If you’ve been following this blog over the past few weeks, you’ll have seen that I claimed December 2002, and Blue’s cover of ‘Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word’, featuring Elton himself, as marking the end of the Golden Age of the Boyband…
I’ve gone into discussions, and answered questions on: what makes a boyband (dance routines, key changes), who the first boyband were (NKOTB), and whether or not Blazin’ Squad were a boyband (they weren’t, it’s official). In total, we’ve covered, enjoyed and/or endured forty boyband #1s over the course of thirteen chart years. Most have been ballads. Many have been garbage. A few have been classics.
So, in this post, I am going to offer you an alternative history. A ‘what might have been’. Six non-charttopping hits from six charttopping boybands. Six choons. Not a ballad in sight.
Color Me Badd – ‘All 4 Love’ (reached #5 in 1991)
Color Me Badd made #1 with the icky ‘I Wanna Sex You Up’. But, later in 1991, they returned with the genuinely catchy ‘All 4 Love’. It’s a cheesily soulful love song, with a looped piano riff and a funky horn section. Knight in shining armour, I’ll be your fairytale… are lyrics that in a ballad would have you swallowing back vomit; but that in an uptempo number like this are forgiveable. This record made top spot in the US (bravo America), but was their final Top 10 pretty much everywhere.
East 17 – ‘Deep’ (reached #5 in 1993)
To be honest, East 17 have nothing to prove. Their one chart-topper is probably the best boyband single ever released. On the one hand, this is quite an experimental boyband single, with an ominous squelchy bass, a floaty piano line, and a strange operatic vocal loop, mingling to make an atmospheric backing track. On the other, this is preposterously horny nonsense. East 17 were almost instantly cast as the Stones to Take That’s Beatles, and it is impossible to imagine Gary Barlow uttering lines like I wanna do it ’till my belly rumbles... or I’ll butter the toast if you lick the knife…
911 – ‘Bodyshakin’‘ (reached #3 in 1997)
911 had to wait a long time (by boyband standards) for a #1. Eleven singles over three years until their cover of Dr. Hook’s ‘A Little Bit More’ finally made it all the way. But what a damp squib that was. Especially when a banger such as ‘Bodyshakin” stalled at #3. In 1997, this was very a modern sounding pop song, something that Max Martin and Backstreet Boys would be churning out to great a success by the end of the decade. (Dare I say that 911 managed this because they completely ripped off ‘We’ve Got It Goin’ On’?) I struggled between this and ‘Party People… Friday Night’, which is a much cheesier disco number, so I attach that here for your pleasure.
Five – ‘Everybody Get Up’ (reached #2 in 1998)
‘Keep on Movin” aside, I found Five’s (sorry, 5ive’s) number ones underwhelming. Especially when earlier in their career they were releasing singles like this ‘I Love Rock n Roll’ sampling 1998 smash. I think, having slogged through all these boybands, Five were probably the most fun, and the most light on ballads. In classic ’90s music video fashion, the boys disrupt a school exam, tossing test papers willy-nilly, and deliver era-defining lines like I’m the bad boy that you invite for dinner, Ain’t got no manners ’cause I eat with my fingers…
Blue – ‘All Rise’ (reached #4 in 2001)
In a way, for Blue to wrap the Golden Era of the Boyband up was fitting, as they had offered a vision of the future of the genre. They were less concerned with dance routines and key changes, and more with slick R&B production and more mature lyrics. When boybands returned to the charts in the late ’00s, quite a few of them looked and sounded like Blue. Their second single (and first #1) ‘Too Close’ told a tale of trying to hide an erection, while their debut single ‘All Rise’ presented a breakup as a court case: I’m gonna tell it to your face, I rest my case... Less a boyband, more a young adultband.
A1 – ‘Caught in the Middle’ (reached #2 in 2002)
For their 3rd and final album, A1 also went for a more grown-up sound, a world away from their pointless cover of ‘Take on Me’. This was another way in which boybands adapted for the 2000s, incorporating guitars and moodier themes, and sheepskin jackets. By the middle of the decade, as Take That returned and Westlife kept plodding on, we’d be talking about ‘manbands’. Anyway, this is a catchy, minor key number. I think it would be fair to suggest it owes a certain debt to Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and A1 were hardly the first boyband to borrow a sound.
Up soon, we’ll be launching into our next fifty chart-toppers, which will take us from spring 2003 to early 2005. It will also take us to the 1000th UK number one, and I have some special posts planned when we get to that milestone. It will all be boyband-less, however. Celebrate or mourn as you see fit. Unless you count Busted and McFly as boybands… but let’s not go there just yet!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Love Caught In The Middle and All Rise, great pop tracks, and I’d bung in Backstreet Boys Everybody (Backstreets Back) and Larger Than Life in the mix too. Fly By II too, for Blue, and East 17 had some other bangers. Are duo’s boybands? If they are, PJ & Duncan will be along belatedly down the way, but as Ant & Dec/PJ & Duncan they had some interesting singles, if not quite memorable bangers. Better than their later career at least…. 🙂
Nah PJ and Duncan weren’t a boyband. They have to have at least three members. Having thought about this a lot recently, I’m now becoming a real stickler for the rules…
Yeah BSBs had some great ones. I was trying to include boybands whose #1s weren’t as good… But obviously E17 and Five’s are so I got a little sidetracked along the way. I thought about including NSYNC too, as the biggest boyband never to make number one.
Ooh yes forgot NSync they had some great tracks too and had that recent chart revival to boot. I Want You Back was a fave, bought that CD single on a Florida holiday during the last dregs of single releases in the USA – teen-aimed one track CD’s for 99cents were about the only things left other than extended remix cd’s with bonus tracks, which were almost the price of an album.
I saw someone on Reddit argue that traditional boy bands didn’t so much disappear in the early 2000s as get replaced. The idea was that pop-punk, emo-pop, and pop-rock bands like Panic! At the Disco, Simple Plan, My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, and even the Jonas Brothers effectively filled the same cultural role for mid-to-late-2000s teenagers. In the UK, you could probably add McFly and Busted to that list. I barely know McFly’s catalogue, but I do remember that acoustic rock song of theirs with the line “if this is love, love is easy.”
The argument kind of makes sense. These bands had largely female teen fanbases, wrote music aimed squarely at adolescent emotions, and inspired the same kind of devotion and hysteria that earlier boy bands did. The key difference was image. They were seen as more “respectable” or authentic than groups like Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC because they didn’t look as overtly manufactured or corporate, even though they still copped a lot of ridicule at the time.
Apparently, some people even thought Linkin Park were a boy band, mostly because they were six normal-looking guys rather than the deliberately rough or ugly image most nu metal bands leaned into (Fred Durst and Jonathan Davis weren’t exactly pretty boys), which is honestly hilarious in hindsight.
I’m excited for Take That’s comeback. I actually really enjoy a lot of Take That’s post-comeback material. I actually think they made better music after their comeback than the 90s (which from what I’ve seen most Take That hardcore fans seem to agree with me). Gary Barlow’s ego dropped significantly after being humbled by Robbie’s huge success and the failure of his own career and he became far more likeable and charming – the difference in how he presents himself in his interviews from the 90s and 2000s is outstanding, far more humble and less arrogant, though not that he was a bad guy, I can imagine everyone praising you as God’s gift to Earth it’d get to your heard – allowed the other members to contribute to the songwriter and be apart of the group’s musical/creative direction – while still being the leader, which is good because Gary is a good proven songwriter and all bands need a leader – and I think it improved the band’s music (Mark Owen in particular proved to be a good songwriter). And Jason, I had no idea the dude could sing so well. I listened to his songs with lead vocals and he has a lovely voice. He’s a way better singer than Howard – he has a very pleasant and earthy voice, especially for more folky/acoustic stuff, which 90s Take That were not doing but 2000s Take That were more open towards. Shame he didn’t get more lead vocals. He didn’t seem to enjoy being in a music band as much as the others.
I think you’re in for a treat discovering McFly’s back catalogue. I think they’re a genuinely great pop/rock group (definitely not a boyband!) and have seen them live three times…
Hello. I really enjoy reading here, have commented a few times, and of course subscribed to the playlist. Since I’m working on a similar project, albeit with a different target audience, I was wondering if we could collaborate a little? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an email address—maybe I’m just too dumb. So I’m trying this way, and maybe you could just get in touch with me. I’d be delighted.
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. What sort of collaboration did you have in mind?