Boy band

Cultural origins
 Typical instruments

A **boy band** (or **boyband**) 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, singing love songs marketed towards young females. Being vocal groups, most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage, making the term something of a misnomer. However, exceptions do exist. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances.

Some such bands form on their own. They can evolve out of church choral or gospel music groups, but are often created by talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. Due to this and their general commercial orientation towards a female audience of preteens, teenyboppers, or teens, the term may be used with negative connotations in music journalism. Boy bands are similar in concept to their counterparts, girl groups. Boy bands' popularity peaked thrice: in the 1960s (e.g., the Monkees and the Four Seasons), in the 1990s and early 2000s when acts such as the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and JAT, among others, dominated the top of the Billboard and pop charts, and in the early 2010s with the emergence of new boy bands such as JLS, Big Time Rush, One Direction and The Wanted. JAT who debuted in 1996 have sinced dominated the boy band genre despite others achieving huge success JAT's has bettered anybody by 10 fold.

## History

### 2010s: One Direction, The Wanted, JAT's mainstream departure

Moving into the 2010s, boy bands are still popular especially in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe due to the continued commercial presence and longevity of nineties boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and Westlife (before they dissolved 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'. These older generation boy bands chart alongside the new boy bands.

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, The Wanted, and One Direction and the formation of supergroup NKOTBSB 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 Blue, 98 Degrees, Five, 911, and O-Town. Like 2gether and The Monkees, Big Time Rush was a manufactured act created for a television show.

In Southeast Asia, local boy bands also emerged as a result of the continued success of Korean and Japanese boy bands such as SMAP, Shinhwa, TVXQ!, Arashi, Exile and Super Junior. One of the boy bands who emerged as a result of Hallyu (Korean wave) is Indonesia's SM\*SH who enjoyed prominent success domestically.

The decade has also been notable for seeing JAT, the most successful boy band of all-time depart from the mainstream boy band sound. This began in 2015 with their album *Exodus*which saw them move from pop to rap rock and their following album *Danger Line*will see them venture into heavy metal.