Boy band

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A boy band is a type of pop group usually featuring three to five young male singers, though it can go up to six, like bands like Shinhwa, KAT-TUN, or (as of 2007) New Edition, which was originally a trio but originally recorded as a quintet. Or even seven, like Naturally 7. It also can feature only 2 members, like Wham. It is disputed whether or not music groups that have more than five members should be considered boybands, such as Super Junior who have 13 members. 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 of boy bands, one could label a band a "boy band" for following mainstream music trends, changing their appearances to adapt to new fashion trends, having elaborate dancers, and performing elaborate shows. They can evolve out of church choral or Gospel music groups, but are often put together by managers or producers who audition the groups for appearance, dancing, rapping skills, and singing ability, and often seem to be prefabricated. But one thing that they all seem have in common is that the have 3-6 members, they sing, and they dance.

Although they are referred to as "bands", they rarely play instruments, and the acts are essentially vocal harmony groups (though there are some exceptions, such as groups like A1 ). Due to this and the fact that the acts are generally aimed at a teenybopper or preteen audience, the term has negative connotations in the rock press. Boy bands are similar in concept to girl groups. Some people refer to boy bands as boy groups, male vocal groups or guy groups.

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".

1 History
2 Key factors of the concept
3 Criticism
4 Pop culture influence
5 Success in the genre
6 Notable Boy Bands
7 External links

[edit] History

Maurice Starr is usually credited with starting the trend, with his protégés 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 such as Nigel Martin-Smith and Louis Walsh, until the UK pop marketplace was 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 should be considered the original pioneers among boy bands. Formed in 1965 the group disbanded in 1970, the term is mostly associated with groups from the 1990s onwards, antecedents exist throughout the history of pop music. The Beatles, The Beach Boys and 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 been considered a form of boy band by some. Latin boy band Menudo was founded in 1977.

The most famous boy band manager is Lou Pearlman, responsible for extremely commercially successful acts such as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. In the UK, producer Simon Cowell (noted in the U.S. for the American Idol/Pop Idol franchise) is known for having produced uberboyband Westlife, which was created by Louis Walsh and promoted by a former boyband member Ronan Keating of Boyzone.

[edit] Key factors of the concept

Seen as important to a "boy band" group's commercial success is the group's image, carefully controlled by managing all aspects of the group's dress, promotional materials (which are frequently supplied to teen magazines), and music videos. Typically, each member of the group will have some distinguishing feature and be portrayed as having a particular personality stereotype, such as "the baby," "the bad boy," or "the nice boy." While managing the portrayal of popular musicians is as old as popular music, the particular pigeonholing of band members is a defining characteristic of boy and girl bands.

In most cases, their music is written, arranged and produced by a producer who works with the band at all times and controls the group's sound - if necessary, to the point of hiring session singers to record guide vocals for each member of the group to sing individually if the members cannot harmonize together well.

A typical boy band performance features elaborately choreographed dancing, with the members taking turns singing and/or rapping (though in some cases and as with many pop acts such as Jessica Simpson, they are lip-syncing to pre-recorded vocals). Boy bands generally do not compose or produce their own material, unless the members lobby hard enough for creative control (e.g. The Monkees and 'N Sync).

The key factor of a boy band is being trendy. This means that the band conforms to the most recent fashion and musical trends in the popular music scene. This has been stretched into more recent times, as the stereotypical boy band has died away, giving way for bands such as Hellogoodbye to lead the "boy band" ideal in a more intense way.

[edit] Criticism

Boy bands tend to be heavily criticized by some in the musical press for appealing to young pubescent girls for seeming to emphasize 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."

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:

After scouring the country for five boys who could belt out tunes while doing the splits, (Lou Pearlman) assembled a clean-cut collection of effeminate white and Latino-looking boys, all pink cheeks and crew cuts with peroxided tips. Just like the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, there's the cute blond guy, one with curly hair, the dark one with big dimples, the guy with the funny facial hair and the less cute, but really sensitive, guy.

Pearlman herded them into a tiny apartment, forcing these guys in their late teens and early 20s to share bedrooms (hey, less opportunity for illicit sexual activity - at least with the opposite sex), and forbade them to stay out past midnight. He dressed them in coordinated red and silver "rave" outfits and spoon-fed them sugary-sweet lyrics like "Would I cross an ocean just to hold you ... Would I give up all I have to see you smile?" And then he set them loose on concert halls full of 12-year-old girls, who dutifully screamed their lungs out in a kind of mass orgasm fueled by all that scrubbed-clean testosterone. (Janelle Brown, "Sluts and Teddy Bears," Salon.com, 2001).

[edit] 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, complaining that he couldn't find a decent "musical guest" for his show, created his own boy band, Dudez-A-Plenti, after randomly selecting five out-of-work actors. A series of humorous sketches ensued, culminating in a Friday 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 Norwegian movie Get Ready to be Boyzvoiced [1] is a mockumentary about the boy band Boyzvoice, their fans and management.

In South Park, Cartman formed a boy band named Fingerbang.

The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a fictional boy band named "Du Jour."

In The Simpsons, Bart is recruited to a boy band named Party Posse that is secretly a vehicle for subliminal navy recruitment messages. The members of 'N Sync cameoed in the episode as themselves. Contrary to popular belief they did not do the "Party Posse" voices. Members of Lou Pearlman's other band Natural, however, did provide most of the voices. (Marc Terenzi did Nelson while Michael 'J' Horn did Milhouse; the rest are unknown.)

On the Veggie Tales video The Ballad of Little Joe, Larry, Mr. Lunt, Jimmy, and Junior do a parody of a boy band video for the original song "Bellybutton."

The Meaty Cheesy Boys were a fictional band created during an ad campaign for Jack in the Box restaurants.

In WCW, a group of three cruiserweight wrestlers (Evan Karagias, Shane Helms and Shannon Moore) formed a boy band in order to get more attention from women. The group 3 Count performed several songs on WCW Monday Nitro and even acquired a roadie in former-UFC-fighter Tank Abbott.

A play (with music) called Boyband, featuring a band named "4ORCE" and parodying the boy band phenomenon of the '90s with songs such as "Coming from Behind," "Our Love is Like Water - H40" and "Integrity," was performed at the Seymour Centre in Sydney, Australia for 2 weeks in 2005 and is returned for a four-week season in March 2006. (Note: not to be confused with the band 4ORCE from Manchester, United Kingdom, who were a real male/female vocal group).

In an 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 called the Boyz, and are probably a parody of the Backstreet Boys.

The blink-182 music video for "All the small things" is a parody of boy bands and other pop stars.

The off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz is about a fictitious Christian boy band from Ohio.

Eminem lyric from The Real Slim Shady states "I am sick of you little girl and boy groups, all you do is annoy me"

In an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Ryan Stiles' hoedown stanza observes that boy bands aren't bands "unless [they] play an instrument."

Upcoming Australian film BoyTown is about a fictional boyband who had their golden age in the '80s, 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 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 the cover of The Kinks classic "You Really Got Me" reaching number one on the New Zealand Music Charts for one week.
In an episode of Kim Possible, the 'O' Boyz' appear.

[edit] 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 their 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, Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Jordan Knight, George Michael, Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, Ronan Keating, Brian McFadden, and Ricky Martin.

Certain boy bands have continued to thrive long after the members have ceased to be 'boys', i.e: The Backstreet Boys but particularly in Asia, e.g. SMAP of Japan and Shinhwa of Korea. In these cases, the members have developed into stars in their own right, starring in television shows, movies, and commercials.