15 Gets You 20: Rock & Roll Jailbait Through The Years

theprettyreckless.com

​Friday night, The Pretty Reckless (above) pulls into town for a gig at House of Blues. The band, led by Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen, is known largely for the 17-year-old singer's penchant for wearing something resembling lingerie, chain-smoking and basically being a teen badass. Like that Tori Scott girl from Saved By the Bell (the chick in the leather jacket Zach dated), but with more fishnets and sass.

Momsen is just another in a long-line of musical jailbait, both male and female, tantalizing and alternately creeping out all of us who are old enough to know better. There is something to said about performers whose handlers let them cultivate such a steamy image at an early age. When you dress someone up like a fame-weary adult when their peers are still living at home and popping zits, it's bound to cause confusion.

Also, it makes money. Ask Kim Fowley.

​Just look at shows like Toddlers & Tiaras, and the parents who dress up their toddlers as beauty queens. We live in a sickly hypersexualized world, but in Momsen's case, it's more style than exploitation. She has more of a Cherie Currie/Runaways thing going on, and her look isn't that far from most "scene" girls you can see at your local Hot Topic.

In a recent GQ interview, Billy Ray Cyrus laments the turn of his daughter Miley Cyrus to the dark side of leather and questionable clothing choices, after an adolescence spent as Hannah Montana. To be fair, the Montana character seemed always like about 30 in that wig, but maybe that's what the producers were going for.

wolfgangsvault.com

​A group of strapping Latino boys will sell records in any decade. The long-running Menudo stayed relevant by kicking out members once they hit age 16, starting sprouting a moustache, or woke up with a bassy rumble in their throat. Veterans of the original Menudo platoon, which ran from 1977 to 1997, included Ricky Martin and Robi Rosa. A new cast was assembled in 2007, but only lasted two years.