I like boy bands as much as the next person, but when you can't watch MTV, or turn on the radio without hearing them or something about them, the boy band phenomenon has gone too far. I respect members of boy bands. I think they're very talented dancers, but when they're taking the spotlight from truly talented acts who write, produce, play and sing, such as Hanson, MxPx, and Limp Bizkit (you may not think that these bands are talented but we’ll use them for the sake of comparison) then in my opinion the boy band phenomenon has gone to far. It is true that N'sync and the Backstreet Boys have opened the door for similar acts, yet at the same time they have closed the door for very talented acts. Has glitter and glitz blinded us all to real talent? On a given weekday, if you turn MTV on at 4:25PM I guarantee you, you will see the Backstreet Boys video, yet you are VERY lucky if you EVER see a Hanson video no matter how many fans they may have and how many videos they may produce. Why is this? Also its not uncommon to here the same song by a boy band at least two times a day. There's just no getting away from them!
The definition of a boy band is:
- a group of men
- ages 20-29
- Caucasian
- and usually good looking
- who dance and sing to music that was written for them and played by professionals.
Now what is the definition of a band? It's a group of people who play, write, sing and sometimes even dance and produce. Comparing them to a real band, they aren't even a band at all!
A better description would be a "Man Group". I'll be the first to admit that the members of N'sync are amazing dancers, but so are they puppets.
Sure they sing OK, but they're certainly not amazing. They only have to audition and be attractive to get a recording contract; they don't have to work at it and many of the members don't even know how to read or write music.
Why are they GETTING AIRPLAY and why are we buying their merchandise? What kind of an idiot buys $10 lip gloss because it's endorsed by (*sigh*) Lance from N'Sync? In my opinion they are stealing the fame of talented bands. In the first week of sales, N'Sync's No Strings Attached album sold 2.4 million the first week where Hanson's only sold 64,000 copies and they had just as many fans less than 2 years ago.
One aspect of this is that we are creating a trend of judging performers by looks and not talent.
The first official boy band was The New Kids On The Block in the mid-80's bur more recently the Backstreet Boys in 1997 have been the first spark of the fire, followed by N'sync, Boy Zone, 98 degrees, BB Mac, LFO, Five, O town, Take 9, 911, Cnote, code red, etc. they're coming out of the woodwork and being pumped out of Florida as fast as bad ballots! Statistics show that for every boy band that gets popular other bands lose fans, and many bands have been forced to stop producing albums because no one wanted to buy anything other then BSB and N'sync CDs.
So the next time you see a grown man in a sequined bandanna or a song where the voices have been so echoed you cant tell who's singing I urge you to shut off the radio or turn off the T.V.