Boyband

Boy band
Stylistic origins	Pop, R&B, hip hop, electropop, dance-pop, k-pop, j-pop, Thai pop
Cultural origins	Early 1960s, United States, with precursors dating back to the mid-1950s, and the late 1970s, United Kingdom.
Typical instruments	Studio instrumentation: Vocals (usually in harmony), electronic backing, samplers, sequencers. Usual live instrumentation: synthesizers, electric guitar, bass guitar, drum kit, piano, with an optional horn: either solo saxophone or horn section.

A boy band (or boyband) is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. The first boy bands consisted of the Beatles, Jackson 5, the Monkees, and the Osmonds singing love songs marketed towards young females. Being vocal groups, most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage, making the term something of a misnomer. However, exceptions do exist. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances.

Some such bands form on their own. They can evolve out of church choral or gospel music groups, but are often created by talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. Due to this and their general commercial orientation towards a female audience of preteens, teenyboppers, or teens, the term may be used with negative connotations in music journalism. Boy bands are similar in concept to their counterparts, girl groups. Boy bands' popularity peaked thrice: in the 1960s (e.g., the Monkees and the Four Seasons), in the 1990s and early 2000s when acts such as the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Westlife, among others, dominated the top of the Billboard and pop charts, and in the early 2010s with the emergence of new boy bands such as JLS, Big Time Rush and One Direction.

The earliest forerunner of boy band music began in the late 19th century as a cappella barbershop quartets. They were usually a group of males and sang in four part harmonies. The popularity of barbershop quartets had been prominent into the earlier part of the 20th century. A revival of the male vocal group took place in the late 1940s and 1950s with the use of doo-wop music. Doo-wop bands sang about topics such as love and other themes used in pop music. The earliest traces of boy bands were in the mid-1950s although the term boy band was not used. African American vocal group The Ink Spots was one of the first of what would now be called boy bands. The term boy band was not established until the late 1980s as before that they were called male vocal groups or "hep harmony singing groups.

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