Boy Group

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 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, 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. The earliest traces of boy bands were in the mid-1950s although the term boy band was not used. African American 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 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 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 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'' noted that they were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since The Beatles' 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 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-based power pop group Raspberries was generally interpreted as a "teen act", although all the band members played their own music. Vocalist Eric Carmen 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 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'', 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'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 (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, 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

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