemblance.
Periodically, he would walk to the end of the line and
give a pop star wave to recently arrived attendees in the hope he
would be mistaken for the afternoon’s main attraction. High-pitched
screams quickly dissipated when girls realized he wasn’t the real
deal. The look on his girlfriend’s face suggested she didn’t
approve of his antics.
The Simpson lookalike confided to me he couldn’t close the
deal with the crowd because he couldn’t “Dougie,” a dance at which the
real Cody Simpson was quite proficient.
No doubt most girls in attendance suffered from an
affliction known as “fangirling.” It already has an Urban
Dictionary entry
and the term is also a common Twitter hashtag (#fangirling). For
those uninitiated in the world of Twitter this is a popular topic
that is tweeted often. Mostly by youthful
entertainers.
Fangirling is any activity characterizing a girl’s
obsession with an object such as the Twilight series of
movies, a boy band, or a teen singer. Attending concerts,
buying and wearing concert paraphernalia, creating Facebook fan
pages, following their objects of desire on Twitter, downloading
the latest songs from iTunes, and buying teen gossip magazines with
pertinent stories are but a few of the symptoms.
Hyperventilating, faces contorted with joy, screaming, and
crying are some examples of fangirl emotions. Think of how
the media behaves toward Barack Obama (here, here and here) and you have
a perfect image of fangirling.
My daughter and her friends abandoned me to hold their
places in the line and slipped off to the back of the Fillmore
where they saw the tour bus and met — the tour bus driver!
They excitedly informed me they actually spoke
with the man who adjusts the air conditioning and turns on and off
the bus turn signals when Cody Simpson is on the
road. Fangirling.
Just after 3:00 pm, when the doors to the Fillmore opened
most of the girls — seemingly in unison — whipped out their cell
phones to check battery life like a gunslinger inspecting his
six-shooter to ensure all chambers were loaded. The only thing
worse than not attending a Cody Simpson concert would be to get in
the door and be unable to take shaky photos to
later post on Facebook or tweet messages and pictures to their
friends while the concert was underway.
I waved goodbye to the girls as they entered the Fillmore
and then found a quiet place to warm up and ponder how I will
survive the next adolescent concert tour that comes to
town.
