Boy Bands With the Right Stuff

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Without New Kids on the Block, there'd be no Take That. Without Take That there'd be no Boyzone/Westlife/A1/911......etc etc. Discuss.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NKOTB sucked a lotta dick/boy girl bands make me sick....except Milli Vanilli - they rocked!

― Geoff, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What difference does knowing the genealogies of boy bands make to how you hear the music?

― Tom, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't someone say H in SClub7 was in a free-jazz techno-goth indie band prior to successful entry into Real-Music arena...?

― mark s, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, NKOTB were formed by Maurice Starr, who built them on the same formula he had used to build his previous group New Edition. In turn, he had formed New Edition to be a modern Jackson 5. So to say NKOTB were some sort of year zero for boy bands doesn't quite ring true to me.

― Nicole, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NB: qn above not meant to be discussion-barrier who-cares but was a genuine enquiry - what difference does it make how current pop started?

― Tom, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

interest. how and why certain things arise (or don't) is interesting no?

― gareth, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think it makes much of a difference, actually. You could argue that all british guitar bands started with the beatles, or that without the sugarhill gang there would be no rap, but I'm not quite sure where this theory goes.

― Nicole, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was just going to ask who would preceed NKOTB. But were they the first Boy band to come with dolls?

"Nardwuar: And Snoop check out this doll that they have as well. The Redd Foxx doll. (shows Redd Foxx doll) Snoop: Oh that’s, I like Redd Foxx. Oh, you can... (pointing to Dennis Rodman doll) get this shit out of here. I like Redd Foxx. He used to go, “Hey! You big dummy!” I like Redd Foxx. This is dope. Where’d you get this from?"

― zacko, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with Tom that it makes no difference.

HOWEVER there are surely lineages within the genre: cf Take That's "Back For Good" kickstarted late 90s wave of boybands going MOR, early East 17 kickstarted "street" boyband axis, etc.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

To clarify: early E17 started said tendency *within UK*. They'd probably been inspired by NKOTB but to me "Let It Rain" and "It's Alright" are a million times better than anything M. Starr touched.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We also had Wham! and Bros. Wham! did "Young Guns" and Bros of course wore ripped jeans. Tough enough, don't you agree? ;-)

― nathalie, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom: I think it makes a huge difference, though perhaps more in terms of timing than in terms of hearing. It was essentially ridicule and hatred of NKOTB that kept that sort of pop off the U.S. charts preceding the current wave (even as it started to gain a foothold in Europe) -- enough time had to pass to spawn a new generation of listeners who had little memory of the bitter mocking that passed in NKOTB's wake. And it's precisely this, I think, that galvanized the sudden explosion of such stuff: the fact that everyone over a certain age remembered NKOTB, and therefore viewed people like the Backstreet Boys as patently ridiculous and inexplicable, may have been what created a sense, among younger listeners, that this was music of their time, music that no one else could understand. Nevermind that other people could indeed understand it, and just thought it was stupid -- the stage was already set.

So: genealogy matters in terms of tracing what's cool with whom, which -- no matter how much we'd like to hope otherwise -- makes a huge difference in how things "sound" to people.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 31 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was thinking in terms of the importance of the dancing. I remember reading a review of Take That which described them as "dancers who just happen to sing". It took the balladeering of "Back for Good" and I suppose Robbie's solo career to prove such a statement wrong (though Guy Chambers's song writing and Williams's' off-stage antics are almost certainly a factor in the latter case). Wham didn't dance much and when they did dance they didn't dance properly; I seem to remember Andrew Ridgely posing around with a guitar on TOTP - he looked ludicrous. There was a certain honesty about NKOTB and Take That in that they didn't pretend to be musicians, they danced instead.

― MarkH, Wednesday, 1 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Zacko: The first boy band to have dolls of themselves were the Osmonds, in the early 70s. In addition, implying that boy bands began with NKOTB is pretty ludicrous, unless approached from that 'dancers that happen to sing' type-standpoint, in which case you'd have to fast-forward to the 80s. Bands of male heartthrobs have existed for a long time, and solo male heartthrobs--one-boy-bands, if you will--have existed even longer.

― matthew m., Wednesday, 1 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

BATTLE OF THE BOYBANDS

which one was/is the best? i am partial to nkotb & blue

― minna (minna), Friday, 23 May 2003 12:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Duran Duran and Guns N Roses. No competition.

― kate, Friday, 23 May 2003 12:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Sports Music Assemble People

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 24 May 2003 03:54 (twenty-three years ago)

The Beatles were the best boyband ever. FACT!!

― Evan (Evan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

5ive.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Saturday, 24 May 2003 05:36 (twenty-three years ago)

(alt answer : Linkin Park)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Saturday, 24 May 2003 05:36 (twenty-three years ago)

N Sync made at least two really good songs in 'Pop' and 'Gone' - so better than the New Kids

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 24 May 2003 10:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ARE Weapons own this thread!

― doom-e (Jam), Saturday, 24 May 2003 10:55 (twenty-three years ago)

stevem are you crazy, nkotb had 'tonight', 'the right stuff', 'step by step', 'cover girl' and maybe 'hangin tough' that's 5(ive)!

― minna (minna), Saturday, 24 May 2003 11:22 (twenty-three years ago)

oh how i hated 'Cover Girl' - the rest were okay i guess,'Tonight' was BIZARRE for a boy band like that at the time...maybe even today -but i'm preferring those two curiously uncharacteristic N Sync gems still

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 24 May 2003 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

The Monkees were the original pure product boy band, no?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 24 May 2003 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

The Sex Pistols

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 24 May 2003 18:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I may be slightly dyslexic, but NKOTB always looks rather like KNOB to me at first glance...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Saturday, 24 May 2003 21:21 (twenty-three years ago)

i like the monkees and the backstreet boys. i haven't heard nkotb since they happened, though i would like to. i remember really digging songs like right stuff and tonight. i used to have posters of joe mcintyre all over my wall.

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 24 May 2003 23:02 (twenty-three years ago)

eight years pass...

One Direction currently have the #1 album in the United States

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 11:51 (fourteen years ago)

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