• Science • People
Non User
 • Locations • Timeline
Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Home > Boy band

A boy band ( American English) or boyband ( British English) is a style of somewhat to mostly prefabricated pop group featuring about between three and six young male singer/ dancers, but normally five. Often, they evolve out of church choral groups, or are put together by managers or producers who audition the groups for appearance, dancing, and singing ability. They are similar in concept to Girl groups. Though the term is mostly associated with the late 90s, antecedents exist throughout the history of pop music. The Temptations, popular in the 1960s, may be considered a boy band, while The Monkees certainly were prefabricated, and Latin boy band Menudo was founded in 1977.

Equally important to the group's commercial success is the group's image, carefully controlled by managing all aspects of the group's dress, promotional materials (which are supplied to teen magazines), and video clips, the most famous boy band manager being Lou Pearlman. 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", "the nice boy" - whilst managing the portrayal of popular musicians is as old as popular music, the particular pigeonholing of boy band members is a defining characteristic of boy and girl bands.

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 to record guide vocal s for each member of the group to sing individually (if the members can not harmonize together well). A typical boy band performance features elaborately choreographed dancing, with the members taking turns singing (or, sometimes, lip-syncing, though Pearlman insists none of his bands do) to pre-recorded music. However boybands, having started off singing other people's music, often do compose their own music, or a member composes music for the band later in their career.

Though some fans consider the music to be in some cases brilliant, the commercial success of specific boy bands does not tend to last long. As the fans (mostly preteen girls) of boy bands age, their musical tastes evolve and they seek something different. If success is sustained, often one or more members of the band will leave and seek a solo career (particularly if they have some songwriting ability), though few manage sustained solo success (exception: Justin Timberlake).

1 Famous boy bands



Read more »

Topics: Boy Band, Guides, Tutorials...
Non User