WHAT IS IT ABOUT
Boy Bands?
Adsaya Anpalagan There’s something about boy bands that makes preteen girls’ hearts sing— maybe you yourself had a boy band crush. Maybe you have a sibling who is currently obsessed with the latest teen heartthrob. Or a mom who was deeply in love with a band member from the 70s.
the jonas brothers, 1d, and bts While The Jonas Brothers were the biggest boy band to come out in the 2000s, but it wasn’t until 2010 that the music industry really saw a resurgence of the boy band. That year, One Direction formed on Simon Cowell’s British talent show The X Factor. They broke some typical boy band conventions: didn’t wear the same clothing, nor did they have dance routines; still, all of their albums went platinum. There was massive obsession with the band, and most of the band’s young fans’ first heartbreak was when member Zayn Malik announced his departure. There’s another type of boy band that has gained massive popularity in the 2010s: K-pop boy bands. The most well known, perhaps, is BTS.The Korean band have an intense fanbase, who call themselves the BTS Army, who can be seen all over the internet, despite living all across the world. The BTS Army is wild for their boys, who have brought back the traditional boy band coordinated fashions and dances.
What’s the deal with boy bands? Why are they constantly in the hearts of preteen girls? And are the boy bands of present the same as the boy bands of past?
The Beatles Boy bands are a group who sing together, maybe dance, and usually wear the same clothes, but they probably don’t play any instruments— but that’s not always been the case. The Beatles, were one of the most successful groups of all time; their albums consistently made platinum. Their second American-released album, Meet the Beatles!, reached #1 on the charts in just two weeks in 1964. Four years later, their single “Hey Jude,” remained at the top of the charts for nine weeks in 1968. The Beatles broke records and made history. As anyone will tell you, they’re legendary.
While the image has oscillated over the years, so too the boy band sound has changed dramatically. Autotune and electrophones have really played a huge role in transforming the music. Bands like the Beatles lacked the same resources to use autotune, so what you heard on the records was what they sounded like live. If the song didn’t sound right, or the singers were pitchy, they’d have to sing it over. Today, if management doesn’t like the way a boy sounds in a song, they simply do some adjustments on a computer to make it sound better.
The Backstreet Boys Fast forward to the 90s and take a look at the Backstreet Boys, who formed in 1993. There’s probably a chance your older cousin or your cool aunt had pictures of Nick Carter hung up in their teenage bedrooms. Their most famous single, “I Want It That Way,” is still a hit today, and is a classic when the radio station needs a throwback. The Backstreet Boys are considered by many to be the beginnings of the stereotypical boy band genre as we know it today. They were normally seen all wearing the same outfits, with their very 90s hairdos, showcasing their moves on stage to screaming girls.
Despite the differences in sound, dances, and styles, all boy bands have that one good thing in common: their looks. From Timberlake to Styles, Lennon to Seavey, they all have their ways of making young girls’ hearts flutter. Some young women say the music and adoration of their favourite boy band is a way to escape from the real world. Boy bands get a bad rap, but they’ve changed the music landscape, and made the world better for many preteen girls.
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