Monday, August 17, 2020

Post-Bop and Avant-Garde Jazz Saxophonist Keith Gamble: Boy Bands (Male Vocal Groups)

Post-Bop and Avant-Garde Jazz Saxophonist Keith Gamble: Boy Bands (Male Vocal Groups):       One of my favorite male vocal groups would have to be the Stylistics. Everyone has their personal favorites, but I was sold on the Sty...

Boy Bands (Male Vocal Groups)

      One of my favorite male vocal groups would have to be the Stylistics. Everyone has their personal favorites, but I was sold on the Stylistics in the early 1970s when they came-out with their hit "People Make The World Go Round". Notice, I said Male Vocal Group! My subject for this blog is on Boy Bands.


     Boy bands go back to the 19th century with a capella barbershop quartets. In general, barbershop quartets were groups that sung in four part harmony. Barbershop harmony is American part singing performed in barbershops by unaccompanied male singers, with the melody sung by the second voice from the top. One of the earliest boy band groups were The Ink Spots, popularized in the 1930s and 40s.


     The Ink Spots were a doo-wop group. Boy bands such as The Coasters, The Drifters, and many others represented late 40s and early 50s doo-wop style. Staples of boy bands are matching outfits, and singing in harmony, The Beatles met that criteria in the 1960s. However, The Beatles played their own instruments, and wrote songs. In the 1970s The Jackson 5 and The Osmonds were popular boy bands during that time. By the 1980s New Edition and New Kids On The Block were popular groups, as were Boy II Men, Backstreet Boys, and Nsync in the 1990s. In the 2000s the Jonas Brothers was the popular boy band, and One Direction in the 2010s. Currently, popular boy bands are K - Pop (Korean pop) groups that use synthesized music, dance routines, and colorful wardrops.


     What about The Temptations, and other popular singing groups from Motown, Philadelphia International, and other labels. Are they boy bands? I do not feel comfortable embracing that title, but one could make that argument. I think a more suitable term is male vocal group.