But as i remember the first boyband should be addressed to The Beatles!!
Now i'd like to give my opinion about the term boyband. To me boyband is a group of boy in a music band. But then what's important is their appearance, their costume and physical appearance let's say..gorgeous ones :D. Well The Beatles, internationally famous since 1960s definitely fit in this definition. They're gorgeous, attractive to ladies, and they were all unite in a band. The Beatles music genre was rock. They have many men fans too. But since the members were cute, young, fresh, and handsome, in all of their concert you'll hear ladies' scream. I guess the ladies went for the appearance rather than the musical ability. Or maybe because in the past there were rare cute boys in the band ladies went crazy for them. So yes, to me The Beatles were the first and the super famous one.
Then, still in the same country England, Take That n English five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams is another boyband which succesfully conquered Europe and the rest of the world. The band was active in the music industry since 1990 - 1996, then they had a break and re-unite again in 2005. They still exist till now, but of course they become a "man" band :D. Take that marked the ear of gorgeous-energetic boys who don't play musical instrument in their performance with lead singers. Pop is their genre. Their performance is supported by dance ability. And yes, they succesfully got girls attention.
Started from Take That, my own definition of boyband has switched from a group of boys in a band to a group of boys with cute and gorgeous face in attractive appearance who expected to sing as good as dance. Well, wikipedia define boyband as "a popular music act consisting of only male singers. The members are expected to danceas well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. More often than not, boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage" Read more about boyband here.
The rest of the world then followed Take That success. Mostly in Europe. In the same era, in 1993 Boyzone, an Irish boyband with two lead singers, Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately smashed the UK hit list. Just like their predecessor, Boyzone members sing and dance with their charm on the stage. And yes, they're gorgeous. They might not be famous in U.S but they're so famous in Asia. I guess Asia really loves cute boys in a band.
Another famous boyband formed in the 1990s - 2000 are
- Caught In The Act (a half English, half Dutch boy band. established in 1993 with four members of the group: Lee Baxter, Eloy de Jong, Bastiaan Ragas and Benjamin Boyce);
- Code Red (a British boyband with Phillip Andrew Rodell, Neil James Watts, Lee John Missen, and Roger Ratajczak as band members formed in the 1996);
- A 1 (a British-Norwegian boyband, originally made up of Mark Read, Ben Adams, Christian Ingebrigtsen and Paul Marazzi in 1998);
- Westlife (an Irish boy band established on 3 July 1998 with early line up consists of Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden)
- Blue (an English pop vocal group, whose members are Simon Webbe, Lee Ryan, Duncan James and Antony Costa. Blue originally formed in 2001);
- The Backstreet Boys (an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originally consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson)
- 'N Sync (an American boy band formed in Orlando, Florida consisted of JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick formed in 1995)
There are still dozens of famous boyband at that time, but the last two were the famous ones in U.S and the rest couldn't conquer the U.S music market but they were succesfully won Asians' heart. Like mine, since in the past I love Westlife :D. Anyway the list above were list of boyband which was quite famous in Indonesia started in the 1990s.
Then lately, started in 2009-2011 Indonesia's teens - the girls are crazy about Indonesian Boybands. Unlike the famous European and U.S boyband, Indonesian boybands are following Korean boybands. The musical genre is called K-popo which is a musical genre consisting of electropop, hip hop,pop, rock, and R&B music originating in South Korea (K-pop information here). Indonesian Boybands are copying the music genre, costume, style, performance, and dance of the famous first Korean Boybands. To name some of the band here are the list and i think many more will be formed in the near future.
- Max 5
- Sm*sh (Smash)
- NSG Star
- S9B (Super Nine Boys)
- M1st
- Treeji
- 3 in 1
I bet all of these boybands try hard to win the boyband competition. They are having the same criteria. Good looking, good appearance, good dancing, and ehm...to me not good vocal quality. But since they sing altogether the vocal harmony does help. Do the girls mind their vocal? No! I believe outer beauty come first. Smash, the most famous one so far even had a special 1 month reality show on TV. And cheers and screams were all around whenever the band went outing.
Well, no more story about Indonesian boybands since they're all new and so far there's no interesting story about them. Sadly they copy the Korean and Japan boybands so that to me they just a bunch of copycat boys. But wait..maybe i'm wrong too, they just meet the demand of the market. To be like exactly like one of the already succesful boybands. Will the boybands last long? I doubt that.
