The Smiley Smile Message Board

My sense of the fan base of the Beach Boys during the 60's is that their initial fans that they made during their surf/hot rod phase were mainly boys -- high school age and under. This was the most avid fan base the group ever gathered to itself -- the Beach Boys were pretty much it as far as these fans went. The Beach Boys and maybe Jan and Dean.

This fan base was then expanded to include girls as the band transitioned into love songs and songs about the teenage lifestyle in general. They held onto their initial fans  (who were perhaps a little less avid and exclusive than before ) while bringing in a whole new audience -- an audience that was also fans of the British invasion groups. This audience were fans of the Beach Boys while also being fans of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc. 'Twas a very exciting time for new music.

By '66 the whole fan phenomena had dissipated for the band. The Beach Boys still had the attention of the pop audience, but now it was all about the strength of the singles. As the band members married, the Teen Beat faction moved on. The hot rod faction had long since moved on as they grew older. The Beach Boys were still a top act, but now they were one of many as far as their audience went.

This post is long enough, I'll stop here -- but the shifts in their fan base as the 60's went on and turned into the early 70's remain fascinating (to me, at least).

The Beach Boys initial fan base were definitely not a majority of boys, their fan base probably skewed toward females by about 2/3 to 1/3. They were a hot teen trend in '62/63 and by early '64 their concerts were increasingly populated by screamers (not boys), and the majority of girl fans maintained into the '64 to '65 years, but probably balanced more after that as female affections drained toward other trendy groups on the scene.

Interesting. I would have thought that the appeal of songs like 'Little Deuce Coupe' and 'Shutdown' would have been skewed to the male demographic.

'Fun Fun Fun', 'Don't Worry Baby' and 'I Get Around' were early '64 car songs that strike me as extending a welcome to female listeners -- car songs for boys and girls both, but still mainly boys. By the time we get to 'When I Grow Up' and 'Dance Dance Dance' the appeal is meant to be equal for both genders.

Ahem! As Jon said, there were plenty of us female BB fans in the early days. Based on personal experience, I recall the audiences at '60s Memphis shows being about equally represented genderwise.

Two words: "Dennis Wilson"

That could be true but the songs you mention were the lesser hits, while surf related songs about the ocean, beach, surfer girls etc... were the bigger hits. Plenty of evidence of a near delirious female fan base at the group's concerts during the early to mid '60's.