Boy Bands: Will Boy Band Fade Away?

Will boy bands fade away? In the 1960s it was all about The Beatles and “BeatleMania”. After taking over not only Europe, but also America, The Beatles broke up ten years later and the boy band era was over. Fast forward twenty-three years later, new boy bands came to the scene. NSYNC and Backstreet Boys took over America from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. Boy bands exploded commercially and dominated the United States’ market, but soon the second boy band era was over. With a new wave of solo artist making it big in the United States, no one thought that boy bands will ever make a comeback. Surprisingly in 2010, Simon Cowell put together five teenagers in the show The X Factor without knowing they will soon take over the world. Five

TV show called The X Factor. Sadly, all five were turned down as solo artists and were told to pack their bags when suddenly the judges of the show called them back. One of the judges, Nicole Scherzinger, told them “You’re too talented to let go” and said that if they want to stay in the show, they will have to stay as a group (Bootcamp 2, 2010). The five teenagers agreed and on that day, July 23rd, 2010, One Direction was formed. As new episodes aired every week, the bigger the One Direction fandom became. In the end, One Direction placed in third but like Zayn Malik said “This isn’t the last of One Direction” (Final Part 1, 2010). Sure enough, they signed a £2 million recording contract with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco, and not long after One Direction released their first debut album Up All Night. Throughout the year 2012, One Direction made a name for themselves by slowly earning more musical experience and building their fandom. One Direction made history on the Billboard 200 albums chart as the first U.K. group to open at No. 1 with a debut album (Caulfield, 2012). In August 2012, the boy band's record sales exceeded 8 million singles, 3 million albums, and 1 million DVDs (Lane, 2012) and they performed "What Makes You Beautiful" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. In that same

In October 2012, One Direction taped a wakeup call encouraging their fans to get the education they need to reach their dreams through Get Schooled’s Fall Attendance Challenge (Gets Behind School Attendance Challenge, 2012). In 2013, One Direction started working with Comic Relief with a vision to free the world from poverty. One Direction’s Red Nose Day single “One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)” topped the charts in 63 countries in its first week of release and raised over £850k for Red Nose Day through single sales. The boy band made a visit to Africa in January 2013 where they met sick young children suffering from many different life threatening diseases. £1 million were donated to Red Nose Day as a result of the films from their trip. The band also inspired their dedicated fans to bake cakes to raise money for the campaign (Red Nose Day, 2013). During the 2013 Back-to-School season, One Direction become official partners with Office Depot in the Anti-Bullying campaign. Along with sending an anti-bullying message to teens, each member of One Direction picked a quote they specifically wanted to promote. The quotes chosen by the members were “Live Nice”, “Live Confident”, “Live True”, “Live Original”, and “Live Unique”. The 1D+OD Together Against Bullying back-to-school campaign helped raise $1 million for