From
The Stony Brook Press:
The Boys are Back in Town
The high-pitched screams echo off the walls of Radio City Music Hall. Bright beams of light illuminate the dark stage, followed by explosions and a line of flames that materialize from the floor. Four silhouettes appear behind a rising screen as the sold-out concert hall bursts with shrieks and camera flashes. But this act isn’t Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber—it’s Big Time Rush, the band with a Nickelodeon show of the same name.
Boy bands Big Time Rush and British pop group One Direction attend Nickelodeon Hosts Orange Carpet Premiere For Original TV Movie Big Time Movie starring Big Time Rush in New York - Larry Busacca/News services file photo
Boy bands such as Big Time Rush are becoming sensations in the American music industry again. After the popularity of New Kids on the Block in the 1980s and ’N Sync and Backstreet Boys in the ’90s and early 2000s, the allure of male vocal groups vanished the same time Justin Timberlake said “Bye, Bye, Bye” to his band and went solo. Such bands have tried to make it big in the U.S. since then, but they typically saw mediocre record sales and little to no success.
The term “boy band” typically refers to a group of young, eye-candy-status-worthy men who dance and sing, and whose music is written, played and produced by other people. They usually form through audition processes, or are “manufactured,” and mostly appeal to pre-teen audiences. Boy bands have been around since the early 19th century in the form of a capella Barbershop quartets, but the concept has since evolved.
Sociologists David Croteau, William Hoynes and Stefania Milan challenge the existence of boy bands in today’s music scene in the book Media/Society. “In the absence of any major boy band hits in recent years, a group of young men wanting to sing together today would have considerable difficulty in getting a major record deal,” they write. Big Time Rush, along with British-Irish band One Direction, however, rose to incredible yet unexpected fame over the last two years.
The groups are constant presences on music charts, they’ve acquired huge fan bases around the world and they both sold out headlining tours. Mainstream radio stations also play their songs, and invite them to their studios for meet-and-greet opportunities and live acoustic performances.
“I think that things go in waves,” Big Time Rush member Kendall Schmidt, said in an interview with PopStar Magazine. “I think it’s different than it used to be. I think we’re kind of recreating it, almost. I’m glad that it’s coming back because it’s a lot of fun.”
Big Time Rush—James Maslow, 21, Logan Henderson and Carlos Pena, both 22, and Schmidt, 21—is first known for its show, which bears a fictional plotline about four hockey players from Minnesota who try to make it big as a band in Los Angeles. The show premiered on Nickelodeon in November 2009 to 3.5 million viewers, making it the most successful live-action debut in Nickelodeon’s history. Today the show yields about 4 million per episode. The feature-length film Big Time Movie, for which the band received permission from Apple to cover six of The Beatles’ songs to release on a soundtrack, premiered earlier this month with 13.1 million viewers.
Almost all of the show’s episodes include songs from the band’s two studio albums, BTR and Elevate. BTR was released in October 2010 and spent 26 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number three. The Recording Industry Association of America gave the album a Gold certification in April 2011. Elevate, released in November, debuted at number 12 on Billboard 200 and sold over 70,000 copies its first week. As of March 1, it has sold over 208,000 copies in the U.S.
While the band is not as popular as the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync were, the guys of Big Time Rush are seeing more success than they and their producers at Nickelodeon expected.
“Nobody had any idea we’d be this big,” Maslow told reporters at a press conference in Mexico City.
Europe has always had a taste for boy bands. When the Backstreet Boys first started out, the group found more fame overseas than here in the U.S. Now, England is the producer of the biggest boy band phenomenon since The Beatles—One Direction.
Zayn Malik, 19, Louis Tomlinson, 20, and Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Niall Horan, all 18, competed on the British talent show The X Factor as individual acts in 2010. After each boy made it through several rounds of the competition, the judges, Simon Cowell amongst them, did not think any would have successful solo careers. Guest judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested they compete as group, which led to the creation of One Direction, also known as 1D. The band finished third in the competition and signed a deal with Cowell’s Syco Records shortly after.
One Direction’s fame blew up with the release of its first single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” which debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart in August 2011. Up All Night, the band’s debut album, peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart when it released in November. The band sold out its first headlining tour in seconds and even won a BRIT, the UK equivalent of a Grammy, for best British single last month.
But One Direction did not expect tremendous fame in the U.S. The band went viral on the Internet, especially the blogging site Tumblr, and “Directioners” anxiously awaited the boys’ arrival to the states. Nickelodeon was quick to take them under its wing late last year, perhaps to prevent the group from overshadowing Big Time Rush, but also because of 1D’s outstanding popularity in England.
Nickelodeon introduced the group to commercial success here, pairing the Brits with Big Time Rush on the American band’s three-week long sold-out Better With U Tour. In February, the network broadcasted the U.S. premiere of the music video for “What Makes You Beautiful,” and the band guest-starred on an episode of iCarly that will air on Nickelodeon this spring. One Direction is hosting the network’s lineup of popular live-action shows every Saturday night this month leading up to the Kids’ Choice Awards on March 31, where the group will perform. This month Nickelodeon also announced that plans for One Direction’s own show are currently in the works.
Up All Night, along with a deluxe edition of the album, released in the U.S. on March 13 and took the top two spots on iTunes. One Direction spent that weekend in New York after wrapping up the Better With U Tour with Big Time Rush, holding CD signings at malls in the metropolitan area, including Long Island, and performing on the Today Show for thousands of fans crowded outside Rockefeller Center. In addition to the band’s booked performance at the Kid’s Choice Awards, the boys will perform on Saturday Night Live in April and tour the U.S. this summer. Newsday called the band’s explosive fame “another British invasion.”
Big Time Rush and One Direction are no doubt still growing, but their achievements show that the boy band has come back strong. Other bands such as The Wanted are gaining popularity, too, and the different images and styles of music these groups convey satisfy the varied tastes of millions of fans.
This time, the boy band might just stay around for good.
Also, from the Los Angeles Times via the
Bellingham Herald:
Boy bands are back, and they're doing big business
LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of glow sticks luminesced over the sold-out crowd at Gibson Amphitheatre on a recent Friday night. Prepubescent girls snapped cellphone pictures and out-screamed one another as younger kids were hoisted onto parents' shoulders for better views.
The cheers morphed into hysteria as Big Time Rush emerged.
The scene onstage is familiar: five seemingly interchangeable young guys linked by one band name and an ability to dance with military precision, deliver harmonies and exude boy-next-door charm.
Big Time Rush is at the crest of a new boy band wave, yet the L.A.-made group hearkens to an era when Backstreet Boys, 'NSync and 98 Degrees ruled the charts.
Judging from recent sold-out shows for other young groups such as multicultural British heartthrobs the Wanted and R&B teen sensations Mindless Behavior, as well as the buzz surrounding reality show magnate Simon Cowell's creation One Direction, the reemergence of the boy band has only just begun.
In what seems to be as predictably cyclical as the stock market, bubble gum bands are back and trying to fill a void left by the maturation of Justin Bieber and other precursors. And as always, they're working extra hard in competing with one another to stand out.
Mindless Behavior's Jacob "Princeton" Perez, who's from L.A., said he's aware their popularity could fade as fast as it arrived. "In this camp, they really believe in working hard. Our manager always told us to never get comfortable because it can all go away really fast," he said. "A lot of people think it came out of nowhere, but we've been at it for three years."
Though Mindless Behavior is geared more for the urban market, their music - like that of their dreamy boy peers - is loaded with enough sugary pop, dance and R&B melodies to charm tweens across America until at least the end of summer break.
Since Big Time Rush was assembled for the Nickelodeon show of the same name in 2009 the band's TV series has become a hit and it's now behind two albums, blockbuster tours and a slew of made-for-TV films, including the Beatles-themed "Big Time Movie," which attracted 13 million total viewers when it aired this month, according to Nielsen. After dates on the group's current tour sold out in minutes, it announced an extensive summer trek.
Big Time Rush follows a mold, once perfected by the Monkees, in which a fictional artist-based sitcom extends to profitable tours, music and merchandise. Its current album, "Elevate," has debuted at No.12 on the Billboard 200, it has sold more than 3 million digital tracks, and its self-titled TV show, now in its second season, averages a respectable 3.6 million viewers.
The Wanted, managed by the man behind Justin Bieber, Scott "Scooter" Braun, hit No. 1 on the iTunes pop chart with its U.S. single, "Glad You Came." The song (on the Def Jam label, just like Bieber) was bolstered in part when the cast of "Glee" covered it. It's now sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S. since its release in January.
BTR member Kendall Schmidt says its latest success proves it's more than a novelty. "We'd all be lying if we said the first thing we planned to do was sing in a boy band. We all knew we were signing up for an opportunity of a lifetime," said Schmidt, 21, who's based in L.A. "We are trying our best to make it our band and not something we signed up for."
Not all the up-and-coming boy bands are Svengalied, but the majority are the product of industry masterminds looking to capitalize on the budding hormones of juveniles.
Mindless Behavior's co-manager, Keisha Gamble of Conjunction Entertainment, and the company's chief executive, Walter W. Millsap III, saw a void in the R&B market after B2K (a disciple of the 1980s sensation New Edition) fell out of fashion more than a decade ago. So along with Streamline Records head Vincent Herbert, they auditioned teens for the new group. "It had been 10 years since there had been a boy band that catered to the urban community," said Gamble. "Little girls want something to latch on to. There's only been Justin Bieber, so it was perfect timing for something like this to come along." Mindless Behavior, whose debut came out in September, is the only band of the bunch whose members are all African American.
Herbert said the goal was to calculate a "bulletproof" strategy for the band of 15-year-olds. Since he has a joint venture with Interscope and clout from signing Lady Gaga, he was able to fast-track them into a deal and secured plum opening slots on tours with the Backstreet Boys, Justin Bieber and Janet Jackson. The band's debut, "#1 Girl," bowed at No.2 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop albums last fall.
Late last year the boys quickly amassed more than $100,000 in merchandise sales on Interscope's online store and were second behind Gaga in terms of sales. "We took our time thinking about the marketing," said Herbert. "I don't believe in losing. You look at their album and every song is about girls. Girls at 14 and 15 years old are excited about boys."
Not everyone is buying in. Carson Daly, who was host of MTV's "Total Request Live" during the boom of boy bands in the late 1990s, is skeptical that this new wave of cute groups will rise to the heights of their predecessors. "We moved further away from the produced pop bands. The Spice Girls, 'NSyncs and Backstreet Boys - that was an era that I think is over.
"How many pop groups are you hearing on the radio?" asked Daly, who hosts "The Voice" and co-anchors a morning show on KAMP-FM. "I play Top 40 every day. You just don't see these young boy bands or girl groups. It's not the thing that's working right now."
Unless, of course, you're a fan who posts about these band members' every move on blogs like Oh No They Didn't, where a blogger recently referred to One Direction as "flawfree angels." The group, like the Wanted and Mindless Behavior, include all the requisite boy band archetypes needed to attract starry-eyed fans (i.e. the rebellious one, the sensitive one, the shy one, and so on.)
As a result, the Wanted was forced to make an 11th-hour venue swap from L.A.'s Roxy to El Rey to accommodate the demand for tickets, and this is before its stateside album release date of April 24.
"We got put in a house together to write music and see if we could form as a band. In a way, we didn't really know what we were jumping into," the Wanted's Max George recalls. "We could all play instruments and we got to write our own music, which a lot (of boy bands) don't normally do."
The quintet One Direction (ages 18 to 20) was pieced together by Cowell and former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger after its members auditioned as solo singers on the U.K. edition of "X Factor" in 2010 and then collectively placed third.
The group recently wrapped an opening slot for Big Time Rush - often receiving better reviews than the headliner. It is set to perform at Saturday's Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and "Saturday Night Live."
To add to the hype, it just announced its first U.S. headlining tour, and there is buzz that Nickelodeon is in talks to have the group anchor a show similar to Big Time Rush's.
"We all know how hard it is to crack America," member Liam Payne, 18, said before its U.S. debut "Up All Night" interrupted Adele's chart-topping run by knocking her out of the No.1 spot (it is only the second disc of 2012 to do so and the first time a British group has debuted at No.1 in the U.S.). "When you come over here, you're one of four or five New Kids on the Block out there."
George is certain his band will ultimately come out on top. "I see (One Direction) as more a Jonas Brothers, they are very young, very TV-based sort of thing. With us people are buying into our music, more than they buy into us," he said. "People just like our music, which is what we want. We're much more into selling our music than we are posters."
WHO'S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?
There's a new wave of boy bands vying for chart dominance and the hearts of teenage girls. Here's a handy guide to the top four ensembles.
-The Wanted
These British heartthrobs have chiseled good looks, a bad-boy edge and multicultural appeal. They are aiming for the same type of chart and pop culture domination as labelmate Justin Bieber. No surprise, considering they share a manager.
Fun fact: Member Max George was previously a member of Avenue, which was disqualified from U.K.'s "The X Factor" after it was revealed the boy band was engineered for the show.
-Big Time Rush
Created to anchor a Nickelodeon series, Big Time Rush has won over dedicated "Rushers" with two hit albums, blockbuster tours and made-for-TV films, including the Beatles-themed "Big Time Movie," which attracted 13 million total viewers when it aired this month.
Fun fact: Before their self-titled show, members of the quartet had acting credits on series such as "iCarly," "Friday Night Lights," "ER" and "Gilmore Girls."
-Mindless Behavior
A void in the R&B boy band market led tothe creation of teen act Mindless Behavior. The 15-year-olds went through a rigorous two-year training period before it released its debut record, "#1 Girl," which bowed at No. 2 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop album chart.
Fun fact: It was handpicked by Janet Jackson to be the sole opener for dates on the North American leg of her "Number Ones: Up Close and Personal" tour.
-One Direction
Pieced together by reality show magnate Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger after auditioning as solo acts on the U.K. edition of "The X Factor" in 2010, One Direction are wooing girls with their British charm, poster boy faces and syrupy sweet pop lyrics about teenage love.
Fun fact: Kelly Clarkson helped pen the track "Tell Me a Lie" off of its debut, "Up All Night."
Also, from
UWeekly:
Boy Bands are Back!
The giddy 15-year-old in me quickly came back as I was assigned this article. As someone who previously kicked a friend out of my home for doubting my future with Justin Timberlake, you could say I was a crazed boy band fanatic. I’m still confident I have a chance with Timberlake, sorry to my boyfriend Joey when he reads that, but I digress.
I feel like I’m 13 again. But now Lou Perlman is replaced with Simon Cowell and Scooter Braun and the boys have upgraded from bleached blond curls to Beiber sideswept bangs.
The music industry has again embraced the young, teen heartthrob boy band. Three standout bands, two from the UK, have climbed the charts and are making the girls scream.
One Direction
The group was made famous on season seven of Britain’s “The X Factor.” The five members auditioned separately, but Pussycat Doll Nichole Scherzinger suggested they sing together. They finished third in the competition.
After reality success, the group signed a contract with Syco Records. Their hit single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” was only released last September. The band has become the first UK group to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts with their album, “Up All Night.”
Now, you can’t change the channel without seeing these five cuties everywhere. They’ve recently appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” “iCarly” and “The Disney Channel.“
Big Time Rush
Across the pond here in America we find Big Time Rush. The group’s claim to fame is their Nickelodeon television show. It’s cute, it’s corny and the girls love it!
The show is actually about how many of these groups formed! Five guys are joined together from auditions to make a boy band.
In total they have starred in three specials, five movies, released two studio albums, two soundtracks and countless episodes. Now their music career seems bigger then their series. The group is selling out shows all over the country and yes, they dance!
For all you BTR fans out there, the group will be in Columbus this July.
The Wanted
Earlier in March, The Wanted had the UK bragging rights with their single, “Glad You Came,” debuting at No. 5. The song was even featured in an episode of “Glee.” The British and Irish group has an older, sexier image.
Member Jay McGuiness, 21, told MTV, “I just think now there’s a big gap and ‘boy band’ is back, but it’s just a different meaning ... essentially [it’s] just a genre of music.” Their debut U.S. album was released April 24.
The group is rumored to have a walk-on role in the “Entourage” movie.
I love the upbeat sounds of, “Glad You Came,” and “What Makes You Beautiful,” but I find it amazing that their performances are choreographed to a tee, but there is no dancing! When these groups come up with a “Bye, Bye, Bye,” stomp or that classic move from “Everybody (Backstreets back),” then I might give them some credit.
One thing these guys have that set them apart from past groups — accents. But there is still a group from the U.S. embracing the genre.
Will these groups ever be as good as NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? It’s too early to tell, but it is exciting to see that history seems to be repeating itself.
With music now moving toward pop sounds and electronic beats, I can only imagine more groups emerging sometime in the near future. Who knows, maybe we could even see a country boy band!
