By Daphne Bryant

Boy Band’s Take On Masculinity

by daphne bryant

What is a boy band? A vocal group of young male singers and the ultimate target for the public’s scorn? Some say they’re too forced and rehearsed — who wants to listen to a pop-making factory? Isn’t their fan base just a bunch of teenage girls? And my god, how many times in one performance can one man pelvic thrust? When thinking of boy bands, one might assume that the artists are hypo, or even toxic, in their masculinity. However, pop masculinity isn’t as surface level as one might think.

The idea of the modern boy band really started to change during the ’80s, when the term “boy band” was officially coined. In a way, Boston, Massachusetts and its many neighborhoods were a beginning hub for many of these modern groups: Black R&B group New Edition (which eventually became Bell Biv Devoe) began out of Roxbury and white successor New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) out of Dorchester. Fans who grew up in Boston as these boy bands were rising felt connected to them; there was a shared regional background, and it was revolutionary to see the national impact they had.

Lisa Gaskins, who grew up in the area at that time, says, “New Edition and NKOTB were a huge deal because of the Boston connection. We were all around the same age and walked the same streets, knew where they lived and where they came from.” Boy bands have always had a special way of building community, and through them

people can relate and express themselves.

So how did these pop music groups get started? Some modern boy bands, made up of preteens and teenagers, were created on their own; most (especially the famous ones) were formed by record producers or talent managers. Producer Maurice Starr hosted a talent search in Boston where he recruited the first member of NKOTB: Donnie Wahlberg. Taking the standard template of the R&B genre that Black groups like New Edition followed, Starr used NKOTB to appeal to the industry’s idea of a pop genre. In this way, genres were racialized — since Black groups weren’t considered pop, labels began putting together white groups that were more likely to be seen as pop musicians even though they still maintained R&B sounds.

When modern boy bands shifted from ’80s crooners to ’90s sensations like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, they became even more popular and were great performers in every sense of the word. Michael Abrams — dancer, colorguard coach and music educator — states, “NSYNC really raised the bar on what a boy band could do.” He recalls them doing a concert in Germany, as they first gained popularity in Europe, where the power went out. Instead of rescheduling, the boy band continued the show a cappella until it came back on.

NSYNC isn’t the only ridiculously impressive boy band. While the U.S. has no specific trainee system like there is in Korea, boy bands in the ’90s certainly underwent training. Music mogul and financial con man Lou Pearlman, the mastermind behind stars like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, controlled their actions and image.

“Pearlman established a sort of boy band boot camp, providing them with choreographers, voice coaches and tutors. The boys practiced for hours in extremely hot conditions in Pearlman’s blimp hangar in Kissimmee, Florida,” said Jeanna Tanzy Williams, who at one time co-managed the Backstreet Boys.

Although ’90s boy bands worked very hard to reaped

Wearing clothes that are viewed as feminine doesn’t make the boys in these bands any less manly; in fact, it proves they’re comfortable enough in their masculinity to break out of gendered clothing stereotypes.

their benefits, that doesn’t necessarily mean they got to enjoy them fully. Justin Timberlake, the Beyoncé of NSYNC, claimed he’d been “financially raped by a Svengali,” in reference to Pearlman, who stole millions from investors and made several deductions to the boys’ paychecks.

Looking back, it’s easy to see their national and global success. Initially the ’90s were not a place for boy bands to thrive. The urban scene and edge was super trendy at the time. It highlighted genres like masculine gangster rap or old school hip-hop over the typical teenybopper genres (like boy bands) which were seen as more feminine. The best way to describe these differences is to explore what’s considered “soft” and “hard” masculinity. Lyrics about banging hot chicks and carrying a gun in your palm fall under the umbrella of hard masculinity, while heartfelt ballads and boy bands fall under the umbrella of soft masculinity — and these are just two examples. Even with the change in time and culture, boy bands were still able to maintain traditions of the past.

“When the Spice Girls came, music was allowed to be fun and happy again. The boy bands added to that,” Abrams claims.

In this way, boy bands like NSYNC rejected a classic image of masculinity and manifested a playful, youthful one of their own. That being said, their silly, flirtatious nature created a link between the “perceived seduction” of the female audience, the boy

band’s primary market, as well as the boy band genre’s credibility and inferiority within the music industry decided by both anti-fans and music critics alike.

Despite how successful they were since the rise of the “manufactured” boy bands in the pop music scene, modern boy bands have been viewed as illegitimate. Their target audience consists mostly of girls and young teens, so having a legitimate interest in them and their music is often regarded as having “low brow” music taste. Why is this? And I mean, why is this really, beyond the idea that their music may be cheesy or image extremely planned? Why is there a sexist, cultural concept that anything a young girl likes cannot be actually good? It’s because in a society where being a man is often attributed to hypomasculine qualities, boy bands just don’t fit the bill.

Real estate manager Amy Gant, who grew up in the mid- ’80s and ’90s, says, “Most of the guys mocked the boy bands because of their lack of masculinity.” Stoic masculinity was the way to go, and boy bands simply weren’t that: instead, they possessed a feminized masculinity. The fact that they sing, are fashionable, and dance (qualities that are normally associated with “girlish” tendencies) make them less masucline in a lot of people’s eyes. I beg to differ.

When it comes to fashion, modern boy bands were generally known to break out of the box that societal norms had set up for them as men. Many weren’t — and still aren’t — afraid to shy away from color, bright patterned prints, fur detailing, gemstone necklaces and more. Wearing clothes that are viewed as feminine doesn’t make the boys in these bands any less manly;

in fact, it proves they’re comfortable enough in their masculinity to break out of gendered clothing stereotypes.

Modern boy bands have also combined what is considered to be traditionally masculine and feminine aspects of performance and attitudes. The guys who are part of boy bands are given the platform to pour out their emotions through lyricism, express themselves in their dance and fashion and enjoy their masculinity instead of feeling confined to a certain “tough guy” image. Even if it is in a rehearsed way, considering how boy bands and their teams know their audience, it is still a way for these boys to to be innocent; to be goofy and silly; to sing about love, heartbreak, despair and hard times just as much as the happy coming-of-age moments they experience along with the rest of us.

Boy bands continue to evolve. Most of Gen Z grew up on groups like One Direction and BTS. The two are very different, and I don’t just mean one being from the UK and the other from South Korea. One Direction was adamant that there would be no choreographed dancing and no funky fresh clothing, whereas BTS performs elaborate and skillful routines, donning makeup and flamboyant suits (and sometimes entirely pink matching fits). These differences could be attributed to cultural disconnects, such as the fact that in South Korea the beauty standard for male pop performers tends to be on the cuter, more feminine side. However, that doesn’t discredit the fact that they’re two different versions of masculinity that are both widely known, admired and adopted. Nowadays there is not one way for a boy band to look, act or sing, nor is there one way for a boy to look, act or sing, and I love that.

Over time modern boy bands have, perhaps unintentionally, redefined masculinity in a multitude of ways. This is not to say that they’re without their flaws: American boy bands such as NKOTB are known for stealing music, style and dances from Black boy bands and repurposing them to make it more marketable. Others like B2K, who named their group to represent the fact

that they got together in the beginning of the year 2000 (also considered the Y2K era), can be oversexualized for their age and audience.

Where boy bands shine, regardless of race or image, is in the way they (as boys and men) are able to have an outlet to embody their confident and carefree selves with show-stopping performances, all while creating timeless music through brotherhood. They’ve made an impact on the freedom boys and men have now in the music industry to present themselves. This kind of masculinity is admirable, not something to be ashamed of or shunned.