When were boy bands over?
With N*Sync breaking up/going on break, in the summer of 2002 and Backstreet Boys having their last album released two years prior, I felt like boy bands were ancient history by March of 2003. Even in 2002, people were past backstreet and hearing less of N*Sync. I would imagine they disbanded because they knew that market was drying up.
Obviously, the market was over saturated and audiences had moved on. 2003 felt like it belonged to 50 Cent, OutKast, All American Rejects, Hillary Duff. I feel like a much rougher and louder production emerged to accompanying vocals. Seems like a lot of the production in music from 1997-2002 was much more streamline and designed to not distract from the vocalists where R&B was a major influence. It was almost like Y2Ks sleek space aged minimalism could be heard in this music where everything was smooth just below the vocals. You might able to attribute that to 9/11 but I think it was also the natural evolution from Y2K’s more unassuming sound. Boy Bands didn’t really make sense in the more aggressive sound of the 2000s. A big part of this too I think was Eminem and 50 Cent had much tougher and harder images. They epitomized a new kind of rugged masculinity and had noted female followings. They lacked all of the perceived femininity of boy bands, and avowed how “gay” they were in their lyrics. I think music executives noticed that and ran with it.
A 2004 episode of Kim Possible had a boy band spoofed named the O Boyz and in 2006 Disney Channel premiered a bite sized animated anthology series where one of the main segments was about a boy band running away from something and was called Boyz on The Run. I remember seeing the character designs, looking like performers from 1998 with those combo headphone and mic sets and the outro song sounded like something from 1999. I remember seeing both of these in 2004 and 2006 and feeling SHOCK at how dated they were and how kids who didn’t have older siblings to trickle down media out of their reach would be entirely unfamiliar with these references.
Disney Channel had the tween audience which was far more discerning and would know that that stuff was “so old” it’s like in Mean Girls when Cady thinks Katy Rose is The Spice Girls. There was a team of writers who knew what they were talking about.
For me Boy Bands felt over and done with by 2003, mane I’m wrong? I feel like 2003 might be too early or too late?