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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 vocals 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. More often than not, boy bands are disallowed from composing or producing their own material, unless the members lobby hard enough for creative control (e.g. The Monkees and *NSYNC).
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. (Exceptions: Michael Nesmith, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake.)
Famous boy bands - All-4-One (United States, formed 1994)
- B2K (United States, 2002)
- Backstreet Boys (United States, 1992)
- Blackstreet (United States, 1994)
- Blue (United Kingdom)
- Boyzone (Ireland, 1993)
- Boyz II Men (United States, 1988)
- Bros (United Kingdom)
- Busted (United Kingdom)
- Cumbo-5 (Australia)
- 5ive (United Kingdom)
- H.O.T. (South Korea)
- Human Nature (Australia)
- The Jackson 5 (United States, 1962)
- Jericho Road (United States, religious music)
- Just 5 (Poland)
- Love Psychedelico
- McFly (United Kingdom)
- Menudo (Puerto Rico, 1977)
- Mint Condition (United States)
- The Monkees (United States, 1966)
- Dale! (Argentina, 1999)
- New Kids On The Block (United States, 1984)
- New Edition (United States, 1978)
- 98 Degrees (United States)
- *NSYNC (United States, 1995)
- Los MP (Argentina, 1996)
- O*town (United States)
- OTT (Ireland)
- Phixx (United Kingdom)
- Kids in Trouble (Japan, 1988)
- SMAP (Japan)
- Take That (United Kingdom, 1990)
- Take 6 (United States, religious music, 1985)
- The Teens (Germany) - five boys born 1962-1964: Robert Bauer, Alexander Möbius, Uwe Schneider, Jörg Treptow, Michael Uhlich; performing late 1970s - early 1980s; in the 1990s a comeback with two old and two new members. [1] (http://www.teensfan.de/)
- The Temptations (United States, 1961)
- Westlife (Ireland)
- w-inds (Japan)
- Lead (Japan)
- FLAME (television series 2ge+her created a parody boy band with five personality types.
The Norwegian movie Get Ready to be Boyzvoiced [2] (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0248036) is a mockumentary about the boyband Boyzvoice, their fans and management.
In South Park, Cartman formed a boy band named Fingerbang.
The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a fictional boy band named "Du Jour."
In The Simpsons, Bart is recruited to a boy band named Party Posse that is secretly a vehicle for subliminal navy recruitment messages.
On the Veggie Tales video The Ballad of Little Joe, Larry, Mr. Lunt, Jimmy, and Junior do a parody of a boy band video for the original song "Bellybutton".
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