Before I give you an account of what kind of guy I usually fancy these days, it’s important for you to know where I come from.

Liking a band has always had to do with me crushing on the lead singer – or one equally popular member – of a band.

During the recent refurbishmean of my room and finally getting around to sorting my CD collection, I made some interesting discoveries.

I didn’t listen to completely different genres all of the time; some sort of guitar and drum sounds were always involved (except for the odd boygroup I liked). Funnily enough, it were always the bands my peers would give me funny looks for or make fun of.

1. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 1: Zac Hanson.

I have to warn you: The long hair, amongst other things, becomes a pattern.

Zac Hanson, then and now.

When Hanson got famous in Europe in the summer of 1997, fan-girling got to a whole new level for me. Hanson were everywhere and I was hardcore crushing on little Zac, the goofy kid who, despite being a boy, looked so much like a girl.What I liked about him particularly was that he could crack a joke at any time of the day, in any situation and no one went mad at him.

When he put all his hair into tiny braids – guess what Anisha did then.

Today, I still own all of their CDs but I do not follow their musical career too much anymore (although I follow them on Twitter.). Each year at Christmas, I pull out their Christmas record, ‘Snowed In’ because I think it is one of the best Christmas CDs that is out there. I’m all for unique and unusual sounds at that time of the year.

Their progress from 1997 to today, it is simply amazing. They’re going to play The Bamboozle New Jersey this summer, which is kind of ridiculous because they’ll be right their on stage with artists I’ve only learned to love recently.

As for Zac – if I had to choose, I’d probably go for Taylor now. But I am impressed with all of them having their little families today, especially Zac because I’ll always see that 13-year-old goofball in him.

2. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 2: Scott Moffatt.

I did say the long-ish hair became a pattern, right? Also the band made up out of brothers became a bit of a pattern for me.

Scott Moffatt, back in the day and a newer photo

To be honest – I don’t even know what to say about this dude. He played the guitar and sang cheesy lyrics and that is, even today, enough to make my heart melt. At 13, what was I supposed to do other than fall for blinding, white teeth and a… rebelious hair style?

I am not sure what he does now – there is a MySpace profile for his music and I heard he went to Thailand at one point too.

What I know is that ‘The Moffatts’ broke up soon after I gave up my love for them.

3. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 3: Shifty

At one point, after I was through with all the boygroup lads, I made a U-turn to the other sida and lost my heart to the bad boys.

Seth 'Shifty' Binzer

Shifty was one of the lead members of the band ‘Crazy Town‘. That body! Those tattoos! And the troubled life! Poor tortured soul!

My cousin had no understanding for my undying love of Shifty or the Crazy Town music (and trust me, I tortured her for two very long weeks in Italy!), nor did any of my other friends. And even I didn’t really understand what it was exactly that made me dig tattoos suddenly and people with a somewhat questionable past.

The songs were – well. What do you expect from a song entitled ‘Lollipop Porn‘? Why in the world does a fifteen year-old girl listen to songs that objectify women in that way? And why should all of the above matter to said girl if one of the guys has that kind of a hot body?

Yeah. I was probably more into the tats and the body than the entire band but ‘Butterfly’ was quite the hit, right? And I love it whenever it comes up on the playlist at work (oddly, there’s ‘Revolving Door’ on the computer too).

To see Shifty years later on a programme like ‘Celebrity Rehab‘ was… anti-climatic. It wasn’t like I didn’t know about said past but – I really wished to be able to turn back time and go back to the months when he looked healthy and had fun on stage.

4. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 4: Gareth Gates.

Once I’d gotten over my short stint with the ‘bad boys’, I was back to admiring beautifully sleek guys.

Gareth Gates, runner-up in Pop Idol and now proud dad

Gareth also fell into the time when I decided that I wanted to better my English considerably – which is why I know about all his lyrics by heart (as I translated them all).

He was the cute kid with a stutter and those really amazing songs. And he also had that really amazing fanbase with all those welcoming ladies, but that’s beside the point.

I think what I liked most about him was that we all knew so much about his past, family and life.

Which guys did you dig when you were a teenager?

Move on to Part 2 in the series.