Will Gen-Z be the Last Generation with a Proper Boy-Band Phase?
By: Kamilyah McMiller
It started as a dream, then a reality, to our reality, and now *maybe* a reality without teenage boy-bands.
From the album covers, songs, interviews, birthday cakes, magazine posters, merchandise, and music videos playing in Justice, boybands were adapted into many childhoods in the 2000s. My elementary school gym teacher even played One Direction songs for our warm-ups every Friday. I often reminisce about how much joy these bands gave me and my teenage self. I was obsessed with fandoms and seeking out the next concerts in my area. Even watching 5 Seconds of Summer when they were featured on Radio Disney and immediately becoming a fangirl of Luke Hemmings (definitely because of his lip piercing…) was something I realized I’ll never witness for the first time again. By being a young girl in the 2000-2010s, this was everything, and now the next era will never get a chance to experience anything like this.
We’ve seen Big Time Rush, The Jonas Brothers and so on revamp their teenage years and bring us more music after their confirmed breakups. Even 5 Seconds of Summer still continues to create music as they’ve been a group since 2011. With their music becoming popular again, they unfortunately cater more to the fans that originally grew up with them.
Around 2016, American boy-bands, Why Don’t We and PRETTYMUCH began to attempt to get started like others did years prior. PRETTYMUCH was also formed by Simon Cowell just like One Direction. But, the problem was that they couldn’t live up to the high expectations of trying to be the “next big boy-band”. It was almost as if they were trying to compete with each other instead of collaborating and making their own personal music.
Having had the privilege to go to another newer band, In Real Life and PRETTYMUCH’s concerts, it didn’t have the same adrenaline rush feeling of excitement. Of course, the artists played the role of being in a boy-band with the expected charisma, personality, and look. But, often I found that most bands started covering songs from previous bands like NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, One Direction, and 5 Seconds of Summer at their concerts. Instead of using their creativity for songs, they used it on concert imagery. While I didn’t have a major problem with this, their concerts felt as if they lost originality in trying to replace a standard of what a boy-band is supposed to be.
Bands of this new age also don’t last more than a few years before splitting up or stopped releasing music but still called themselves a “band”. I would see social media comments from fans questioning their new music and they would lead them on. This factor would have turned their listeners off, because at some point we need something new and fresh to hear from our favorite artists. Some wouldn’t even release a formal statement until people caught onto their slow dissociation of their declining band.
Being able to exist in a timeline of world famous boy-bands and seeing them turn into ones like this is disappointing. Our future generations won’t know what it’s like to see their favorite upcoming group on Good Morning America, “world tours”, or having the luxury of standing in a line for hours just to get an autograph from a member.
We can only hope the future doesn’t stop producing promising boy-bands, but we can spread and remember our favorite (or not so favorite) bands to re-capture our nostalgic memories.
