ABSTRACT

In this chapter author going to ask whether it is the case that boys are condemned to be angels or nothing at all in their singing. In some ways, this is a curious question to ask for as we have seen, in the Christian bible, angels are adult men, yet it was the Christian church that first gave us the idea that boys head voices were those of angels. The boy with the high voice was, whatever his actual age, still a child, whilst the boy with the lower, changing voice was publicly well on his way to manhood. The lyrics of the song clearly confirm that Tom has come under the influence of a pop producer whose commercial instinct is to promote the kind of hegemonic masculinity that regularly positions females as passive, dupe consumers of 'cute' young male bodies, and is critiqued by Bayton or Bennett. Social play remains important throughout the life-cycle of boyhood.