FEATURES March 21, 2012
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN by Alyssa Melillo
3GD GHFG OHSBGDC RBQD@LR DBGN NƤ SGD V@KKR NE 1@CHN City Music Hall. Bright beams of light illuminate the dark RS@FD ENKKNVDC AX DWOKNRHNMR @MC @ KHMD NE Ʀ@LDR SG@S L@SDQH@KHYD EQNL SGD ƦNNQ %NTQ RHKGNTDSSDR @OOD@Q ADGHMC a rising screen as the sold-out concert hall bursts with RGQHDJR @MC B@LDQ@ Ʀ@RGDR !TS SGHR @BS HRMŗS +@CX &@F@ Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber—it’s Big Time Rush, the band with a Nickelodeon show of the same name. Boy bands such as Big Time Rush are becoming sensations in the American music industry again. After the popularity of New Kids on the Block in the 1980s and ’N Sync and Backstreet Boys in the ’90s and early 2000s, the allure of male vocal groups vanished the same time Justin Timberlake said “Bye, Bye, Bye” to his band and went solo. Such bands have tried to make it big in the U.S. since then, but they typically saw mediocre record sales and little to no success. The term “boy band” typically refers to a group of young, eye-candy-status-worthy men who dance and sing, and whose music is written, played and produced by other people. They usually form through audition processes, or are “manufactured,” and mostly appeal to pre-teen audiences. Boy bands have been around since the early 19th century in the form of a capella Barbershop quartets, but the concept has since evolved. Sociologists David Croteau, William Hoynes and Stefania Milan challenge the existence of boy bands in today’s music scene in the book Media/Society. “In the absence of
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any major boy band hits in recent years, a group of young men wanting to sing together today would have consider@AKD CHƧBTKSX HM FDSSHMF @ L@INQ QDBNQC CD@K Ś SGDX VQHSD Big Time Rush, along with British-Irish band One Direction, however, rose to incredible yet unexpected fame over the last two years. The groups are constant presences on music charts, they’ve acquired huge fan bases around the world and they both sold out headlining tours. Mainstream radio stations also play their songs, and invite them to their studios for meet-and-greet opportunities and live acoustic performances. “I think that things go in waves,” Big Time Rush member Kendall Schmidt, said in an interview with PopStar Magazine ř( SGHMJ HSŗR CHƤDQDMS SG@M HS TRDC SN AD ( SGHMJ VDŗQD kind of recreating it, almost. I’m glad that it’s coming back because it’s a lot of fun.” Big Time Rush—James Maslow, 21, Logan Henderson @MC "@QKNR /DM@ ANSG @MC 2BGLHCS ŕHR ƥQRS JMNVM ENQ HSR RGNV VGHBG AD@QR @ ƥBSHNM@K OKNSKHMD @ANTS ENTQ hockey players from Minnesota who try to make it big as a band in Los Angeles. The show premiered on Nickelodeon in November 2009 to 3.5 million viewers, making it the most successful live-action debut in Nickelodeon’s hisSNQX 3NC@X SGD RGNV XHDKCR @ANTS LHKKHNM ODQ DOHRNCD 3GD ED@STQD KDMFSG ƥKL Big Time Movie, for which the band received permission from Apple to cover six of The Beatles’ songs to release on a soundtrack, premiered earlier this