The Rise of the New Boy Bands

As we all know boy bands have never gone away for very long. They’ve been around for a long time in music history. From The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Backstreet Boys, N’Sync to the newer ones like Big Time Rush and One Direction, they’ve never really died down as many people thought they would. Sure there were times when no boy band was around but it was always a pretty short amount of time before a new one came around. After all the 90s boy bands were over everyone thought it was the end of that style of music, but then came bands like One Direction or Big Time Rush which brought them back. And we all know how big One Direction became because we will always know the chorus to “What Makes You Beautiful” even if some people don’t want to admit that.

Boy bands are basically designed to attract the audience that it’s meant to because looking at any boy band they’re always good looking and good singers, sometimes good dancers. As much as it seems like boy bands are over done there is always one around the corner that makes it big or does something different to grab our attention and make us want to listen to their music and what they are doing.

In recent years there have been boy bands who step always from the stereotypical boy band sound/look/vibe. I know I keep bringing them up, but One Direction is a good example of that, as adorable as it was to watch them dance we all knew that they weren’t the best at it. But that’s what made them different and interesting because it was a boy band who was slightly changing what a boy band could look like or act like. They were singers who just had a blast on stage and made it fun for their fans who went to watch the shows. Boy bands now are slowly changing the stereotype of what a boy band is, and not just going with the same format which most of the 90s boy bands went for. Because if you look at the pictures that I’ve posted in this story, each boy band looks different and you can differentiate each of them, when I listen to these bands I can tell who is who because their styles of music are actually very different, it might be mostly pop, but variations of it and not just the same beat and lyrics the entire song.

Looking at the three boy bands I’ve shown in this, they all kind of came about in different ways. The first band Pretty Much which consists of Austin Porter, Nick Mara, Edwin Honoret, Brandon Arreaga and Zion Kuwonu were found by Simon Cowell and put into a group. They have a very 90s RnB sound to them, one of their songs actually has the sample of "Poison" by Bel Biv Devoe. They are all very different in what they wear, how they sound, the way they dance, everything about them is different.

The second band shown is probably the newest of the three, the band is called In Real Life which consists of Brady Tutton, Chance Perez, Drew Ramos, Sergio Calderon, and Michael Conor. This boy band was actually formed on the television show titled Boy Band, a competition show where the winners are put into a boy band. Their first two singles are pretty different from each other and show off the talent of each boy. Given the fact that they were formed on a show called boy band, they are basically what you think of when you think of a boy band, which is cool because they still stick to the formula of a typical boy band—but in a different way.

And last but definitely not least is Why Don’t We, this boy band consists of Jonah Marais, Corbyn Besson, Daniel Seavey, Jack Avery, and Zach Herron. These boys have been around the longest, I believe, out of the three. They were formed similarly to Pretty Much, but they were all solo recording artists before being in this boy band. They have the most content out for the world to hear, and each EP they’ve released is different from the last. Each one is something different (the limelights will get this joke) and each one shows of their talents in different ways.

Hopefully all three of these boy bands will be around for a long time. And hopefully boy bands never fade out of existence because they are something many of us enjoy. Reach out to me on Twitter and tell me who your favorite boy bands are if you have any, or tell me why you don’t like them. Would love to hear all your opinions.