Discussing the Development of Boy Band History in Western Countries

With the interest of listen to the music of boy bands. I stared to think of how dose this kind of singing group form. Also, because not only boy bands, there are lots of singing groups like choirs, girls groups, and operatic groups etc. I always question how do they become popular in the worldwide music industry. In this paper, I will discus the development of boy band history in western countries.

Although the term ‘Boy Band’ was yet to be established before the late 1980s in the western world, various kinds of male singing groups had existed. They appeared in the form of male choir, male a cappella groups and male vocal groups etc.It is believed that ‘Boy Band’ was stem from these kinds of male performing groups. The word boy band is now widely defined as the male vocal groups, which formed by two or more idols with age below 30. They usually don’t play music instruments neither in the song recording nor the performing session.

They sing R&B, pop and soul music etc. Boy band grew in popularity to their peak between the 1940s and 2000s with groups. That is the period from The Beatles to Westlife. [1] First of all, to discus the development of male idol groups in the 2000s century.Although the word ‘boy band’ in the 1980s had yet to be established, some male singing groups looked like boy bands were already existed.

Various outstanding male idol groups like The Osmonds(1958), The Beatles (1960), The beach Boys(1961), The Jackson 5(1964), The Monkees(1966), and The rolling stones etc. were the examples of famous male idol groups in the western world. For instant, The Jackson 5, later known The Jacksons which formed by the back brothers was a very famous American pop male idol group with 5 members included Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Marlon Jackson and Michael Jackson.The Jacksons had sold over 100 million albums worldwide which obtained a huge commercial success among the western music industry. The aspect of place of origin, music style, and target marketplace of The Jacksons can be discussed to examine its success. First, by the turn of the twentieth century, New York City had become the artistic and cultural center of America.

Under the rise of American popular styles in the western countries during the World War I, the American popular music style had been disseminated throughout the west. 2] As a result, the form of male idol group had been introduced to the western world and had become popular very soon. The Jacksons, which was popularized in the Americans, could then become the international male idol group since the above phenomenon. Second, Like other pop male idol groups from the America, The Jacksons sang R&B, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, pop, and disco music. The most memorable songs of The Jacksons would be ‘I Want You Back’ which is a pop song, ‘I’ll Be There’ which is the soul song, and ‘Dancing Machine’ which is the fix of pop and R&B song.

The Jacksons followed the trend of the American popular music style (sang soul, pop, R&B etc. ) so that their songs hit many number ones in the America music industry. Third, The Jacksons targeted at all audience, especially the teenage girls, witnessing the group image and the content of the songs. When concerning the group image of The Jacksons, since it was composed by The Jacksons, they also knew as the family band at that period.

They give a sense of harmony and happiness. This made it welcomed to the group of families. Moreover, when consider its content of songs, it was obvious that they were targeting at the young girls.For instance, the song ‘All I Do Is Think Of You’ was talked about a love story happened at school that a loved girl was thought about by a boy.

Lyrics like ‘All I do is think of you day and night, that's all I do’, ‘Baby I can't get you off my mind’, ‘Hey, I'm in love with you’ and ‘Oh, won't you please, please be mine’ etc. Doubtless, teenage girls made up the largest portions of the audience at all time, The Jacksons have become successful since they sang lots of love song to caught teenage girls’ attentions. Secondly, to discus the development of boy bands in the 2000s.At 1980s, the word ‘Boy Band’ was finial introduced to the western world. With the continue success of The Beatles, The Rolling Stone, The BackStreet Boy, boy bands or male idol groups had become very popular especially in the UK area.

[3] At this period, folk music, country pop music, and operatic pop music were brought to the boy band history. Unlike the 1980s or before, most of the male singing group do not born for a specific music genre, but in the 2000s, some boy band were born to be a fix kind of music style, like South 65 and Marshall Dyllon were gave born to the country pop.Producers intended to bring the boy band sound to the country music scene. All songs sang by South 65 were the country pop music. For example, the song ‘The Most Beautiful Girl (2001 version)’ recorded in the album of Dream Large, was recomposed in the way of country-pop-feeling.

Another country boy band was Marshall Dyllon. It was an American country music boy band formed in year 2000. Like South 65, producers create songs of country pop music for them. For example, its first single ‘Live It Up’ or the second single "She Ain't Gonna Cry" were, again, country pop music.Moreover, there was boy band grouped for for the operatic pop music (that was the songs from classical music stylized as pop music) like II Divo, the Italian boy band formed in year 2004.

Most of their songs were about operatic pop music. Since tones of music genre had been added to the boy band industry and more types or styles of boy bands were being introduced to the western music market, boy band had grown in popularity to their peak in the 2000s. Finally, to discus the development of boy bands in the 2010s.Although the western boy bands lose some popularity after the death of member in The Beatles, disband of Westlife, they are the essential element in today’s music industry.

[4] While some boy bands continue to create their new music style, they try to sing pop punk, post-grunge and power pop music etc. some boy bands decided to go back to the original, they walk back to the doo-wop music. Taking OverTones as an example, it is an English-Irish-Australian boy band grouped in London in year 2010. Members of the boy band included Timmy Matley, Mark Robert Franks, Lachlan Chapman, Mike Crawshaw, Darren Everest.

The OverTones cares about its group image, they all look very gentleman, but with slightly different in personalities. Also they target at teenage girls and adults women since the sing love songs etc. With the mentioned characteristic, it can be told that they have no difference in packaging when compare with so early famous boy band. But in fact, they are going back to the music genre called doo-wop. Doo-wop music is a subgenre of R&B music.

It is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that built in African American society in the mid 20th century.At that time, doo-wop music reached mainstream popularity in the New York City. Doo-wop music is built based on different part of vocal harmony, simple song content, nonsense syllables (like ‘Gow gow hoo-oo’, ‘Mull an a mound chicka lubba hubba’) and a easy tempo in order to let the audience to get a quick idea of the melody of the song. [5] Examples of songs from Overtones are ‘Gambling Man’.

While listen to this song, it is obvious that it is built base on different vocal harmony with the leading vocal Timmy and the others singing the harmony throughout the songs.Also, the lyrics is simple, the whole chorus is repeating the ‘I've never been a gambling man’, ‘I've never had the winning hand’, ‘But for you I'd lose it all’, ‘My odds are stacked’, ‘But for you I'd lose it all’. Third, at the beginning of the song, Timmy sings ‘Oh woa woa wo woa woa’ which are some nonsense syllables. Lastly, there are repetitions of a simple melodic line throughout the song and it is told to be the riff and there is a hook in the beginning of the song to make it easier to remember.

To sum up, the music style of The Overtones looks like the male singing groups in the mid 20th century.For instance, it sounds very similar with the song ‘My Girl’ from The Temptations (1965). So, there is an observed trend of going back to classic boy band style. Last but not least, there are some observed similarities and changes of boy band throughout all eras.

First, R&B, soul, pop, and disco are popular no matter what has happen in the surrounding environment, these kinds of music genre reach mainstream of the whole music industry at all time. [6] Boy bands from The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Jacksons to OverTones, Westlife, and One Directions followed the trend and along these kinds of music genres.Moreover, they have different personalities among the band members so that to catch various audience or fans’ attentions. Furthermore, besides being a singer, many boy band attended TV program, being the host of some entertainment shows, being models of some brands in order to rise their popularity, so and so. The above characteristics are unchanged over the years.

However, to indicate the significant changes in different eras in the boy band history, new music genre had been added, like the country pop, folk and operatic pop music.These kinds of music genre had grown in popularity in the 2000s. And in the recent years, some boy bands are going back to the doo-wop music. With years of success of boy band in the western country, it brings some influence in the Asian country. In today’s Asian music industry, many music production companies introduce new boy bands to the public from time to time.

Also, boy bands from Korea and Japan have received different levels of popularity among the society. In the earlier years, KAT-TUN, Tokio, Kinki Kids from Japan reach the peak of popularity in the Asian world. 7] However, since J-pop music is then replace by K-pop music in the recent year, boy bands from Korea like BigBand, SS501, Super Junior have replace the Japanese’ one and become the international boy bands. Bibliography Forney, Kristine, and Joseph Machlis. The Enjoyment Of Music: An Introduction To Perceptive Listening.

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hsu. edu/~lis_fwh/book/roots_of_rock/Doo-Wop2. htm Smith, Kaelyn, ed. The Era Of The Boy Band: New Kids On The Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, *Nsync And More. New York: BiblioBazaar, 2011.

S. Steven, Carolyn. Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity, And Power. London: Routledge, 2007. ----------------------- [1] Reebee Garofalo, Rockin’ Out (New York: Prentice Hall, 2010), 7.

[2] Kristine Forney, and Joseph Machlis. The Enjoyment Of Music: An Introduction To Perceptive Listening. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011), 468-471.

3] Forney and Machlis, The Enjoyment Of Music, 514-515. [4] Kaelyn Smith, ed. The Era Of The Boy Band: New Kids On The Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, *Nsync And More. (New York: BiblioBazaar, 2011), 7.

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Steven, Japanese Popular Music (London: Routledge, 2007), 53. [7] Smith, The Era Of The Boy Band: New Kids On The Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, *Nsync And More, 10.