Review: “I Used to Be Normal” is a deep dive into supposedly shallow waters
The boy band is a phenomenon to which no one seems to be a stranger. Most living people have likely encountered it for themselves, through classmates growing up, or through their children. It’s frequently mocked and parodied, and certainly not without reason. Unfortunately, some of the biggest reasons turn out to be misogynistic and just plain mean the more you think about them. I was guilty of it in high school; though a good amount of my friends were One Direction fans, I took the low-hanging fruit of dismissing any and all mainstream boy band music as trite or immature. This was in the latter part of my “real music” phase, when I had a particular interest in The Beatles. Whether I was oblivious to or actively ignoring the fact that they originated the idea of the modern boy band, I don’t totally remember.
In any case, I eventually learned to just let people like whatever harmless, catchy music they liked, and the reasons to relax and at least accept the existence of those monarchs of tween pop are carefully and thoughtfully examined in Australian director Jessica Leski’s documentary, I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, which breaks down the cliche of the crazed fan to assert not only their validity, but their complexity.
The subjects of this film would likely be the first to admit that boy bands have an at least partially manufactured image designed to appeal to young women and girls. There is a reason to poke fun at them, and a lot of their fans don’t take themselves all that seriously, either. But despite acknowledging the reasons some of us are inclined to make fun of the music, I Used to Be Normal dedicates a good amount of time to questioning how that became many people’s first instinct. I’d say the only notable flaw of the film is that it glosses over the more toxic elements of fandom and how it affects the very real people in the spotlight, but to be fair the same problems are prevalent in just about every fanbase in existence.
The women followed in the film — a teenage One Direction fan, two young adult fans of The Backstreet Boys and Take That respectively, and an older Beatles fan — will readily admit that some of the activities they participated in are somewhat silly, but through their love of a popular but oft-dismissed form of media we start to understand them as individuals. I won’t give away what specifically is discussed in the documentary, but I will say that once you’ve passed the various explanations as to where they all came from, what got them into their favorite bands, and how they interact with other fans, you viscerally feel the highs and lows of their personal lives. Through that, you gain a deeper understanding and respect for their fandom, and you quickly see beyond the surface-level stereotype of the obsessed tween girl to find four completely layered and intelligent women who found an outlet for expression and emotion in a purposefully non-threatening subgenre of pop music.
Being on the autism spectrum has often led me to fixate on some interests people my age wouldn’t normally be expected to think much about. Throughout middle and high school these could range from VeggieTales to Mr. Peabody and Sherman to South Park (though the last was popular in my class, it wasn’t so much with my gender in that environment). At a certain point I learned to avoid talking about them so much even with my close friends, because I didn’t seem to know when to stop or how embarrassing it sounded sometimes. I’ve learned since that the feeling is universal to an extent — that you have to hold back on something you’re passionate about that maybe you can’t even explain. And although there are always others with the same interests and level of passion, it can feel like there are more who are ready to look down on you for it.
Though there are a fair amount of us who just never got into One Direction, N*SYNC, or whatever band was popular with girls of our generation, there’s a clear relatability in many of the experiences documented by Leski. For my classmates in middle school, it was Justin Bieber or Big Time Rush, and for me, it was Taylor Swift, Avril Lavigne, Demi Lovato, and The Beatles. For my friends now, it’s anime, superhero movies, video games, musicals, or certain periods of history. We can ridicule the people who buy into the most mainstream and seemingly simple of media, but at a certain point we have to face the fact that there’s really not that much separating them from us. And if you want something that analyzes and validates those fans in a thoughtful and personal way, this is something for you to look at.
‘I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story’ will be released on digital platforms September 17.
A senior at Hollins University whose penchant for Disney led into a love for all things film. Amateur film critic/essayist and aspiring screenwriter/director. View all posts by Mary McKeon
Originally published at http://miseensense.wordpress.com on September 15, 2019.
