The right direction

Contrary to what you may have heard, I usually don't make a habit of looking to boy bands for positive messages in an otherwise cynical and demanding world. But as you know, I have a 13-year old daughter (who is also quite the poet), and boy bands just come with the territory.

I file it under things could be worse: at least it's not non-stop Justin Bieber. Anymore.

Anyway, in a rare moment of good parenting I thought I should take a listen to what's blasting out her headphones and into her brain. And since One Direction's the group she's crazy about right now, that's where I began. I'll admit I was cynical about them right from the get go. Even though they've sold over 15 million albums, they've only been a group for a little under two years. And they only became one after Simon Cowell told them that if they wanted to return to X-Factor, they'd have perform together instead of individually.

Of course, thanks to my daughter, I'd heard their first all-handclaps-and-percussion monster hit You Don't Know You're Beautiful a bazillion times. I never paid much attention to the lyrics, because first, since when have boy bands been about lyrics? And second, none of them sound like Springsteen. But when I found this song of theirs called Little Things, I started to see an encouraging pattern.

It's about a girl who isn't in any way happy about her appearance, and how her boyfriend loves her and thinks she's perfect because of all the things she doesn't like about herself. I went back and listened to their first hit, and realized it was also telling girls that others can see the beauty in them even if they don't see it in themselves.

I know, I have way too much free time on my hands.

Still, as any dad will tell you, these are big issues in their daughters lives.

I was discussing it with my wife, saying that it's a great message considering their audience is screaming, teenage girls. Fortunately, my wife as she so often does, set me straight.

She said the songs aren't targeted to teenage girls.

They're for every woman.