Not Called Man Bands

Boy bands are a small ensemble of males in their teens or twenties that express youthful exuberance, and play pop songs geared especially to a young female audience ages 10-14.  This is usually just a vocal group not playing any of the instruments in the songs they are singing and performing mostly love songs with signature choreography.  Some members of boy bands can play instruments, but this is not really part of their act.  Boy bands are more about having slick factory produced dance moves and being made up of reasonably attractive pre-packaged good-looking boys that rarely write their own songs, and hardly ever play their own instruments.  A boy band often has interchangeable members, so this type of a group can weather a lot of turnovers.  The term “boy band” didn’t appear until the 1980s, but The Jackson 5 became the blueprint for the genre throughout the ’60s and ’70s.  The Beatles were in their twenties and they played pop music and were swooned over by young girls, but they wrote most of their songs, played their own instruments and they did not dance in front of live audiences during their concerts, so they do not qualify as a boy band.  American record producer Lou Pearlman was the man behind the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync and others.  New Kids on the Block was the first group to be called a “boy band” in the way we think of it today.

Last week we had Praising God where the theme was to find Gospel music.  This week the theme is to find music by boy bands.  Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post.  Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about.  Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music.  Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Suggestions
• Try to use the prompt words or at least conform to a general theme, as you see it.  If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

This week I will be writing about the One Direction song ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘Jimmy Mack’ by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.  The upcoming prompts will be:
May 14, 2023 – Girl Groups
May 21, 2023 – Disco
May 28, 2023 – Hip-Hop Rap
June 4, 2023 – Blues