Boy bands have been around for a long time, and people still continue to support and cheer them on whether they are currently together or have even disbanded years ago. Fans of these bands have been called excessive. After a Harry’s House’s merch pop-up shop was set up, there were long lines for weeks, “We waited four hours in line in 80-degree weather, but it was totally worth it.” Said Ashley Maloy, 18, a fan of Harry, who went to the shop just to get his merchandise. 

When people think of boybands, they mostly think of One Direction, Backstreet Boys, The Beatles, or even the recent rise of K-pop groups like BTS. However, boy bands have been around even longer; rooting back to African Americans who would sing in churches and haircut shops in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

During this time, Americans performed racist productions as a form of entertainment called minstrel shows. In these shows, they would mock the groups by imitating the way they harmonized and sang. However, this caused the African American groups’ way of singing to reach the Americans, which became quickly ironic as Americans started to copy these early African American groups. 

Years later with the upbringing of The Beatles, they were often made fun of for their “feminine masculinity.” Therefore, Brian Epstein, manager of the band introduced a rebranding of the band in order to catch more attention from the female gaze while having men take them more seriously. Louis Welsh, manager of Westlife, said, “The perfect group will hook as many fans as possible, so you need five different looks; girls like guys from Eminem to Ronan Keating, so you have to include something for everyone.” 

The Beatles weren’t the only ones to do this, as NSYNC and Backstreet Boys manager Lou Pearlman also followed through with having a certain image for the boy bands. This was in order to cater to the public by having a band with different personalities and traits rather than just simply talent in singing. This was followed by One Direction and other boy bands. 

Boy bands have gotten hate from critics due to the fact that they may have gotten fame off of their “personality branding” and whether or not they are deemed “attractive”, however, AJ McLean, a former NSYNC member disagreed as he and the other members were overworked, he went on to say, “Day in and day out, probably rehearsed 6 to 8 hours a day in there.” He also said, “When you’re working 18 hours a day, just to get to sleep at night, you don’t have time to make sense of things and look over contracts.” NSYNC and Backstreet Boys members were mistreated, and some critics tend to overlook the effort and work the groups put into their music. 

Boy bands will continue to grow and become more and more popular, many believe that they don’t deserve their fame due to the majority of it coming from “immature teen girls”, however, the boy bands try their best to impress their fans while working hard to form music many will love.