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Boy band
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A boy band, written in some countries boys band or boy's band, is a type of pop group featuring several young male singers. The members are generally expected to perform as dancers as well, often executing highly choreographed sequences to their own music. Although there are no distinct traits defining a boy band, one could label a band a "boy band" for following mainstream music trends, changing their appearances to adapt to new fashion trends, having elaborate dance moves, and performing elaborate shows.
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Encyclopedia
A boy band, written in some countries boys band or boy's band, is a type of pop group featuring several young male singers. The members are generally expected to perform as dancers as well, often executing highly choreographed sequences to their own music. Although there are no distinct traits defining a boy band, one could label a band a "boy band" for following mainstream music trends, changing their appearances to adapt to new fashion trends, having elaborate dance moves, and performing elaborate shows. They can evolve out of church choral or Gospel music groups, but are often put together by talent managers or record producers who audition the groups for appearance, dancing, rapping skills, and singing ability. Boy bands often seem to be prefabricated.
Most do not play musical instruments, and the acts are essentially vocal harmony groups (though there are some exceptions, such as groups like A1, The Moffatts, South 65, Marshall Dyllon, Busted or McFly). Due to this and their general commercial orientation towards a teenybopper, teens, or preteen audience, the term has negative connotations in music journalism. Boy bands are similar in concept to girl groups.
Top selling pop music boy bands
Top selling R&B music boy bands
| Boy Group | Sold | Genre | Studio Albums | Members | Years Active |
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| 1. Jackson Five | 90 million+ | R&B | 6 | 4 - 5 | 1969 - 1990 (21 years) |
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| 2. Boyz II Men | 85 million+ | R&B | 5 | 3 - 5 | 1990 - present (18 years)
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| 3. New Edition | 28 Million+ | R&B | 6 | 6 | 1983 - present (25 years) |
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Best-selling boy band albums
History
Maurice Starr is usually credited with starting the trend, with his protégé New Kids on the Block, though the term "boy band" did not exist until later in the 1990s. Starr's idea was to take the traditional template from the R&B genre (in this case his teenage band New Edition) and apply it to a pop genre. This formula was in turn redefined by a number of European managers beginning with Nigel Martin-Smith's Take That in the UK, followed by Louis Walsh and bands like East 17, which by the late 1990s, saw the UK pop marketplace saturated with the genre.
TV Producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson got four members to perform catchy pop tunes while also acting in a television series. The Monkees are often considered as the original pioneers among boy bands. Formed in 1965 the group disbanded in 1970. Although the term is mostly associated with groups from the 1990s onwards, antecedents exist throughout the history of pop music. The Temptations, popular in the 1960s, and The Bee Gees, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, and Earth, Wind and Fire, popular in the 1970s, have also been considered a form of boy band by some. Latino boy band Menudo was founded in 1977.
One of the most successful boy band managers is Lou Pearlman, who is responsible for extremely commercially successful acts such as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC until he was convicted of fraud. In the UK, producer Simon Cowell (noted in the U.S. for the American Idol/Pop Idol franchise) is also known for having managed boyband Westlife, which was created by Louis Walsh and promoted by a former boy band member Ronan Keating of Boyzone.
Since 2001, the dominance of traditional boy bands on pop charts began to fade to be replaced by what Gil Kaufman of MTV describes as "new boy bands" that are "more likely to resemble Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan or Dashboard Confessional".
Current boy bands
Backstreet Boys, Varsity Fanclub, Take That, B2K, New Kids on the Block, Boyzone and Westlife are some examples, which are still popular among teens and adults. Boy bands are beginning to peak again in the United States after a 5 year mainstream absence, such as the new R&B/Pop influenced boy bands like Menudo, NLT, Lexington Bridge, US5, C Note, Day26, Varsity Fanclub and B5. Boybands in Asia continue to do well in the mainstream market as popular groups such as Arashi, NEWS, KAT-TUN, TVXQ, and Fahrenheit continue to release chart-topping material in different countries of Asia.
Music genres
Although most boy bands consist of R&B influences, other music genres, most notably power pop, country music, folk music and pop rap are also represented. South 65 and Marshall Dyllon, for example, were both considered country music boy bands. Il Divo, created by Simon Cowell, are a boy band that perform Operatic pop. Since 2001 there has been some crossover with power pop and pop punk, though this is obviously from boy bands that play live instruments. One key convention for boy bands to follow is to follow what genres are fashionable, as opposed to creating something original. For example, as of 2008, boy bands often imitate pop punk, 1960's garage rock, post punk revivalists, pop rap, power pop (a perennial genre) and dance-punk.
Criticism
Boy bands tend to be heavily criticized by some in the musical press for appealing to young pubescent girls and for emphasizing marketing and packaging over quality of music. Such views are reflected in the humorous definition in the Chambers Dictionary: "a pop group, targeting mainly the teenage market, composed of young males chosen because they look good and can dance and sometimes even sing."
In the 1990s, boy bands such as the Backstreet Boys and Lyte Funky Ones sometimes found the term "boy band" offensive and insisted on being called a "male vocal group".
Some critics compare boy band output to the "machine-generated" popular music found in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, noting that much of their music (as well as the bands' composition) is extremely formulaic. Other critics point to boy bands (and related musical groups) as case studies in commercialism and postmodernism, with little cultural content. Such criticisms can become extremely scathing:
Pop culture influence
Due to their pre-fab nature, boy bands are not only a frequent target of criticism, but also a frequent source of parody in popular culture, ranging from the television series 2ge+her (which created a parody boy band with five personality types) to a week-long spoof in 1999, wherein talk show host Conan O'Brien, inspired by Making the Band, created his own boy band called Dudez-A-Plenti, after randomly selecting five singers, narrowed down from the population of the entire world. A series of sketches culminated in a performance of a song O'Brien apparently made up himself: "Baby, I Wish You Were My Baby".
Further examples of boy band parodies in pop culture include:
- The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a fictional boy band named "Du Jour." Their hit single, "Backdoor Lover," satirizes the effeminate style of many boy bands and their members.
- In the Justice League Unlimited universe, superhero The Question firmly believes (among his numerous conspiracy theories), that there is an ominous link between boy bands and global warming.
- In the Boyz 'N Commotion episode of the Disney Channel series That's So Raven, Raven wants a boy band named the Boyz in Motion to perform in front of her friends. In another episode, Raven wants the Boyz in Motion to perform in an emergency plan video for Donna Cabonna. The Boyz in Motion are sometimes referred to as The Boyz.
- Eminem lyric from "The Real Slim Shady" states "I am sick of you little girl and boy groups, all you do is annoy me"
- Australian film BoyTown is about a fictional boyband who had their golden age in the 1980s, and reform to sing songs about divorce and picking the kids up from school and to go on one last tour.
- New Zealand radio station The Edge created a cliché boyband, called Boyband in 2006. It consisted of Fat Boy, Gay Boy, Mummy's Boy, Bad Boy and Hot Boy. They achieved a small success in the country, with their cover of The Kinks' song "You Really Got Me" reaching number one on the New Zealand music charts for one week.
- The Arrogant Worms made a parody song called "Boy Band" which includes lyrics such as "Cause we're singing in a boy band, the words are stupid and the music's bland".
- The song "Title of the Song" by comedic a cappella band Da Vinci's Notebook provides a line-by-line dissection of the themes commonly found in boy band songs. (Example lyrics: "Acknowledgment that I acted foolishly / Increasingly desperate pleas for your return / Sorrow for my infidelity / Vain hope that my sins are forgivable / Appeal for one more opportunity / Drop to my knees to elicit crowd response / Prayers to my chosen deity / Modulation and I hold a high note")
Success in the genre
Though some fans are wildly supportive of the music, the commercial success of specific boy bands does not tend to last long. As the fans (mostly teen girls) age and musical tastes evolve, they tend to outgrow such groups' appeal. If success is sustained, often one or more members of the band will leave and seek a solo career (particularly if they have some songwriting ability), often with some success, for instance: Michael Nesmith, Jordan Knight, Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, Jesse McCartney, Ronan Keating, Brian McFadden, Nick Lachey
Others have gone on to success in other areas. For example, Mickey Dolenz went on to become a successful television producer and theatre director. David W. Ross, formerly of Bad Boys Inc, has become an actor and screenwriter.
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