What's the deal with boy bands?

I really don't understand this boy band thing! Now I have been guilty
of bopping my head to the latest popular tune that happens to be
playing on my car radio as I'm driving to or from work/school (ahhh...the
good ole days when I had a car!). I've never actively sought out that
type of music. Never bought it. Never researched online for news about
the band. Never attempted to go to a concert or hang up a poster on my
wall. I'm sure that we all (secretly) have our favorite song or group,
whatever the case may be...but I think some South Africans are taking
it a little too far.

For some reason or another, I thought that I would escape the pre-fab
song/hair/boy/wall poster/etc. that I had to suffer through since the
days of New Kids on the Block by joining up with Peace Corps South
Africa. I thought I'd be learning about a new culture through new
sights and sounds...things I've never heard before. Why is it then
that, earlier this week, as I was riding on a late-night taxi, did I
have to suffer from one taxi driver's attempt to be (what he thought
was) cool...one of those car-sized flattv monitors playing nothing but
back-to-back music videos of the Backstreet Boys. Additionally, if I
stay out in one of the various locations (townships) surrounding my
local community, why can I hear boy band songs being blasted throughout
the neighborhood at all hours of the day, particularly between the
hours of 8pm and 7am. Little did I know that finding something in
common with my local counterparts would be as simple as reciting the
lyrics to the song "I want it that way. Tell me why, ain'tnothin' but a heart ache...."

As is often said in South Africa, "Agh, Shame man!"