A boy band is loosely defined as a
vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform
love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances.
South Korean boy bands usually also have designated rappers.
Some such bands are formed on their own, often evolving out of church choral or
gospel music groups. In contrast, others are created by
talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. Being vocal groups, most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on-stage. They are similar in concept to their counterparts known as
girl groups. The popularity of boy bands has peaked three times: first in the 1960s to 70s (e.g., with
the Jackson 5 and
the Osmonds); the second time it peaked during the late 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s, when acts such as
New Kids on the Block,
Take That,
Backstreet Boys,
NSYNC,
Boyzone,
A1,
O-Zone and
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
dominated
global pop charts; and last time in the 2010s up to the present, with the emergence of groups such as
One Direction,
The Wanted,
Big Time Rush
''Big Time Rush'' is an American musical sitcom television series created by Scott Fellows that originally aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 2009, to July 25, 2013 and is currently available in Paramount+. It focuses on the Hollywood mi ...
,
The Vamps,
Ballinciaga and
K-pop acts such as
BTS and
Exo.
History
Early history
The earliest forerunner of boy band music began in the late 19th century as
a cappella barbershop quartets. They were usually a group of males and sang in
four-part harmonies. Barbershop quartets were popular into the earlier part of the 20th century. A revival of the male vocal group took place in the late 1940s and 1950s with the use of
doo-wop music. Doo-wop bands sang about topics such as love and other themes used in
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
. The earliest traces of boy bands were in the mid-1950s although the term boy band was not used.
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
vocal group
The Ink Spots was one of the first of what would now be called boy bands. The term boy band was not established until the late 1980s as before that they were called male vocal groups or "hep harmony singing groups".
Although generally described as a rock band, the highest-selling band in history
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
have been described by some journalists as "the first" or "the original" boyband, "before anyone had thought of the term", exclusively due to the enthusiastic response they received from their young female audience.
Other critics, however, have pointed out that this assessment of The Beatles as a "boy band" could be applied to all other bands of the 1960s, saying, "if they were a (boy band), so was everyone else"
and is countered by others, including
Ringo Starr, who point out that, from the beginning, The Beatles wrote and exercised creative control over their own music, played their own instruments, were not manufactured by a record label, and did not feature the choreographed dance moves that later came to be associated with boy bands.
The Beatles did, however, inspire the production of the 1966 television series ''
The Monkees'',
which featured
a music group of the same name, created for the show, that consisted of the four starring actors. The Monkees had a career as a rock and pop band after their songs from the TV series were released as successful records.
Late 1960s and 1970s: The Jackson 5 and the Osmonds
Although the term "boy band" was not commonly used then, the earliest predecessors of this format were groups such as
the Jackson 5 and
the Osmonds which helped form the template for boy bands.
The Jackson 5 were a siblings group that established many musical conventions that boy bands follow. For instance, their music featured
close harmonies from
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...
and catchy pop hooks influenced as much as they were by
Motown and acts like
the Supremes. The group also incorporated choreographed dance moves to their performances. All members of the band sang, which is a common convention of a boy band, as opposed to having a front man and the rest on instruments; thus, no one person dominated the stage. Also a siblings group, The Osmonds first started singing
barbershop music for local audiences, before being hired to perform at
Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...
early in their career. Their appearance in a televised Disney special earned them additional TV spots, such as ''
The Andy Williams Show'' and ''
The Jerry Lewis Show''.
Late 1970s and 1980s: Menudo, New Edition, and New Kids on the Block
Other antecedents (apart from those already mentioned) exist throughout the history of pop music. The genre has been copied into languages and cultures other than the Anglo-American. The Puerto Rican boy band
Menudo, appealing to young
Latina audiences, was founded in 1977. Menudo had a convention unique among boy bands: when a member turned 16, became too tall, or their voice changed, they were replaced. The members of Menudo were generally aged 12–16.
The
Bay City Rollers were a
Scottish pop band who were most popular in the mid-1970s. The ''
British Hit Singles & Albums
''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (originally known as ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' and ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of ...
'' noted that they were "
tartan
Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...
teen sensations from
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' and one of the most screamed-at teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s".
For a fairly brief but fervent period (nicknamed "Rollermania"), they were worldwide
teen idols. The group were one of the first bands, like The Monkees before them, to take the formula shown by The Beatles and apply it to a teen market. The group achieved the same amount of success but for a limited period of time. At the peak of their popularity in the UK, comparisons were being made to The Beatles. Also by this time, Bay City Roller
fans had a completely distinctive style of dress, the main elements of which were ankle-length
tartan
Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...
trousers and tartan
scarves, the group using the benefit of merchandise and promotion.
The German boy band formed in
West Berlin, 1976, and had a couple of hits targeting young females, selling more than 5 million albums worldwide. The band dissolved in 1982.
In the US, the
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
-based
power pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, an ...
group
Raspberries was generally interpreted as a "teen act", although all the band members played their own music. Vocalist
Eric Carmen
Eric Howard Carmen (born August 11, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. He was first known as the lead vocalist of the Raspberries. He had numerous hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Rasp ...
later commented, "It was not hip for people to like us, because their little sister liked us."
Boston group
New Edition was formed in 1978 and reached their height of popularity in the 1980s, meaning they are often credited for starting the boy-band trend, even though the term "boy band" did not exist until the 1990s.
Maurice Starr
Larry Curtis Johnson (born July 14, 1953), better known by his stage name Maurice Starr, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work creating songs and albums with boy bands New Edition and New Kids on ...
was influenced by New Edition and popularized it with his
protégé New Kids on the Block (NKOTB), the first commercially successful modern boy band, which formed in 1984 and found international success in 1988. 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.
Bros (abbreviation of the word "brothers") were a British boy band active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, consisting of twin brothers
Matt and
Luke Goss along with
Craig Logan. Formed in 1986, they scored multiple top 10 hits between 1987 and 1989 and in 1988 became the first modern era–style boy band to have a multiple platinum-selling album in the UK, with ''
Push
Push may refer to:
Music
* Mike Dierickx (born 1973), a Belgian producer also known as Push
Albums
* ''Push'' (Bros album), 1988
* ''Push'' (Gruntruck album), 1992
* ''Push'' (Jacky Terrasson album), 2010
Songs
* "Push" (Enrique Iglesias s ...
'', still one of the most successful boy-band albums in the UK. Other big boy bands in Britain during the late 1980s were
Big Fun and
Brother Beyond.
1990s: Boyz II Men, Take That, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Seo Taiji and Boys and the birth of modern K-pop
The ongoing international success of New Kids on the Block inspired music managers in Europe to create their own acts, beginning with
Nigel Martin-Smith
Nigel Martin-Smith is a Manchester-based English musical band manager. He helped form the 1990s British boy band Take That.
Biography Early career
Martin-Smith entered the entertainment industry in the early 1980s working as a casting agent fro ...
's
Take That in the UK (formed in 1990) and followed by
Tom Watkins, who had success with
Bros in the late 1980s and formed
East 17 in 1991. East 17 were marketed and pitted against Take That as "rivals" with a rougher or harsher attitude, style and sound. Take That reformed in 2006 after a decade-long hiatus and became one of the most successful groups in British music chart history, with renewed chart success internationally, especially in Europe. Irish music manager
Louis Walsh, who had witnessed the impact of these British boy bands, put out an advert for an "Irish Take That", thereby creating
Boyzone in 1993.
Let Loose (formed in 1993),
MN8 and
911
911 or 9/11 may refer to:
Dates
* AD 911
* 911 BC
* September 11
** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001
** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende
* November 9
Numbers
* 911 ...
(formed in 1995), and
Damage (formed in 1996) were also successful boy bands in Britain; however, by the late 1990s all these bands had run their course and split up.
All these artists were very successful on both the singles and albums charts domestically and internationally; however, with the emergence of
Britpop and the commercial co-option of
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...
, many boy bands were ridiculed by the British music press as having no artistic credibility, although some, such as East 17 and Take That, did write most of their own material. The media attention was then placed on the "Battle of Britpop", and the bands
Oasis and
Blur replaced the importance and rivalry of Take That and East 17 as the two new biggest bands in Britain. However, boy bands continued to find success in the late 1990s, such as
Five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
,
Another Level,
Point Break and
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
. In 1995 successful German music manager
Frank Farian, who had been manager of
Boney M and
Milli Vanilli, put together
Latin American
Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-e ...
band
No Mercy who scored a few worldwide hits during the mid-90s.
Although being American and the sons of
Tito Jackson, a member of
The Jackson 5,
3T had several hits singles across Europe in the mid-1990s, despite limited success in the US, and finished the second biggest selling act of 1996 in Europe behind the
Spice Girls. With the success of North American boy bands like
New Kids on the Block in East Asia, Japanese entertainment company
Johnny & Associates formed
SMAP in 1992. The group enjoyed tremendous success, selling over 35 million records. It paved the way for more Asian boy bands such as
Arashi
is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...
.
In 1992, after the disbandment of the heavy metal band
Sinawe, in which he had a brief stint,
Seo Taiji formed the boy band
Seo Taiji and Boys (Korean: 서태지와 아이들) together with dancers Lee Juno and
Yang Hyun-suk, which went on to become highly successful and created a craze at the time. Seo Taiji and Boys is credited with changing the South Korean music industry by pioneering the incorporation of
rap and
breakdance
Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...
as well as the fusion of Korean music and various popular Western music genres in Korean popular music, and in turn creating the prototype for the modern hybrid
K-pop genre or "rap-dance", as it was called at the time, and
K-pop groups. They also left a lasting impact by explicitly putting social criticism at the forefront of their music, as well as paving the way for artistic freedom in South Korea by challenging censorship laws and the television networks hegemony over the music market. In 1995 the Korean Broadband is not 6 ft to a particular location casting Ethics Committee demanded that Seo Taiji and Boys change the lyrics for "Regret of the Times". As a result, Seo decided to release the song as a purely instrumental track. This incited protests and resulted in the abolishment of music pre-censorship in Korea. Seo Taiji also did not have to rely on television networks due to the fact that he owned his own studio. This autonomy allowed Seo to bring subcultures in Korea, such as heavy metal, to the forefront of popular culture and challenge pervasive social norms. The band's independent success diminished the power of the television networks to dictate which artists appeared on shows, and gave rise to the influence of record labels and talent agencies. In 1996, Seo Taiji and Boys disbanded. In April 1996, Billboard reported that the band's first three albums had each sold over 1.6 million copies, with the fourth nearing two million, making all four some of the best-selling albums of all time in South Korea to this day. Lee Jun
o and Yang Hyun-suk went on to establish record labels right after. Yang Hyun-suk was successful in founding
YG Entertainment, one of the three biggest record companies in the country which gave birth to many successful acts such as
Sechskies,
Jinusean,
1TYM
1TYM (Korean: 원타임, pronounced as "One Time") was a four-member South Korean group. They were Teddy Park (also known as Park Hong-jun), Oh Jinhwan, Song Baekyoung, and Danny Im (also known as Im Taebin).
History
In the late 1990s, YG CE ...
,
BIGBANG,
2NE1,
AKMU and
BLACKPINK. Seo Taiji returned to music two years later with a successful solo career as a rock artist; he rose to become one of the most prominent and influential cultural icons in South Korea and was dubbed "the President of culture". In 2017, Seo Taiji released a 25th Anniversary album with his greatest hits and remakes by prominent Korean artists, including the group BTS. He also held a joint celebratory concert with the latter, in which he acknowledged them as his spiritual successors in K-pop due to the socially conscious thematic similarities in their music as well their shared
hip hop leanings, and metaphorically passed the torch, saying "This is your generation now".
In the early 1990s in North America, with New Kids on the Block's continued success and
Color Me Badd also having success, boy bands became a continued staple of the Billboard charts. Continuing this success in the mid-1990s, most prominent boy bands were African American and had R&B and gospel elements, such as the groups
All-4-One
All-4-One is an American male R&B and pop group best known for their hit singles " I Swear", "So Much in Love" and "I Can Love You Like That". The group is composed of Jamie Jones, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez, and Tony Borowiak, all from t ...
(formed in 1993) and
Boyz II Men (formed in 1988). Boyz II Men are also the most successful boy band act on the
U.S. Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming i ...
as well as the
Australian Singles Chart. Although they had success on the Billboard charts, they were not marketed towards youth but more towards adults. It was not until 1997 and the change to pop-oriented groups such as
Backstreet Boys,
98 Degrees,
NSYNC,
The Moffatts
The Moffatts are a Canadian pop/rock country band composed of brothers Scott, Clint, Bob and Dave Moffatt. Scott was born on March 30, 1983, in Whitehorse, Yukon, and triplets Bob, Clint and Dave were born 11 months later in Vancouver, Briti ...
, and
Hanson
Hanson or Hansson may refer to:
People
* Hanson (surname)
* Hansson (surname)
* Hanson (wrestler), ringname of an American professional wrestler
Musical groups
* Hanson (band), an American pop rock band
* Hanson (UK band), an English rock ...
that boy bands exploded commercially and dominated the market in the United States. This late 1990s marked the height of boy band popularity in North America, which has not been seen since.
Arguably the most successful boy band manager from the U.S. was
Lou Pearlman, who founded commercially successful acts such as the
Backstreet Boys in 1993,
NSYNC and
LFO in 1995,
O-Town in 2000, and
US5
US5 was a multinational pop boy band. The band originated in 2005 on the German RTL II television reality show '' Big in America'' and debuted in June of the same year on Lou Pearlman’s Transcontinental label. US5 became successful througho ...
in 2005. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC became the two biggest boy bands in the late 1990s until the early 2000s, and Backstreet Boys went on to become the best-selling boy band in history with over 100 million records sold.
I
In the late 1990s in the UK, producer
Simon Cowell (noted in the U.S. for the ''American Idol/X Factor'' franchise) is also known for having managed British boyband
Five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
(formed in 1997) and Irish boyband
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
(formed in 1998). Westlife was created by Irishman
Louis Walsh as a replacement for
Boyzone and was initially managed by a former member of the band
Ronan Keating
Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish singer. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer (with Gately) of Irish pop group Boyzone. His solo career s ...
. Westlife would eventually overtake Take That in number one's tally in the UK although Take That's overall UK sales are still higher. In 2012, the
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...
revealed the biggest selling singles artists in British music chart history with Take That placed 15th overall and the highest selling boyband act (9.3 million), followed by Boyzone at 29 (7.1 million) and Westlife at 34 (6.8 million). Even though Cowell is known to have managed several successful boy bands, he is also infamous for passing on signing two of the biggest boybands to emerge from the 1990s and 2000s, Take That and
Busted.
2000s: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Jonas Brothers and F4
With the continued success of
Backstreet Boys and
*NSYNC, American and British groups like
98 Degrees,
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
,
O-Town,
A1,
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
, and
Busted gained quick popularity both domestically and internationally. International boy bands would also occasionally spring up, such as the
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...
n band
O-Zone (better known today as an
Internet meme), and
Overground. American Christian boy band
Plus One also enjoyed brief remarkable success during this time.
At the height of boy band popularity in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
, MTV created their own parody boyband,
2gether. Like
the Monkees in the 1960s, they were a manufactured act composed of actors. 2gether played off of the idea that every successful boy band must have five distinct personality types: the bad boy, the shy one, the young one, the older brother type, and a heart throb.
Since 2001, the dominance of traditional boy bands on pop charts began to fade in the western hemisphere, although Gil Kaufman of
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
has described "new boy bands" that are "more likely to resemble
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist ...
,
Sum 41, and
Simple Plan.
In 2001, Taiwanese boy band
F4 (called JVKV since 2007) blew up big as a result of the success of their TV drama ''
Meteor Garden''. According to ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', F4 has sold 3.5 million copies of their first two albums all over Asia as of July 2003.
With their success, many other Taiwanese boy bands emerged around this time, such as
5566 and
Fahrenheit. In South Korea,
Shinhwa also spread
hallyu wave throughout Asia such as
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. Also in 2001, a new all-male pop band and dance group boyband hailing from Japan called
Exile debuted under Avex Group's label
Rhythm Zone with 14 members, putting them on par with
Super Junior
Super Junior (; stylized in all caps), also known as SJ or SuJu, is a South Korean boy band formed by Lee Soo-man, the founder of SM Entertainment in 2005. They are also dubbed by the media as the "King of Hallyu Wave" due to their promine ...
, a South Korean boy band, who at the time, had had 13 members at its peak.
Japanese boy band
Arashi
is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...
has sold over 30 million copies of their records since their first release in 1999. They had the
yearly best-selling single in Japan in 2008 and 2009. In 2003
SMAP released the single "
Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" that has become the
third best-selling single ever in Japan, with over 3 million copies sold.
In North America, the
Jonas Brothers rose to fame from promotion on the
Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...
in 2008. Other boy bands like
JLS and
Mindless Behavior
Mindless Behavior was an American boy band who were best known for the singles " My Girl" and " Mrs. Right", produced by Walter Millsap. The band was put together in Los Angeles in 2008, by Keisha Gamble, Vincent Herbert and Walter Millsap. The ba ...
also emerged and experienced remarkable success around this time. However, apart from them, boy bands have not seen the commercial boom experienced in the genre from the mid to late nineties in North America.
The mid 2000s, especially the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, saw the continued longevity of nineties boy bands such as
Backstreet Boys and
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
(before they disbanded in 2012), and the successful comeback of
Take That in 2005,
Boyzone in 2007, and
New Kids on the Block in 2008. Some sections of the press have referred to these acts, particularly those who have reformed after a previous split, such as Take That, Boyzone, and
98 Degrees, as 'man bands'.
2010s and the first half of the 2020s: Big Time Rush, One Direction and rise of K-pop
In the early 2010s, there was somewhat of a resurgence of boy band popularity in countries where the trend had not maintained, with the emergence of new boy bands like
Big Time Rush
''Big Time Rush'' is an American musical sitcom television series created by Scott Fellows that originally aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 2009, to July 25, 2013 and is currently available in Paramount+. It focuses on the Hollywood mi ...
,
The Wanted, and
One Direction and the formation of
supergroup NKOTBSB
NKOTBSB was an American pop supergroup consisting of the members of American boy bands New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys came up with the name, which is a combination of established initialisms of ea ...
which comprised members of New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. NKOTBSB's success inspired boy bands who were fairly popular during the 1990s and 2000s to make a comeback, such as A1,
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
, 98 Degrees,
Five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
,
911
911 or 9/11 may refer to:
Dates
* AD 911
* 911 BC
* September 11
** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001
** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende
* November 9
Numbers
* 911 ...
, and O-Town. Like
2gether and
The Monkees, Big Time Rush was a manufactured act created for a television show. One Direction were often credited as sparking a resurgence in the popularity and interest boy bands alongside being credited with forming part of a new "
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" o ...
" in the United States. Their
Where We Are Tour was the highest-grossing tour by a vocal group in history and after the release of their fourth album, ''
Four
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest ...
'', they became the only group in the 58-year history of the
''Billboard'' 200 to have their first four albums debut at number one.
In Southeast Asia, local boy bands also emerged as a result of the continued success of Korean and Japanese boy bands such as
SMAP,
Sechs Kies,
Shinhwa,
TVXQ!
TVXQ (stylized as TVXQ!), an initialism for Tong Vfang Xien Qi (), is a South Korean male pop duo consisting of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They are known as in Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of ...
,
Arashi
is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...
,
Exile,
Super Junior
Super Junior (; stylized in all caps), also known as SJ or SuJu, is a South Korean boy band formed by Lee Soo-man, the founder of SM Entertainment in 2005. They are also dubbed by the media as the "King of Hallyu Wave" due to their promine ...
,
Big Bang,
SHINee
Shinee ( ; ko, 샤이니, Syaini; ja, シャイニー, Shainī; stylized as SHINee) is a South Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2008. The group's musical impact in their native country has earned them numerous accolades and the ...
,
Exo, and
BTS. One of the boy bands who emerged as a result of
Hallyu (Korean wave) is Indonesia's
SM*SH who enjoyed prominent success domestically. In the Philippines, a major boy band has been formed by bringing the first reality boy band search of the country called
Pinoy Boyband Superstar which held mid
2016, after all the series of auditions, rigorous training and competition, the winners formed as a group called
Boyband PH. After the debut of the Philippines supergroup
SB19
SB19 is a Filipino boy band that debuted in 2018, the pentad—consisting of members Pablo, Stell, Ken, Justin, and Josh. They were trained for 4 years by ShowBT Philippines, beginning in 2016. They are the first Filipino and Southeast Asia ...
in 2018, the group became the household name in the Philippines
Pinoy pop industry. SB19 appeared at number six on
Billboard Year-End Social 50 chart, making them the first Southeast Asian act to reach the top 10 of the magazine's annual chart.
In South Korea, boy bands have been commercially successful. On the
Gaon Music Chart year-end albums chart of 2016, nine of the top 10 and 17 of the top 20 albums are by boy bands or by subunits/members of boy bands. BTS's''
Map of the Soul: 7'' is the best-selling album of all time in South Korea, with more than 4.4 million copies sold, and Exo's
XOXO became the first album released since 2001 to sell more than 1 million copies.
As of 2021, boy bands such as
Seventeen,
NCT and
NCT 127 have also become regular million-sellers.
In 2013 Billboard started covering music releases in K-pop, though K-pop had been entering the charts as early as 2009, signifying the growth of the hallyu wave in America. By 2017, BTS crossed into the international music market, furthering the
Korean Wave in the United States and becoming the first Korean group to receive a certification by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with their single "
Mic Drop". The band is the first Korean act to top the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 with their studio album ''
Love Yourself: Tear'' (2018) and have since hit the top of the U.S. charts with their albums ''
Love Yourself: Answer'' (2018), ''
Map of the Soul: Persona'' (2019), ''
Map of the Soul: 7'' (2020) and ''
Be'' (2020). ''Love Yourself: Answer'' also broke South Korea's
Gaon Album Chart
The Circle Album Chart, previously known as the Gaon Album Chart, is a record chart ranking the 100 most popular albums, extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks t ...
's all-time monthly record previously set by ''Love Yourself: Tear'' and became the first Korean album certified Gold in the United States.
SuperM later became the first K-pop group to debut at No. 1 in the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200.
In Japan,
Arashi
is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...
continue to be very successful, being the best-selling music artist in Japan from 2013 through 2017 by value of sales and also having the yearly best-selling album in the country in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Other successful Japanese boy bands in this decade include
Sandaime J Soul Brothers, the second best-selling music artist of 2016 in the country and
Kanjani Eight, the fifth best-selling music artist of that year in Japan.
In Norway, the boy band
Ballinciaga gained commercial success in 2022 with dance and party songs like "Dans På Bordet" and "Beklager (Guttaklubben)". The group is also known for keeping their identities anonymous by wearing pink-colored masks in the public.
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 attire, promotional materials (which are frequently supplied to
teen magazines), and music videos. 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. 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 shy one". While managing the portrayal of popular musicians is as old as
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
, the particular pigeonholing of band members is a defining characteristic of boy and girl bands. In K-pop, officially designated positions within the group are common, such as "leader", "maknae" (Korean: 막내, English: "the youngest"), "visual", "center" "vocalist", "rapper" and "dancer". The latter three are based on the members' specialized skills and are further divided into "main-", "lead-" and "sub-" (vocalist/rapper/dancer) positions, with the members occupying the "main" positions often being considered the most skilled and having the most parts in songs or being highlighted during solo dance parts. The "leader" is the spokesperson who represents the group in public, and is in charge of mediating between group members, as well as between the group and the label.
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
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a t ...
to record guide vocals for each member of the group to sing individually if the members cannot harmonize well together. However, for clarity of each voice, recording each voice individually is most commonly the norm with most modern vocal groups. In recent years,
auto-tune
Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.
Auto-T ...
has become a popular tool in vocal producing, some boy bands have come under fire for that reason. Some have also come under fire for
lip syncing
Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
Audio for lip syncing is generated thr ...
in their performances as well, for example
New Kids on the Block.
A typical boy band performance features elaborately choreographed dancing, with the members taking turns singing and/or rapping. Boy bands generally do not compose or produce their own material, unless the members lobby hard enough for creative control. However, some bands were created around the talent of a songwriter within the group like
Gary Barlow of
Take That or
Tony Mortimer
Anthony Michael Mortimer (born 21 October 1970 in Stepney, London) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer from London. He is a former member of the boy band East 17, who were originally active from 1991 to 1997 and sold over 20 mill ...
of
East 17. It is not uncommon to find extra songs on an album written by one or more of the band members; however, their producers rarely use these as singles.
Since the 21st century, however, boy bands have been expected to write or at least contribute in some part lyrically to songs. Apart from the groups mentioned above who all had at least one primary songwriter from their beginning, other groups soon caught up. At the close of the nineties, groups like
Backstreet Boys and *
NSYNC who had previously used writers like
Max Martin during their early albums began writing their own songs. Newer groups from late 2000s such as
JLS have all made a point from early interviews that they write their own songs and hold their own image as this is an important part of marketing. Some bands like
The Wanted have even spent time learning the craft of songwriting. There has also been a rising trend of so-called "songwriter-" or "producer idols" (
Korean: ''
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...
'' 작곡돌, ''
rev. Rom.'' jakgok-dol) in K-pop since the early 2000s. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for groups to have at least one member who is heavily involved in the songwriting and producing of the groups' music. In many cases, these members are the rappers in the group, who have often gained songwriting and producing experience while being active as amateur or underground rappers before joining the group. There is also a higher expectation for rappers to write their own lyrics due to self-expression being a core value of the
hip-hop genre. There are cases of "producer idols" writing or producing for other artists outside of their solo or respective group work as well, such as
BIGBANG's
G-Dragon
Kwon Ji-yong (; born August 18, 1988), also known by his stage name G-Dragon (지드래곤), is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer, known as the " King of K-pop". G-Dragon is the recipi ...
,
SHINee
Shinee ( ; ko, 샤이니, Syaini; ja, シャイニー, Shainī; stylized as SHINee) is a South Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2008. The group's musical impact in their native country has earned them numerous accolades and the ...
's
Jonghyeon,
Block B
Block B ( ko, 블락비) is a South Korean boy band managed by KQ Entertainment, and consists of seven members: Taeil, B-Bomb, Jaehyo, U-Kwon, Park Kyung, Zico, and P.O. Block B has received several accolades, including nominations for seven ...
's
Zico,
BTS'
RM and
Suga, or
AB6IX
AB6IX (; ''pronounced as A-B-Six'') is a South Korean boy band formed by Brand New Music. The group currently consists of four members: Jeon Woong, Kim Dong-hyun, Park Woo-jin and Lee Dae-hwi. Former leader Lim Young-min's departure from the gr ...
'
Lee Daehwi.
Individuals can also go on to achieve greater success as a solo artist coming out of a boy band having used the groups popularity to build on. Usually this signals the end of the group until potential future reunions. Examples of this include
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...
from
The Jackson 5,
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, dancer, actor, television host, and former teen idol. He first gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and go ...
from
The Osmonds,
Ricky Martin from
Menudo,
Justin Timberlake from *
NSYNC, and
Ronan Keating
Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish singer. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer (with Gately) of Irish pop group Boyzone. His solo career s ...
from
Boyzone. Sometimes the most successful solo star from a band is not the most popular member such as
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...
as opposed to lead singer
Gary Barlow from
Take That. Some boy band members have gone on to successful careers elsewhere in the media.
Michael Dolenz
George Michael Dolenz Jr. (born March 8, 1945) is an American actor, musician, TV producer and businessman. He is best known as the drummer and one of three primary vocalists for the pop- rock band the Monkees (1966–1970, and multiple reunion ...
of
The Monkees went on to become a successful television producer, working for
ITV franchises such as
LWT and
Television South. In K-pop, it is expected and common practice for members to embark on solo endeavors as musical artists or in other entertainment sectors, such as acting, or as variety personalities, alongside their group career after a few years. At the latest, this happens around the time the eldest member reaches the age of 28 (in exceptional cases 30) and is drafted for
mandatory military service, forcing the group into a temporary hiatus of at least 18 months. The other members then often go on to pursue solo endeavors and reconvene as a group while no member is serving, or after all members have completed their service,
BTS and
EXO being recent examples.
Music genres
Although most boy bands consist of
R&B or pop influences, other
music genres, most notably
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
and
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
, are also represented.
South 65 and
Marshall Dyllon
Marshall Dyllon was an American country music group formed in 2000, comprising vocalists Daniel Cahoon, Jesse Littleton, Michael Martin, Paul Martin, and Todd Michael Sansom. These five members were recruited by country music artist Kenny Rogers ...
, for example, were both country music boy bands.
Il Divo
Il Divo (; ) are a multi-national classical crossover vocal group. The male quartet, which originated in the United Kingdom in December 2003, consists of tenors Urs Bühler, David Miller, and Sébastien Izambard. It also included baritone ...
, created by
Simon Cowell in 2004, are a vocal group that performs
operatic pop in several (mainly Italian) languages. Since then operatic/classical boy bands have become quite popular and common, especially in the UK. Since 2001 there has been some crossover with
power pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, an ...
and
pop punk
Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...
from bands that play live instruments. Just recently some boy bands decided to go back to their original doo-wop roots, most notably,
The Overtones
The Overtones are a UK based vocal harmony group. They were discovered by a Warner Bros. Records' talent scout while working as decorators in a shop near Oxford Street, singing during their tea break. Their first album, '' Good Ol' Fashioned Lo ...
.
Controversy
Since the 2000s, groups such as
Backstreet Boys and
LFO have disliked the term "boy band" and have preferred to be known as a "male vocal group". Being categorized among boy bands was also the main reason
the Moffatts
The Moffatts are a Canadian pop/rock country band composed of brothers Scott, Clint, Bob and Dave Moffatt. Scott was born on March 30, 1983, in Whitehorse, Yukon, and triplets Bob, Clint and Dave were born 11 months later in Vancouver, Briti ...
split up. Boy bands have been accused by the music press of emphasizing the appearance and marketing of the group above the quality of music, deliberately trying to appeal to a
preteen audience and for conforming to trends instead of being original. Such criticisms can become extremely scathing. Boy bands are often seen as being short lived, although some acts such as
The Jackson 5,
Backstreet Boys,
Human Nature
Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...
,
New Edition,
SMAP,
Shinhwa and
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...
(before they split up in 2012) have sustained lasting careers.
Best-selling boy bands
The following is a list of the best-selling boy bands based on claimed sales figures of over 40 million records:
See also
*
All-female band
*
Girl group
References
Further reading
*
External links
Boybands Radio – Only boy bands 24/7at
About.com
The Best Boy Bands of All Time��''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
''
Best Boy Bands��''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
''
10 Biggest Boy Bands (1987–2012)��''
Billboard''
{{Authority control
Pop music genres
Types of musical groups