WHAT IS A BOY BAND?
- In technical terms, a boy band is “a small ensemble of males in their teens or twenties who play pop songs geared especially to a young female audience.”
- Jason Kling of Byline goes into more detail in this interview with NPR:
- "OK, so boy band we can define as an all-male vocal group. They're usually in their teens or their 20's. They could be a duo, a trio, quartet, quintet, sextet - doesn't matter. But they're generally performing crossover pop material to a largely teen or preteen female demographic. .."
- "Boy bands are usually factory produced, meaning that there's usually some kind of CEO or talent manager who's a Svengali, who's involved. He's responsible for the sound and the look and the casting of the band. The band often has interchangeable members so there's a lot of turnover."
- "Very often boy bands...are performing a kind of bubblegum pop music, which reaches a large demographic - not a lot of musical complexity, very simplistic messages. And very often the big difference is that boy bands don't play their own instruments and they rarely write their own songs.""
- While these are the standard definitions of boy bands, sometimes these definitions provide more questions than answers.
- "How do you define a boy band? Is it the style of music? The look? The dancing? The shadowy figure in the background pulling the strings of the four to six good-looking young men picked specifically to appeal to a broad but almost always young female audience?...Does a boy band need to be factory produced? What happens when the boys get too old? What happens when the sexuality in the songs becomes too obvious? Where is the line between a boy band and a man band? And perhaps the most blasphemous question: Can you argue that The Beatles might have been a boy band?"
WHY DO WE LIKE THEM?
- CNN's Lisa Respers France details why we, as a culture, tend to be so fascinated with boy bands.
- Boy bands have been around for decades.
- Everyone can find something or someone to relate to.
- "'People love boy bands because you can relate to at least one member....Boy bands give people the right to be able to choose who their favorites are and who they can relate to. Everyone can find someone that they can call their own,' [Nick] Carter [of the Backstreet Boys] added."
- They let you relive your childhood.
- "For older fans, boy bands offer a chance to relive days when homework, dating and making curfew were life's biggest concerns. A really good song from a favorite band can transport anyone right back to that era, and the best songs are timeless."
- You can easily interact with them.
- "...while screenshots may have replaced posters on bedroom walls, young devotion remains the same or more heightened because social media now allows performers to interact directly with their followers."
- They offer the total package.
- "The look, stage presence, dance moves, a voice, boy band members have to have it all -- and all together."
EXAMPLES OF BOY BANDS
- NPR Music put together a Spotify playlist, entitled "The History And Meaning Of Boy Bands," which contains songs from boy bands throughout history.
- Our PA Nicole has also put together a "Boy Bands: A History" Spotify playlist.
- Below is a "Boy Band Timeline," created by Billboard's Jason Lipshutz. It covers the period from 1962 to 2015.
BOY BAND ANALYSIS
- Many writers have attempted to come up with a definitive ranking of boy bands, all coming up with different results.
- Bill Lamb of ThoughtCo. ranked The Beatles first in his "Top 30 Boy Bands" list.
- "The Top 25 Boy Bands of All Time" According to Buzzfeed's Logan Rhoades, *NSYNC is the best of his "Top 25 Boys Bands of All Time."
- De Elizabeth of Teen Vogue's "21 Best Boy Bands" list also ranks *NYSNC as Number One.
- Ten Seconds til Sunset is not the first boy band created from a TV show. Taylor Weatherby from Billboard ranks the other TV-made boy bands.
- Grantland's Shea Serrano created a "boy band matrix," categorizing the bands on a spectrum on standing still vs. dancing, and on how sexual vs. asexual they were. It can be found below.
FANDOM: CAN BEING A FAN AFFECT YOUR BRAIN?
- Girls who like boy bands can be seen as uncool for liking uncool music; boys who like boy bands can be considered outcasts for liking something they are not "supposed" to.
- Maria Sherman of Fuse states, "before we get into the very real chronology of this mostly unexplored topic, we must agree and recognize that, historically, teen pop and boy band fandom has existed in a weird space of cultural celebration and critical marginalization....By casting this particular pop fandom aside as something 'uncool,' those who enjoy it feel a certain dismissal, which is a form of isolation, which can foster feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and depression."
- Despite possible social ostracization, fans of boy bands create community around their fandom, and can thus create positive, uplifting spaces, especially in the social media age.
- Sherman further claims that, "in the social media/One Direction era, conversations about fan mania have shifted. While there remains the unwelcoming ideology that boy band fandom is uncool, unhealthy, excessive, and something for only young women to enjoy (and if you are not a young women and enjoying it, something must be diagnosably wrong with you), the people within it are dedicated to writing their own stories. Twitter and Tumblr manifest communities in a really interesting way: They’re orbited around fan accounts—profiles run by a few fans that regularly post updates on the object of affection’s whereabouts. Everything from photos of the band’s show that night to updates on their everyday goings-on, where they went to dinner and where their parents were spotted the night before. The most successful accounts are the ones with real personality behind them, which is why conversations usually extend past just minute-by-minute detective work. These blogs and Twitter accounts take the time to share individual fan stories and bolster each other in an attempt to encourage self-esteem."
- However, recent research is beginning to show that belonging to a "fandom" can be very beneficial for one's mental health.
- Brianna West of Teen Vogue argues, "research shows that a weak sense of belonging is correlated with depression. Finding a greater sense of purpose and developing the belief that you are deeply cared for by others creates a willingness to endure life’s challenges. Feeling as though you are a part of a 'tribe' is not always easy, but finding groups of people with whom you share common interests is a starting point. It’s not surprising that so many people are drawn to fandoms for that reason alone: it creates a common ground in an otherwise divisive and disconnected world. What is true of fandoms is nothing that psychologists haven’t known for years – this is simply the modern iteration of a very primal instinct. Dr. Laurel Steinberg, a psychotherapist and professor of psychology at Columbia University told Teen Vogue: 'Belonging to a fandom group helps adolescents connect to other like-minded youths on social media throughout the year, as well as at concert events. Feeling like you are part of a group can help one define his/her identity and give a sense of purpose to what might be an otherwise routine lifestyle.' She went on to say, 'Connecting with people over shared passions and interests is good for mental and emotional health because it helps to create a fraternity-like or family-like sense of security. It's also generally fun to scheme and get excited about something with others, and gives them a subject to talk about that they know will always be well received.'"
- Brianna West of Teen Vogue argues, "research shows that a weak sense of belonging is correlated with depression. Finding a greater sense of purpose and developing the belief that you are deeply cared for by others creates a willingness to endure life’s challenges. Feeling as though you are a part of a 'tribe' is not always easy, but finding groups of people with whom you share common interests is a starting point. It’s not surprising that so many people are drawn to fandoms for that reason alone: it creates a common ground in an otherwise divisive and disconnected world. What is true of fandoms is nothing that psychologists haven’t known for years – this is simply the modern iteration of a very primal instinct. Dr. Laurel Steinberg, a psychotherapist and professor of psychology at Columbia University told Teen Vogue: 'Belonging to a fandom group helps adolescents connect to other like-minded youths on social media throughout the year, as well as at concert events. Feeling like you are part of a group can help one define his/her identity and give a sense of purpose to what might be an otherwise routine lifestyle.' She went on to say, 'Connecting with people over shared passions and interests is good for mental and emotional health because it helps to create a fraternity-like or family-like sense of security. It's also generally fun to scheme and get excited about something with others, and gives them a subject to talk about that they know will always be well received.'"