The Comings and Goings of the Boy Band Trend

Throughout the history of popular music, each decade has seen its own version of the 'boy band'. While these groups tend to be short-lived, for their (typical) 2-3 year life-spans, they can massively change popular culture, and create memories (evidenced by Laura's reasoning for the choice of this week's artist) that will last a lifetime for the many fans they create. The point of this post is to explain that while the most recent craze may have been over for most of a decade, we can never be safe in assuming that there will never be anything like it ahead of us in the near future.

In the early 1960s, a band each of us has probably heard of called The Beatles emerged from across the pond, appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and magically captivating American teenage girls in an instant. The early Beatles, while not being manufactured as so many other groups have been since, became the prototype for a new way to market music to the masses. They were young, good looking, talented vocalists who hit the market just as it was ripe for change. After the initial success of rock n' roll, many consumers/listeners were growing weary of the stale product that was being released in the early 1960s. To many, it seemed to lack the energy and the creativity that had been shown just a few years earlier.

When The Beatles hit American soil, they had the fresh faces, and the fresh sounds that many listeners, and (most importantly) many record executives were looking for. Over the course of the next three years, The Beatles broke sales records and influenced countless others in the rejuvenation of rock n' roll and popular music in general, all the while being partially stifled creatively in order to give the execs what they wanted. When they were finally able to break free and make the music they really wanted to make, they reached creative peaks that have never been reached before or since. When this happened, however, it left a void in the market for the next mass produced band.



The Monkees were the first popular entirely manufactured band. From the formation of the band, to their hit TV show, to the hit records they 'made,' The Monkees portrayed everything that the average young listener wanted. While being terribly inept with their instruments and sometimes appearing clownish during their performances, the listening public showed with their wallets that they didn't so much care about these things, as long as the product they were receiving fit their tastes. This would be a recurring theme for several decades.

After the eventual decline of The Monkees, the seventies saw the rise of several more boy bands, not just in the English speaking countries, but throughout the world. In the United States, The Osmonds tore up the charts and The Jackson 5 created a sensation, led by megastar-in-training Michael Jackson. For the Spanish-speaking world, Menudo began their decades long run of popularity, surviving the down years in the boy-band market, and then prospering when the phase hit once again. This phase began its down-turn in the late 70's however, and would take another several years to once again reach new heights.



Producer Maurice Starr can be held entirely responsible for the craze that overtook the country in the mid to late 1980s. Starr founded a group consisting of Bobby Brown, Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell, Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe known as New Edition. Inspired largely by The Jackson 5, New Edition had several big hits in the mid 80's, before eventually waning in popularity towards the latter part of the decade. With a void once again created in the market, Starr already had his 'next big thing' in New Kids on the Block. NKOTB were an instant sensation, inspiring fanatic teenage girls the world over with their looks and vocal abilities. For a few years, the New Kids seemed to be everywhere, whether it be on posters, t-shirts, or even lunchboxes. Once again, however, the ever changing face of pop music reared it's ugliness, and after several years NKOTB were merely a humorous recollection to many.





While the many thought this humorous, the few realized that there was still money to be made with the boy band concept. In 1997, after several years of slight international success, the Backstreet Boys hit it big in America. With the (seemingly) overnight massive success of the Backstreet Boys, a glut of these types of groups quickly appeared. Including 98 degrees and the topic of this week's listening session, the boy band craze hit a never before reached plateau. With the advent of TRL, the constant face time allowed by networks such as MTV, and the burgeoning internet, consumers were given much more access to the groups they loved. As evidenced by a viewing of any day's episode of TRL in the late 90s through the early part of the 00's, the boy band craze had almost completely taken over popular music.





As ever though, the phase began to wind down around 2002. With the increasing popularity of downloading music, consumers began to branch out and discover a much wider variety of music. The formulaic, generic pop that had been popular for so long took a huge hit, and once again creativity began to rule. This led to a rise for many previously underground musicians, and in many ways started changes in the way that music is currently being created.

After everything we've seen in popular music over the past 50 years, however, we can be almost assured that we haven't seen the last of the boy band. Every incarnation has evolved in it's own way, and some inspired marketing professional will find a new way to do the same old thing. Soon enough we will enter the void that can only be filled by 5 new young men with aspirations for the domination of the music world.