APRIL 2023

Until recently, The Bachelor was simply a fixture within pop culture I knew nothing about. In many ways, it still is. I’ve seen clips and episodes, but always had a weird feeling about the dynamic of one man on top with women flocking around him and catering to his whims. I have, however, recently indulged myself in The Bachelorette, and I’ve found that it’s really all I’m able to talk about right now. It’s so fascinating from a psychological standpoint to see the kinds of people who sign up to be part of such an intense and unorthodox TV show with the goal of finding a wife. The strategies, successes, and failures of the contestants are ones that should be studied by anyone interested in the extremes of relationship dynamics and human interaction. For reference, I’ll be using what is not only the best season of Bachelorette, but a turning point in the show’s history: Season 15, starring Hannah Brown. There will be spoilers. 

For those who have never watched, the premise of The Bachelorette stars an ex-contestant of The Bachelor and around 25 men. Each episode encapsulates a week filled with group dates, where the men compete in an activity of the woman’s choosing to win her affections; one-on-ones, where the bachelorette picks one man with whom to spend an evening; and downtime at wherever it is that they’re staying. On Hannah Brown’s season, the cast traveled to places like Scotland, Latvia, and the exotic Rhode Island. When men are successful in winning the bachelorette’s affections, they receive roses. Group dates end with a cocktail party and one rose given to the best competitor, one-on-ones end with the man either receiving a rose or going home (or sometimes begging to stay and succeeding), and the end of each week’s episode has a final rose ceremony and cocktail party where the men who did not receive roses during group dates or were not invited on any outing can have a final chance to prove themselves. If they don’t receive a rose in any format by the end of the week, their fate is sealed and they must go home. Multiple men can go home in a week, and seasons typically last around eight weeks depending on the number of contestants and other unique circumstances. 

There are three main courses of action for male contestants on The Bachelorette. For the first, Luke P. of Season 15 is a prime example. This path generally begins with the man thinking he knows far more than he actually does. Luke claimed to be falling in love with Hannah during his first group date, having known her personally for around 36 hours and a total of two conversations. This was his first mistake. It became clear he spent weeks before the show pouring over her social media accounts and past appearances on TV, forming a parasocial relationship and assuming the face she shows the public is her realest and truest self. He then realized that he had signed up for a TV show in which one woman dates 25 men at the same time, and took his frustration in sharing out on the other contestants. He quickly became aggressive, getting in physical altercations, and was described as violent, psychopathic, and manipulative by the other men. On two separate occasions, Luke was sent home and simply refused to leave. It took until the final episode of the season (along with some strong-arming from the three remaining men) to finally get him off the show. His ability to bend the truth and throw out other men’s names behind their backs kept him in the competition for far longer than anyone wanted, including Hannah. This relentless and aggressive attitude always backfires for men because it creates drama within the house that spreads into every relationship. Even when the bachelorette herself tells the contestant that their behavior is unattractive and they need to stop, they cannot help themselves, and the behavior continues until they leave. 

The second course of action, similar to the first, is one of an appeasing chameleon. The chameleon’s actions are always fueled by misinterpretations of things that the bachelorette offhandedly says she likes in a man. A perfect example of this from Hannah’s season is Cam. Although his time on the show is short lived, it is memorable because of his immediate position as the common enemy of the other men in the house. Cam arrived on the show having been given a rose already by Hannah on After The Final Rose, where ex-contestants attempt to once again find love. This gave him the idea that he was already leaps and bounds ahead of the other men. He was not. To make things worse, Cam’s motto on the show, “ABC: Always Be Cam”, was one he would repeat every single time he was on his way to perform a grand gesture that would ultimately fall flat. For the first one, he decided to show up to the cocktail party of a group date on which he wasn’t invited and crash conversations with the men that Hannah had brought, simply because she had mentioned she wanted the men to be “bold” and “real” with her. This angered all of the men in the house and put him on the outs. The second time he failed was when he brought Hannah and another man along to fake propose to her with a piece of chicken in a ring box. This had absolutely no significance to anything they’d spoken about before, any activity they’d done together, or frankly anything that had happened on the show prior to. It was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved apart from Cam. Further, Cam and Hannah’s conversations were constantly about all of the horrible things Cam had been through and done to get on the show, and at one point he attempted to break up four separate conversations to tell Hannah he had quit his job and rehomed his puppy to be there. Which is a shame, because all of the sob stories came off to her as a scummy attempt to get a pity rose and she sent him home. 

The final prevalent archetype on The Bachelorette is the golden child. Every contestant on the show has faults except for this one. The golden boy of Season 15 was Peter the pilot. Peter did everything right. His opening, giving Hannah a pair of pilot’s wings, was sweet and memorable, but not too intense like Luke’s one-liner or overly sentimental like Cam’s acoustic rap. Peter involved himself in none of the drama, even when Luke physically assaulted another contestant during their rugby match in Rhode Island. When all of the men focused their attention on conflict and drama between contestants, he consistently focused on his individual relationship with Hannah and never questioned her judgment of the others. During hometowns week, where Hannah visits the families of the final four men and goes on a date planned by them for once, Pete and his family were undeniably the sweetest and most well-adjusted of the bunch. At the risk of being boring, the golden child forfeits all possible memorability in the beginning few episodes to become a reliable rock of a partner by the end. Consistency is always key. Obviously, every season has variations on these archetypes, and as the show continues and men evolve there will be more personalities that become recognizable each time. In fact, I would encourage anyone interested in topics like male vs female socialization, interpersonal relationships, the effects of competition on the moral character, group mentalities and dynamics, and gender studies to view The Bachelorette and The Bachelor with a more critical, academic lens. I would further urge you to find me and talk to me about your findings; you’ll soon discover the show’s long episodes and fast-moving plotlines have a way of taking over your brain for the duration of your binge. Hence this article. Start with Season 15.

Natick High School offers so many musical opportunities for students playing virtually every instrument under the sun. Natick students are incredibly fortunate to have access to so many choirs and bands. There are the two instrumental ensemble groups (Wind Ensemble and Concert Band), an intro to band class, Jazz Ensemble, String Orchestra, Musae, Concert Choir… the list goes on and on. However, despite the impressive number of groups that are offered here, rarely does NHS offer classes that combine instrumentalists, singers, and dancers all in one. West Street stands alone in that category.

West Street Singers is a class open to any grade level, but requires an audition to get in. However, according to Samantha Smith ’23, the audition process is nothing to worry about. Students must submit a small video of them dancing along to choreography and singing an assigned piece. Instead of scary, she argues “it [was] a very comfortable experience that [she] really enjoyed.” This even applied to the performers who were mostly new to dancing. Throughout the West Street Singers class, students improve their singing and dancing skills to the tune of a variety of different genres. In just five songs, this year’s West Street Singers have performed blues, pop, rock, and even Motown. This is one of the most exciting aspects of West Street, and it brings out different sides of each of the performers. JJ Gilbert ’23, choreographer and co-captain for West Street, argues that “so many styles can speak to a person and so many styles can allow people to express themselves”, so West Street’s diverse setlist is not an inconvenience; it’s a blessing. 

Joining the West Street Singers is West Street Sounds, a small accompanying band that plays in all of their concerts and competitions. Unlike West Street Singers, this group rehearses after school and is not a year-round commitment, although once competition season begins in early March, it takes up a significant portion of time. This can be beneficial for instrumentalists with little time to fully commit to a group year-round, but it stings all the more when it’s over. Speaking as their trombone player, West Street Sounds is really unique in the fact that each individual in the band is irreplaceable. Unlike the forty-person bands that most wind players are accustomed to, this year’s West Street Sounds was nine people. This makes it all the more important for instrumentalists to nail their parts; doing so can be the difference between dead last and a podium finish at a competition. 

At first, I was intimidated by this aspect of West Street Sounds. After all, the pressure of doing well is already high in a concert with dozens of people playing a similar part. How much more intimidating would it be to mess up on a stage where everyone is counting on me to get every note right? However, as I got more and more comfortable with my bandmates, I realized that I needed to look at this pressure in a different way. Instead of focusing on all the mistakes I might make, I chose to see it as an opportunity to learn my part and make a huge difference in the sound of the band, something that’s less possible to do in the ensemble groups where each individual’s sound rarely has a dramatic effect on the band overall. Taking this pressure off my back helped me have way more fun in the band.

The competitions themselves are exhilarating. Although every member of West Street was told this ahead of time by Ms. Burns, the director of West Street Singers and West Street Sounds, nothing could compare to what playing on those big stages was actually like. When every performance group came out, a loudspeaker introduced the group while fluorescent lights beamed down at the audience and moved all around the auditorium. When the announcer was finished, the lights went dark. Then, slowly, a circular white light appeared to showcase all of the performers. Singer and dancer for West Street, Elizabeth "Quigs" Quigley '25, believes these dramatic introductions “fill [performers] with adrenaline and get [them] pumped for the next set”, an important part of getting those elusive trophies, which West Street has had no problem doing: they’ve won four competitions in two short years.

Once we finished our performance, we headed back to our designated room, where the singers and dancers got changed and returned to the auditorium to watch the next groups until it was time to go. Because West Street is a smaller group, we were one of the first presenters, so we had to watch most of the groups after we had already performed. Some newcomers had thought that this would be the low point of the night, but many West Street students argue that it’s the exact opposite. JJ Gilbert defends watching the singers after, saying “it’s probably one of [his] favorite things to do”. Watching all of the passion and hard work these groups put in makes it feel like “you’re dancing alongside them”.

I think another reason it’s so fun to watch other groups is because of how great the community is. I know that there have been an infinite number of spotlight articles just like mine that talk about how friendly and welcoming everyone is in every club, but West Street (and show choir in general) fosters some of the most friendly people I’ve ever met. Not only is everyone in West Street super accepting and kind—to the point where I have quite literally made close friends in the span of ten minutes—but the show choirs from other schools are also incredibly skilled and friendly. Singer and dancer for West Street Anna Loughran echoes this sentiment, emphasizing how “everyone has been super talented and has such a drive and passion”. Anna also loves how “fun it is to meet new people” in show choir. One specific interaction that has never left my brain was when JJ walked over to greet a group that he really enjoyed watching, Paramount. Instead of saying thank you and moving on with their day, members from Paramount took the time to compliment specific things they liked about West Street’s performance, which led to JJ and a few others from Paramount beginning a conversation as if they had been long-time friends.

Overall, there’s an incredible amount of positivity that radiates in show choir. Whether it’s the excellently produced competitions, the positive communities at West Street and other groups around New England, or simply the comfort of playing in a smaller band where each player is filling in an entire section, it’s impossible to not fall in love with show choir.