The Boy Band Legacy: 90s Boy Bands impact on music culture.
We all can think back to our childhood and remember a time when a group of singing boys ruled the music industry. In the 1960s, The Beatles and The Beach Boys took the world by storm. New Kids on the Block, helped define the 1980s. The Jonas Brothers stole the hearts of girls in the 2000s, and in 2012 One Direction joined the growing list of boy band heartthrobs.
From the Beatles to One Direction, each generation has their iconic boy band. Through the years many boy bands have risen to popularity only to break up after a few years; and then a new group of male singers rise to continue the cycle. However, two of the most popular boy bands of the 1990s helped to change the music industry during their time, and changed how our culture sees pop music, and male vocals.
During the 1990s, two “boy bands” triumphed over others of the same time period. The Backstreet Boys, featuring the vocals of AJ McLean, Howie D., Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell, began their group in 1993 out of Orlando, Florida. The band’s first single “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” aired on the radio in August of 1995 and became a physical single in September of the same year. Although the single was a minor success in America, it was widely popular among European countries. Their first full album was recorded in 1996 and released that spring, but it wasn’t until the second album in 1997 when the boys gained their extreme popularity.
A few years after the creation of The Backstreet Boys, another group was formed. *NSYNC, who also originated in Orlando, Florida, began their rise to stardom in 1995. Members of the group included Chris Kirkpartick, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, JC Chasez, and Justin Timberlake (who eventually became a solo artist). The first single released “I Want You Back” became an overnight success in Europe, and the following two singles “Tearing Up My Heart” and “Here We Go” hit the top charts. The band later released their album to the American market in the spring of 1996. Their first album sold more than ten million copies paving the way for future albums from *NSYNC.
Since the two bands creation, they have been debated about who was the better band. Some feel that Backstreet changed the way that people see the stereotypical boy band based on the five bandmates. Others think *NSYNC was superior because of their lyrics and dance moves. The staff of Buzzfeed felt so strongly about their opinions of which band was better, and created a video for their “Debatable” series. According to a 2017 article written by Tylt, 60% of people think that the Backstreet Boys are the superior 90s boy band.
The Tylt article continues, and describes the traditional “boy band archetypes” that make every successful boy band popular. They categorize these archetypes as the dreamboat, the boy next-door, the bad-boy, the baby-faced one, the quiet one, the older-brother type, the eccentric one, the goofball, and the sensitive one. Each successful boy band has had a combination of these archetypes that work together to help them rise to popularity. Since both Backstreet and *NSYNC had a combination of these personalities, Tylt attributes part of their success to this theory.
The two bands have both added to today’s culture by creating paths in the music industry that were not necessarily available prior to their rise in fame.
An article by Metro from 2016 mentions that Backstreet made it acceptable for guys to enjoy boy bands. Prior to this time, boy bands were aimed at teen girls. Songs from many popular boy bands were slow tempo, love songs. What made The Backstreet Boys iconic was there ability to have fun and relate to normal boys around their age. Not only did this group change boys minds on the typical “boy band”, but boy bands of the 90s changed the way people today see manliness in the music industry today. “They really made our concepts of adolescent masculinity a lot less rigid, which I think is a good thing. I think there’s a lot of young people out there who certainly don’t fit into our ideals for young male masculinity in terms of gender performance and sexuality,” says Craig Jennex in an article from The Star.
He continues, “I really want to show people how important pop music is to us in our everyday lives and I knew if I could do that with boy bands, then maybe people would start thinking about pop music differently.” In his research Jennex notes the performance of 90s boy bands as “singing and dancing, but they don’t play instruments”.
Prior to these bands, masculinity was seen in music through rock groups, and other musicians who could play instruments as well as sing. With bands like Backstreet and *NSYNC, those standards opened a door to a new view on male music. “Boy bands made boundaries a little less rigid when it comes to sexuality and gender. I think they have created a safer space for young men to perform their masculinity and grow,” Jennex adds.
Boy bands have created a new outlook on men in music, but they also changed how everyone interprets music. Music videos became popular in the late 1980s, and by the time boy bands like Backstreet and *NSYNC were popular, music videos were highly anticipated. Both bands created music videos that set standards for all future musicians, not just other boy bands.
The music videos staring the Backstreet Boys were “larger than life”, especially the “Larger Than Life” music video itself. The video, costing over $2 million, set a standard for music videos for everyone and was seen by some on the same level of some of Michael Jackson’s music videos. These music videos created a guide for all genres of music.
*NSYNC was also creating some of the most iconic dance moves in their music videos. Songs like “It’s Gonna Be Me” and “Tearin’ Up My Heart” showcased the talents of the boys of *NSYNC not just musically, but through dance and creativity. Justin Timberlake was the creative mind behind most of *NSYNC’s videos. Many male bands, not classified as “boy bands”, like Maroon 5 and Blink-182 began to style their music videos in the same way.
Without The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, male music today would not be the same. Boy bands gave men the ability to sing songs about emotion in a sensitive way.
There will always be a debate over who was the better 90s boy band for people who grew up listening to both bands’ music. Apparently, while fans were arguing over which band was better, in an interview with US Weekly, AJ McLean made it clear there was no hatred between the two bands. “If anything, it might’ve been a healthy rivalry, but there was never any competition. There was never any, you know, ‘You guys suck!’” McLean recalls.
Not only were the two bands highly recognized in the US for their music, they left a legacy for future bands. From the way men are viewed in the music industry, to music videos, and so many other reasons *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys will always be some of the most popular and memorable boy bands.
