As Long As You Love Me
an exploration of late 90's boy bands
It all starts with the Beatles.
My theory is that the explosive proliferation of boy bands in the late 1990’s can be traced in a straight line from the boys from Liverpool. A Hard Day’s Night was seen by producers from Raybert Productions (who would go on to fund Easy Rider, The Last Picture Show, and Five Easy Pieces), and they decided to develop their own band that they could use as a marketing tool. They ran an ad asking for auditions in September of 1965, ending up with four actor/musicians with personas tailored to meet the Beatles archetypes. Micky Dolenz was John Lennon, Davy Jones was Paul McCartney, Michael Nesmith was George Harrison, and Peter Tork was Ringo Starr. Yes, we’re talking about the Pre-Fab Four, the Monkees. They were out of commission by 1970, but those five years served as a huge influence to later groups.
At roughly the same time, two other groups formed from family roots. From Indiana came the Jacksons, five brothers marshaled by their taskmaster father Joe into a singing and dancing juggernaut. They began playing music together in 1964, playing paid shows in 1965, and they were signed to a major label by 1968. In 1971, the Jackson Five were the biggest act in music, supported by incredibly intricate choreography, the finest songs available to Motown production, and a marketing machine that even included their own Saturday morning cartoon series.
Utah’s own Osmond family began singing barbershop in the late 1950’s, making their way to Disneyland as featured performers by 1962. They parlayed their Disney connection into a steady gig on the Andy Williams show, both singing and occasionally acting in comedy skits. By 1969, they convinced their father George to let them perform pop and rock ‘n’ roll in addition to barbershop; MGM Records hooked them up with the Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama to record R&B-inflected bubblegum that (although largely forgotten today) stands up to any pop/rock music of the era. Their music is just as good as, if not better than, that of the Jacksons. (Sharpen your pitchforks and light your torches.) The Osmonds had their own parallel marketing team, appealing to more conservative (read: consciously or subconsciously racist) audiences than the Jackson Five. They also had their own cartoon series, made by the same Rankin/Bass firm.
Both groups were essentially undone by the same villain: puberty. When Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond went through puberty and their voices changed, the sound (and image) was altered. Although they continued apace in each case, their sales took a hit and their revenues for touring and merchandise dipped. Their times at the top each lasted roughly five years. Even the most talented and marketable boy band has a limited shelf life, whether through commercial pressures or internal strife. Usually, it’s a combination.
For example, consider the Bay City Rollers. A minor Scottish band with a fluctuating lineup and middling commercial success added a final member (16-year-old Stuart Wood) and recorded their American debut “Saturday Night'“ in 1975 under the tutelage of future mogul Clive Davis. This kickstarted “Rollermania”, a brief but intense two years or so where they had multiple international tours, their own television show, and several huge hits. It didn’t last; consumer tastes changed, members wanted to pursue more mature music, and management fought about money. By 1981, they were finished for all intents and purposes.
1982 marked a turning point in boy band evolution. Boston-based entrepreneur and aspiring music maven Maurice Starr discovered New Edition at a talent show he organized, and he quickly took advantage of Brooke Payne's hard work in developing their skills to the next level. I've written about New Edition at length, so I won't belabor the point that they were hugely influential to both R&B and boy bands.
Shortly after New Edition's emergence, a long-running band from Puerto Rico made their English language debut. Menudo began in 1977 as the brainchild of Edgardo Diaz, who cast three of his cousins and two other brothers as his own Spanish-language version of the Jackson Five. The most intriguing aspect of Menudo is that it bypassed the usual five year rule by intentionally changing members once the oldest performers aged out of the target demographic or physically grew past the rest of the group. The franchise lasted for twenty years in that incarnation, selling millions of albums worldwide before collapsing under the weight of financial mismanagement and allegations of abuse.
The modern boy band is largely built on the model of New Edition’s successor, the New Kids on the Block. Once Maurice Starr was forcibly removed from stewardship of New Edition, he decided to transfer the template onto a more mainstream (read: whiter) group of young performers. The group formed in 1984, and by 1986 had released an album on Columbia Records that was initially marketed to African-American listeners. The debut was a flop, but Starr was able to leverage his past success into a second album. Hangin’ Tough skewed away from the naïve bubblegum of the previous release, incorporating both modern R&B and soft rock. A grassroots surge in popularity allowed NKOTB to book a concert tour with Tiffany, and promotional muscle pivoted them to headliners soon thereafter. Worldwide popularity followed like dominoes falling, and by 1990 they were the biggest musical act on the planet. Unfortunately, the industry underwent several sea changes in the next two or three years resulting in disappointment with their 1994 album Face The Music. Within a year, they had broken up for the next decade and a half.
Several impresarios took inspiration from NKOTB’s success, including Nigel Martin-Smith’s Take That, Louis Walsh’s Boyzone, and Tom Watkins’ East 17. In particular, Take That ruled the British charts in the early 1990’s on the singing talent of Gary Barlow and the “bad-boy” image of Robbie Williams. Gary Barlow was not only the lead singer but was also the primary songwriter rather than relying on outside composers. The bad boy image was ultimately their downfall; the inevitable implosion of the group occurred in 1995, after Robbie’s drug problems and media notoriety led him to exit acrimoniously. They did reunite after a decade apart, and even Williams returned in 2010.
The focus of this article, though, is the late 1990’s and therefore rests on one person: Lou Pearlman. He was the man behind the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, LFO, and O-Town, a blimp taxi company, a ponzi scheme, a pump-and-dump stock fraud, an insurance scam, and some wire fraud to boot. I am not making any of this up. He is an interesting character, and cannot be summed up in a single newsletter post. Just go watch this documentary (produced by Lance Bass!) to get a better picture.
Now let’s move on to the music. Some of these songs are really bad, but they are the most pure example of what each of these bands was capable of. Take a trip down memory lane and see what might get jostled loose in the old cerebellum.
10. Girl on TV - LFO
LFO was formed in 1995 by Rich Cronin, Brad Fischetti, and Brizz Gillis in the Boston suburbs to little or no acclaim. They took a hiatus before reemerging under the tutelage of Lou Pearlman in 1999. LFO is perhaps most notable for “Summer Girls”, which has the dumbest lyrics of all time. I couldn’t pick that song for ethical reasons, so I chose the second single from the same debut album. It’s marginally less dumb, but still very brainless.
9. Slam Dunk (Da Funk) - Five
Five was founded by Bob and Chris Herbert (the management team behind the Spice Girls), but was quickly handed off to Simon Cowell. They signed a multiple album deal that resulted in British success, however American success eluded them. Allegedly they were offered the chance to record both “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and “Bye Bye Bye”, but thought the songs unsuitable for their pop-rap style. Simon Cowell is still kicking himself. “Slam Dunk (Da Funk)” was a minor US hit, reaching #86 on the Billboard charts.
8. Bang Bang Boom - The Moffatts
The Moffatts were a Canadian group of three triplets (two identical twins and a fraternal triplet) and their older brother. They cut their teeth on the country music circuit as children, even performing in the mecca of bland inoffensive pop Branson, Missouri with the Osmonds. 1998 saw their entire approach to music change: playing all of their own instruments, adopting a teen-pop image, and attempting to go mainstream. Their second mainstream album Submodalities skewed towards power-pop, including my selection “Bang Bang Boom”.
7. Swear It Again - Westlife
Ireland’s second big boy band was the the second attempt at catching fire for music mogul Louis Walsh after Boyzone. It was even more successful, marrying R&B influenced vocals with baby-faced wide-eyed innocence. They are the most successful boy band since the Beatles in their home country and in the UK, despite never really having any American impact. “Swear It Again” was their only chart appearance in the US, hitting #20 in 2000.
6. All or Nothing - O-Town
The winners of the reality show Making the Band formed O-Town in 2000, again under the guidance of Lou Pearlman. “All or Nothing” was the second single from their first album, and is by far their biggest song. It sounds like it was grown in a lab specifically to sell records to impressionable teenage girls, which isn’t that far from the truth. The song was written by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, the authors of “Swear It Again” among many other Westlife songs, but it was rejected by the Irish band. It hit #3 with O-Town, who are perhaps the most artificial band in a genre filled with artifice.
5. MMMBop - Hanson
It’s Hanson. You know Hanson, you love Hanson. Everyone of a certain age has fond memories of “MMMBop”. Three brothers from Oklahoma did their time on the festival circuit with detours in contemporary Christian music before attracting the attention of major labels at South by Southwest with this song. Middle of Nowhere went to #2 (kept from the top spot by those dastardly Spice Girls) on the strength of one of the most perfect pop songs ever.
4. Because of You - 98 Degrees
My definition of “boy band” is fairly broad musically, as in all honesty 98 Degrees has more in common with early 90’s R&B like Jodeci or Boyz II Men. Formed by four Ohio singers themselves rather than assembled by a producer, the “male vocal group” (as they preferred to be called) wrote much of their own material. “Because of You” is an exception, coming from Swedish pop mavens in the vein of Max Martin or Christian Karlsson. The song hit #3 in 1998 in the US, and was also successful internationally.
3. Love Me For a Reason - Boyzone
If you clicked all of the links in the intro section above, you might recognize this song. (Also, I love your dedication.) A cover of an Osmonds song, this was the first Boyzone song to make a significant chart impact in Ireland and the UK. Boyzone was formed by Louis Walsh as an explicit attempt to create an “Irish Take That”. Walsh used his media skill to promote the group even before they had recorded any material, appearing on the Late Late Show incredibly early in their career. Boyzone is compared often to Westlife, and their success is overshadowed by Westlife’s. Although not as polished or slick, there is a certain charm to Boyzone that Westlife never achieved. Plus, I love a good Osmonds cover.
2. Bye Bye Bye - *NSYNC
So much of this article is based on Lou Pearlman, but “Bye Bye Bye” was recorded as a celebration of *NSYNC freeing themselves from his grasp. In the same way as New Edition flourished after leaving Maurice Starr, *NSYNC recorded No Strings Attached as a statement. It’s arguably the best teen pop album of the era, combining Swedish pop sensibilities with incredible visual stimulation. The puppetry imagery is powerful, reflecting the way Pearlman “pulled the strings” of the group. Freed from his control, they chose more aggressive songs like “Bye Bye Bye”, an ostensible ode to romantic relationships disintegrating. Good art works on more than one level, and this is good art.
1. I Want It That Way - Backstreet Boys
Max Martin, y’all. Max Martin. “I Want It That Way” is Max Martin’s crowning glory as a songwriter: a midtempo ballad with intricate harmonies, spare but catchy instrumentation, and lyrics included as an afterthought. The boys from Orlando say it’s their signature song. The video has been watched over a billion times on YouTube, and it sold a ridiculous number of singles across the globe. The Backstreet Boys are the kings of late-90’s boy bands, and this is their best song. Look on their works, ye mighty, and despair.
If you liked what you’ve read today, I invite you to click any and all of the following buttons:
…and have this playlist for good measure: