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4[[quoteright:349:[[Music/{{NSYNC}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nsyncreunion.png]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:349:{{All girls want|BadBoys}} band boys.]]
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10->''"A boy band is usually five, sometimes three, never four (for some reason) unless somebody leaves. Usually no instruments, sort-of club tracks that would've been huge in Europe a few years before, involved choreography, all five members have five distinct personalities. They just had incredible charisma, you know, and a 13-year old girl will lose her mind."''
11-->-- '''Dave Holmes''', ''The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story''
12
13A very specific kind of five-man vocal group. Typically, you're in a Boy Band if you began recording while still in your teens; if you and your bandmates are all extremely {{pretty|Boy}}; if few, if any of you, play instruments; if your boss is a large and often intimidating man; if you [[DeadHorseGenre can't get any respect]] from the Serious Music Critics; if you have a hard time [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids crossing over to an adult audience]]; and ''especially'' if the girls can't get enough of you. Can generate a PeripheryHatedom when a boy band is popular enough.
14
15You definitely were in a Boy Band if, years and years after the fact, your fandom looks back on your early albums as an embarrassing phase, GuiltyPleasure, SoBadItsGood, or (if it's old enough) {{Camp}}. Songs from said groups often qualify as SillyLoveSongs, many of them trying to convey warm and fuzzy feelings.
16
17The term "boy-band" is generally reserved for groups which are assembled by a record company or other entity, whereas most bands form organically (although there are exceptions, in both directions). Some of the tropes and musical stylings typical to Boy Bands started with Music/TheMonkees and several other groups of TheSixties era. [[note]] Technically, they ''could'' be considered boybands as well, but they are missing several of what are generally considered important aspects of the "boy-band" -- see below [[/note]] When most people hear "Boy Band" they tend to think of the late-80's -- late-90's bands listed below.
18
19Most Boy Bands follow a particular FiveManBand archetype, established by Music/NewEdition and Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock, that differs from the traditional one used on this wiki. It is as follows:
20
21* '''The Heartthrob / Sweet One:''' The unofficial face of the band, and the one who was put there to draw the {{Squee}} of millions of adoring teenage girls (at least, the most {{Squee}}). Most likely a former model and the MrFanservice of the group, often appearing shirtless in posters and photo shoots. He is also the one most likely to have a [[BreakoutCharacter successful solo career]] once the group disbands. If the band gets a movie, count on him to be TheHero. In the most extreme case, [[SpotlightStealingSquad he might be far more popular than the rests of the band.]]
22* '''The Bad Boy / Rebel:''' Usually TheBigGuy of the band. He's the one with a rougher edge who wearing the black shirt and jeans or leather jacket in those videos where they're not all wearing matching clothes. If he's ''really'' edgy, he may also have a tattoo. Put in to cater to those [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys girls who want bad boys]].
23* '''The Cute One:''' A second heartthrob. Less sexually threatening than the Sweet One, and often meant as a {{Foil}} to the Bad Boy. Often stereotyped as gay, or comes out later in life.
24* '''The Older Brother:''' A cool, reassuring figure that the girls can relate to. He might be TheSmartGuy or TheLancer but can be [[TheLeader an official leader of some bands]] too.
25* '''The Shy One:''' Nerdier than the rest of the band, usually TheQuietOne or TheSmartGuy. He's cast because NerdsAreSexy. May come off as wondering what the hell he's doing in the band in the first place.
26
27In the examples below, you'll notice very few black R&B groups are included such as Jodeci or Blackstreet[[note]]It's worth pointing out that they predate the Backstreet Boys by several years. However, after the latter group's success, they started stylizing their name as "[=BLACKstreet=]".[[/note]], despite having similar appeal. This is because they generally don't fit the mold of a boy band: they're more likely to form among themselves, less likely to follow the Five Man Band archetype as explained above, and are more likely to have rougher edges (Parental Advisory stickers are not unheard of), making them ''slightly'' more appealing to males.
28
29Although they are not very famous outside Asia, Japan has been creating boy bands since TheSeventies. The most notable boy band factory is [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys Johnny's Jimusho]], which currently manages about ''fifteen'' boy bands. Today Johnny's bands dominate the charts, with SMAP and Music/{{Arashi}} topping pretty much constantly. Dramas that famous boyband members star in pretty much always do well, and you will see members of popular boybands on TV variety shows quite a lot. The boyband machine is so well-oiled in Japan that many of the tropes applied in the West don't function -- boybands have large adult followings (usually middle-aged women) and men seem to be able to handle it, if not love it -- you WILL sing A-RA-SHI many times in karaoke in mixed company, just because everybody knows it.
30
31Lately, Korea has been getting on the action too with bands like [[Music/DongBangShinKi DBSK]], [[Music/TwoPM 2PM]], Music/SHINee, Music/B2ST, U-KISS, Music/SuperJunior, etc. This goes hand in and with the general k-pop explosion of the [[TurnOfTheMillennium late 00s]] and [[TheNewTens the past few years]]. They're significantly more popular in the Western world than the Japanese boy bands. By far the biggest of them all, though, is Music/{{BTS}}, who has been been considered the biggest boy band in the world ever since One Direction went on hiatus. Still, there are other K-pop boy bands that have growing fanbases all over the world. In fact, Korea has fully embraced this trope the last few years, with tens of boy bands being active at the same time, many of which have fandoms both in and outside Korea. There are new ones debuting constantly, and some already have followings before they officially have their debut.
32
33The boy band scenes are noticeably different in the US and the UK:
34* In Britain, the boy band scene is much larger and it's relatively easy to get a hit. Regardless of how popular the biggest boy band at a given time was, most groups had no problem hitting the charts. Likewise, the most popular groups were able to remain successful well into their adulthood.
35* In America, boy bands are not as ubiquitous and have a much shorter lifespan, usually falling into oblivion once their fans [[FleetingDemographic grow older]]. More notably, the most popular boy bands usually monopolized the market and their competition struggled very badly in their shadows. This was especially prevalent in the 2010s, when the "phenomenon" group turned out to be a British export whereas all the American groups were misfires.
36
37Boy bands are a major source of RealPersonFic (a subgenre called bandslash), where you basically have one of two types: Female OC woos band member, or the band members woo each other. In Japan, the majority of RPF {{Doujinshi}} are bandslash.
38
39Most boy bands tend to last around five years before members are released from their contracts (or they simply expire) because something else has come along or because they simply got too old to meet the "boyish" requirements. Depending on the success of their subsequent individual projects, many [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether re-form]] 15-30 years after their heyday to cash in on their now-nostalgic original fandom -- this phase can last decades. Expect at least one ReplacementGoldfish for a member who's become a successful solo artist/died young/has a non-entertainment career they don't want to walk away from for the time necessary to record an album and go on tour.
40
41To some extent, boybands [[UnbuiltTrope were preceded]] in the late 50s and early 60s by 4-man bands singing harmonic and a capella/Doo-wop tunes like The Four Freshmen, the Drifters, or Jay and the Americans
42
43The GirlGroup is the DistaffCounterpart, although girl groups are usually built with a different structure, usually a primary lead and two or three glorified back-up singers. Oddly enough, girl groups notably preceded boy bands by years, examples being the wildly successful [[TheSixties 60s artists]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystals The Crystals]] (of "He's a Rebel" and "Then He Kissed Me") and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shangri-Las The Shangri-Las]] (of "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)").
44
45Sub-trope to TeenPop.
46
47----
48[[foldercontrol]]
49
50[[folder:Some Boy Bands of Note (in rough chronological order)]]
51* Music/TheMonkees: Possibly the UrExample. Better than they had to be, but still the result of a calculated marketing effort aimed squarely at Beatles fans' younger siblings. On the other hand, they were definitely the ''opposite'' of this trope in several ways:
52** First, almost from the very first they were rebelling against their puppetmasters, ultimately achieving a degree of creative autonomy typically not seen in the boy bands of today.
53** Second, they couldn't be neatly slotted into the five-man roles -- there was overlap in all directions (Davy fit the Heartthrob and Cute slots, Mike had shades of both Older Brother and Bad Boy, Peter would be the Shy One except he was quite extroverted, and Micky was a wildcard who was probably closer to "wacky guy next door" than anything else).
54** Third, they were all accomplished musicians and/or singers (and in the case of Micky and Davy, actors, as well); and on their later work they often did their own songwriting (with tunes such as "Mary, Mary", "For Pete's Sake", and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere")
55** Fourth, their critical reputation has actually grown with the passing years, including and especially for their then-disastrous film, ''Film/{{Head}}''.
56** Fifth, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking there were four of them, not five.]]
57* The Osmonds: A [[TheSeventies 1970s]] Boy Band from Provo, Utah, composed of six brothers and on occasion one sister, who were collectively renowned for their super-excellent gleaming dentition and for their open and positive representation of their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) faith. Posterity also grants them a couple of not-bad tunes (including the incongruously HardRock "Crazy Horses").
58* The Bay City Rollers: a Scottish boy band of [[TheSeventies 1970s]], they were one of the last of the proto-boy bands to play their own instruments, but they were not involved in the songwriting process like The Monkees were. Were a sensation in Europe during the early 1970s, helping put Edinburgh on the musical map and popularising Royal Stuart tartan as a fashion fad among girls. Didn't become popular in the United States until 1976, when their popularity back home was undergoing a bit of a wane, and are best known there for their #1 smash hit "Saturday Night" (which, curiously enough, wasn't issued at all in the UK). Still on stage, playing "Yesterday's Hero". Unspeakable things will happen to the first one saying "Oh, the [[{{Irony}} Irony]]".
59* Music/NewEdition: Remembered mostly nowadays for being Bobby Brown's old band, but they established the typical R&B-lite musical style used by boy bands ever since. They were all teenagers, all cute and wholesome (despite being from gritty [[{{Southies}} Roxbury, MA]]), and had the all-important Large Intimidating Boss (Maurice Starr). One of the first boy bands to have one of their lead members leave for a solo career: The other members fired Brown at the end of 1985, and he went on to have a very successful solo career. The group lasted four more years without him before going on a "hiatus" in 1990; Three members subsequently formed the NewJackSwing group Bell Biv [=DeVoe=] and had a huge pair of hits with "Poison" and "Do Me!". New Edition reunited in 1996 with all six members - both Brown and his replacement Johnny Gill were on board - and still tour and record from time to time.
60* Music/{{Menudo}}: A Puerto Rican group best known to non-Latino people as "Music/RickyMartin's Old Band" (it was much more popular in Latin America and it was the TropeMaker / TropeCodifier there). Notable because they combined this with a [[RevolvingDoorBand rotating cast]]; when you [[Dangerous16thBirthday turned sixteen]][[note]]this rule was terminated in 1988[[/note]], grew facial hair, or underwent a voice change, you were fired. The group lasted from 1977 to 1997, and about 30 singers passed through the band in that time. The Menudo name was retired in 1997, and their management kept the final lineup together under the new name MDO, which continued until 2008. There's also another successor group, El Reencuentro, which formed in 1998 and features a lineup of former members, including a few from the original lineup.
61* The Boys: A successful four brother act (Khiry, Hakeem, Taji, and Bilal Abdulsamad), consisting of bubblegum R&B-Pop in the late eighties and early 90s. OlderThanTheyLook and favored after Music/{{The Jackson Five}}, their baby faces, smooth moves, and sweet voices top both the R&B and Pop charts with "Dial My Heart", "Lucky Charm", "Happy", and "Crazy". By their second album, they produced and sang their own music, while producing for other musicians. Prior to making music, they acted in several t.v. shows, like Series/{{A Different World}} and Series/{{TwoTwoSeven}}. They even appeared in Music/MichaelJackson's movie, {{Moonwalker}}, in the kid's version of his hit video, "Bad", titled "Badder". Now, they write and produce their own music, as well as other acts, in Gambia, West Africa, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
62* Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock: Enormously successful in the late 80s and early 90s, [=NKotB=] is the best candidate for TropeCodifier: they're the group that many people will think of when asked "Who was the first boy band?" They became bigger than New Edition by appealing to a wider audience, while New Edition mostly attracted the African-American demographic. However, they're mostly derided by their lack of actual vocals in comparison to New Edition. It should be noted that New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys got along real well together for years and, due to that goodwill, eventually even combined into the supergroup NKOTBSB.
63* Hikaru Genji was the biggest boyband managed by Johnny's from the mid eighties to mid nineties, and still have a bit of a retro fandom inside Japan.
64* SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People) is often touted as Japan's national idol group and is quite possibly the longest running boy band of all time. Formed in 1988 and made up of members of the Skateboys troupe that acted as background dancers for Hikaru Genji, SMAP was considered a commercial flop after their debut single failed to top the Oricon charts. Despite these early difficulties, the group made a name for themselves through their appearances on variety shows and later became the first idol group to host their own. With their successful segue into hosting and acting gigs, SMAP remain the gold standard for idol groups today. Though Arashi has eclipsed SMAP in popularity, they are still considered an institution in Japan if the ruckus caused after the group broke up in early 2016 is any indication.
65* Music/TakeThatBand: Not [[TakeThat the trope]], but Music/RobbieWilliams' old band. Massive in the UK for most of the nineties, they split in 1996 at the height of their fame and just as they were about to cross-over into the United States. They have since reformed as a "man band" with a demographic of "their existing fans, now older". Notable for having almost all of their material written by a member of the band, Gary Barlow, instead of outside songwriters. They were the most successful U.K. boy band of all time for two decades before being dethroned by One Direction.
66* East 17 were marketed as "The Rolling Stones to Take That's The Beatles", with a tougher sound influenced by hip-hop. However, they were outlasted by Take That and are best known today for their biggest hit (and first ballad) "Stay Another Day".
67* Music/BoyzIIMen: Took NKOTB's place in the early-to-mid 90's, but had a more traditional R&B sound and were marketed more towards the adult[=/=]general market instead of directly at teenagers like many of the bands they would inspire. Were one of the most successful groups of any genre in the 1990s, scoring four #1 hits and several more that made the Top 5. Their 1992 single "End of the Road" remains the best selling single in Motown Records history. They directly influenced many of the bands listed below, particularly the ones that strayed more towards R&B.
68* Color Me Badd: Similar to the aforementioned Take That[=/=]East 17 example, this group was more or less the "edgier" alternative to Boyz II Men. While they were less successful, they still had two #1 singles and performed a similar-sounding New Jack Swing style that their rivals had early on and incorporating some rapped interludes.
69* Immature: Another early '90s group whose music had a New Jack Swing and hip-hop elements. Were something of a SpearCounterpart to Music/{{TLC}} early in their career, and they often appeared in teen movies and were regular musical guests on early seasons of ''Series/AllThat''. Changed their name to IMX in 1999 in order to reflect the more mature sound they had at that point, but they didn't last much longer after that.
70* 3T: Formed by three of Music/MichaelJackson's nephews (they are his brother [[Music/TheJacksonFive Tito's]] sons) and were signed to his MJJ label. 3T only had one hit in the US, "Anything" in 1995, and a couple more top ten hits in the UK. They had completed a second album in the late 90s, but it was never released due to Michael Jackson's strained relationship with Sony.
71* The Music/BackstreetBoys: Notable for being the first of the 90's Boy Bands to throw off previously mentioned large, intimidating boss (their manager was infamous con man Lou Pearlman, who ended up dying in prison for fraud). They're also the record holder for the most successful boy band ''ever''.
72* Music/{{NSYNC}}: Originally derided for riding the coattails of the Music/BackstreetBoys, they nonetheless proved themselves immensely popular. Their albums ''No Strings Attached'' and ''Celebrity'' hold the second and third spots for highest first week album sales in the US. Where Music/JustinTimberlake got his start, if you don't count ''Series/TheMickeyMouseClub'' (which also gave us band mate Music/JCChasez). They were also famous for their self-deprecating sense of humor and self-awareness regarding their image. They embraced parodies, be it of themselves or boy bands and teen idols in general. As noted multiple times below, they were the TropeCodifier for many of the below parodies and even participated and crafted some of their own.
73* Boyzone: Irish boy band who took over from Music/TakeThatBand after their split and were hugely successful in the UK (Despite several attempts at the market, they [[AmericansHateTingle never cracked America]]). The band lasted for three albums, most of the tracks on which were written or co-written by the members themselves (though their most well known song, "No Matter What", was written by, of all people , Music/JimSteinman and Creator/AndrewLloydWebber for their musical adaptation of ''Film/WhistleDownTheWind''), and broke up in 2000. Ronan Keating was the only member to have a successful solo career, and the band eventually reunited in 2007. Stephen Gately of the group was the first member of a really successful boy band to come out as gay, but sadly died at 33 in 2009. Boyzone released four new albums with a more mature sound after his death, and called it quits for good in 2019.
74* Music/{{Westlife}}: Irish group founded by the same manager as Boyzone, Louis Walsh. Also co-managed by Simon Cowell. Took over from Boyzone as top UK boy band as they started to decline, scoring 13 #1 hits throughout their career. Credited by non-fans with helping to end the 1990s UK boy band boom by being so sentimental and lacking in musical or lyrical edge or sexuality that they seemed to be designed more for the '''over-sixty''' demographic than the under-sixteen. Which made their win at MTV's [[http://www.mtv.com/content/news/2012/boybandbattle/ Boy Band Battle]] even more baffling and earned {{Death Glare}}s from all the losing fandoms, especially since the big ones like the Jackson 5, NKOTB, Backstreet, and *NSYNC were all wiped out in the first stages. The group disbanded in 2012, but reunited in 2018.
75* [[Music/{{Five}} 5ive]]: Another late 90s boy band, but [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace British]]. Known for being slightly edgier than a standard boy band with funk, rap and rock influences in their music. Mostly remembered by being considered the most successful British boy band in the United States until 2012 [[note]]Although Take That's "Back for Good" was a much bigger hit than 5ive's [[OneHitWonder one hit]] "When the Lights Go Out", 5ive had the Disney Channel backing them in the United States, which boosted their album sales significantly.[[/note]] and for releasing a cover of [[{{Music/Queen}} Queen's]] "We will Rock You" which was successful in the charts but draws very polarizing opinions to this day. Attempted to reunite twice, once in 2006 which failed, and again in 2014 with far more success. Two members have left the band, one in 2012 and another in 2014. The band has performed as a trio since.
76* 98 Degrees: Notable for having four members rather than the more typical five, for being Nick Lachey's old band, and for being discovered by their label instead of assembled by it. They originally had a pure R&B sound before ExecutiveMeddling re-purposed them as a boy band (which was quite ironic, considering they were signed to Motown), although most of their big hits were R&B style ballads and midtempo fare.
77* Son by Four: a Puerto Rican group that formed in the late 1990s. Originally a quartet, they had their biggest hit with "A Puro Dolor", which reached gold and topped the Billboard Latin charts for weeks. The English version, "Purest of Pain" also did well and the group performed alongside Music/{{NSYNC}} at the inagural Latin Grammys. Personnel changes saw the lineup become a trio (later a duo) while a change in focus saw the group move away from secular pop music and become a contemporary Catholic liturgical music group.
78* Plus One was [[ChristianRock Christian music]]'s answer to the trend. Due to the perceived need for "[[TheMoralSubstitute wholesome alternatives]]" to the then-insanely popular Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, the group had amassed a large number of fans before their debut album was even released. They had the expected five-man configuration for two albums, then two members departed and the remaining three attempted to re-brand themselves as more of a pop/rock band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments, which only lasted for one more album before they disbanded.
79* Blue: early 2000s British boy band with stronger than usual R&B influences and a multi-racial line-up. Particularly notorious for member Lee Ryan being misquoted when asked about 9/11 ("[[BeamMeUpScotty What about whales? They are ignoring more important animals. Animals need saving and that's more important]]"), resulting in an AnimalWrongsGroup accusation. Their chances of breaking into the US market ended there.
80* This was tried a few times even in CountryMusic:
81** South 65 made it to two albums but never had a hit. Lance Leslie later joined the Red Dirt band Rio Grand, but soon left it.
82** Marshall Dyllon (which was formed by Backstreet Boys[=/=]*NSYNC manager Lou Pearlman in cooperation with Music/KennyRogers) broke up after one album, although Jessie Littleton later recorded two solo pop albums as Gran Bel Fisher.
83** Music/RascalFlatts was more successful in the "country boy band" motif: their debut album had them singing light, breezy up-tempos that were obviously influenced by the boy band sound. From the second album onward, two of the members began playing instruments (lead singer Gary [=LeVox=] doesn't play anything) and abandoning their boy band influences for more mainstream country-pop.
84* Music/{{Busted}} were a British trio from the early 2000s that tried to fit in with the pop-punk fad of the time by playing (or "playing") instruments on stage and having the odd noisy guitar riff, but were still essentially a boy band. Shortly before the band broke up, their leading member Charlie Simpson formed Music/{{Fightstar}}, a [[GenreShift post-hardcore band]]. That band actually became quite successful and acclaimed, and as a result, Simpson tended to [[CreatorBacklash downplay his involvement with Busted for some time]], before saying "you know what? I had great fun in that band and I don't care who knows it" and joining the original lineup reunion in 2016.
85* [=McFly=]: (named after the character from ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''), an early 2000 band, largely fitted the mold. They were considered a "brother"-group to Busted that also played instruments on stage and were inspired by [[PowerPop pop rock/power pop]] music. That the band members played their own instruments, did their own songwriting, and mentioned having contemporary rock n roll influences has brought many fans to [[InsistentTerminology strongly insist that they're not quite a 'boy band']] (many fans just don't care either way). In the 2010s, the members of [=McFly=] and the two members of Busted who weren't Charlie Simpson reformed jointly as a five-piece called [[PortmanteauCoupleName McBusted]].
86* Music/{{LFO}} -- A PowerTrio who acquired the all-important [[Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock Joey McIntyre]] Elder Boy Band Statesman Seal of Approval; he had them as openers for some of his solo shows. LFO stood for "Lyte Funkee Ones", and they had to use that full name [[MarketBasedTitle in the UK]] due to the existence of a popular pre-existing techno group also called LFO. Unlike most other American boy bands, LFO wrote almost all of their songs themselves, but they are mostly well-known today for their debut hit "Summer Girls", which has [[WordSaladLyrics some of the most random lyrics in music history]]. Tragically, they would remain a TwoHitWonder ("Girl On TV" was their second most known song) as lead singer Rich Cronin died of leukemia at the age of 36 in 2010, and Devin Lima passed from adrenal cancer in 2018 at age 41.
87* [=BBMak=] was a British PowerTrio that broke a few of the boy band rules: Not only were they a trio, but they didn't dance, played their own instruments and wrote most of their own songs. As a result, they were able to cater to a slightly older demographic than most boy bands, and scored a couple American adult contemporary hits before they dissolved in 2003.
88* Dream Street was a ''very'' short-lived band that consisted of five ex-Broadway child stars who were young even by Boy Band standards (11-14 years old). For about a year they were hyped up on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} as the "next big thing" in television infomercials that promoted their debut album ''Dream Street'' and their only hit "It Happens Everytime". Near the end of the completion of their second album (which was made to promote a Dream Street documentary and consisted mostly of remixed songs from the first album) the boys parents took the band's managers to court, and the resulting trial ended with a judge breaking up the band for good. Dream Street's lead singer Music/JesseMccartney ended up becoming a teen idol in the mid-2000s, while the others either went back to Broadway or joined different, non-Boy Band bands.
89* O-Town might be seen as the beginning of the end of the U.S. Boy Band craze. While they did have two hit songs to their name, they were put together on the reality show ''Series/MakingTheBand,'' which shined a light on all the criticism of Boy Bands, especially the cry of being "generic." It was hard to argue that they were formulaic since you literally saw the group being put together by a group of record executives. (Hell, one of the members was an old friend of Lance from *NSYNC who had tried out on a whim and made the cut.)
90* Music/DongBangShinKi is a Korean boyband that was vastly popular in Asia. They're especially popular in Japan, and have recorded four albums in Japanese. They even did one of the openings for Manga/OnePiece! Recently they split up over money and contract issues, though three of the members that split off from their parent company are still going strong.
91* [[http://membres.multimania.fr/wapart/histo1.jpg The World Apart]].
92* Music/{{Arashi}} is what Johhny's Entertainment came up with when they realized SMAP would one day grow old, and are generally positioned at number 2 on the charts after SMAP. They are everywhere in Japan and cannot be avoided.
93* Music/{{B5}} started out as a boy band featuring five brothers. They began in the 1990s with four of the brothers but hit the mainstream in the mid-2000s thanks to Disney. The group is best know for their Jackson 5 cover "All I Do". [=B5=] was more R&B-geared than pop-geared. By their second album the boys had outgrown their "boy band" image and were a straight up R&B group. They lasted a few more years but the brothers split up either to go solo, focus on their kids, or do something else.
94* Music/TheJonasBrothers.
95** Leave it to ''Website/TheOnion'' to [[http://www.theonion.com/content/video/disney_lab_unveils_its_latest take this one on.]]
96** While it's pretty clear why some people would classify them as a boy band, they don't really fit the above criteria considering they are brothers (not formed by a label) and play several instruments, plus they are more like a boy-band-ish version of a typical pop rock band anyway. They also tend to write or co-write a lot of their songs.
97** Now that Music/NickJonas has established himself as a successful solo artist with DarkerAndEdgier songs like "Jealous" and "Chains," and as an actor after appearing in ''Series/{{Scream Queens|2015}}'', he at least is breaking away from the group. Joe has also had success with his FunkRock band DNCE. Kevin, however, has largely stayed out of the spotlight since.
98** And as of 2019, the band reunited and have scored a huge comeback with a #1 album and several hit singles.
99* Music/CelticThunder is essentially Public Television's answer to the Boy Band -- too bad they're about a decade too late. Basically, they took five incredibly attractive Irish guys who could sing and range in age from about 15 to 40 in order to attract as many women as possible. Though not as well-known or well-merchandised as some of the examples above, they have a big international following.
100* Music/BigTimeRush: Known as a current day version of the Monkees and Sony Music and Nickelodeon's answer to the Jonas Brothers (and later, to Allstar Weekend). They are often credited for reviving the boy band for TheNewTens and for making Music/OneDirection possible, [[FandomRivalry for better and for worse]].
101* Music/SHINee is a Korean band that debuted in 2008, sliding into the R&B/pop genre. They've started something of a fashion trend with their style of tight pants, boots, and colourful jackets.
102* Music/SuperJunior, from Korea, is known for having a grand total of fifteen members (it depends on whether you ask the purists or those who are willing to accept the Chinese sub-members). Since debuting in 2005, they have broken records and pioneered a unit system for K-pop groups, in which members of the band were put together in smaller sub-groups catering to different fanbases.
103* Mindless Behavior is a boy band. Fairly different from most on the list, in that they are all black, sing RAndB / HipHop, and there's only 4 of them. They started out opening for acts like Music/JanetJackson before releasing "Mrs. Right" in 2011.
104* Music/OneDirection (1D), the biggest sensation of TheNewTens. One of many boy bands to have come out of England, they are the most globally successful, and the ''only'' one to have ever become legitimately popular in the United States. In fact, they're considered the most globally successful boy band of all time! They were 5 separate boys auditioning for ''Series/TheXFactor'' until Simon Cowell put them together in a band. Though they finished third, they became the show's most successful act by far, actually becoming a bigger brand name than "The X-Factor". They now have a very successful album that, when it debuted in the States, went straight to #1 (they were the first British band to ever have their first album debut at number 1 in the US; and later the first band of any nationality to have their first ''three'' (and later four) albums accomplish the feat) and massive amounts of fangirls on both sides of UsefulNotes/ThePond. Their greatest accomplishment, however, was dethroning Justin Bieber as the hottest teen sensation on the planet. While they trail the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC in record sales, they're possibly bigger than they were in every other area. Unfortunately for them, they weren't able to beat the short lifespan curse their contemporaries faced (though that time on top was nevertheless a couple years longer than their predecessors). With the departure of one member, they announced a hiatus at the end of 2015 where all the members will focus on solo careers (very likely meaning a breakup).
105* British-Irish group Music/TheWanted have been around for the few years; after initial success in their native UK, they're starting to enjoy Stateside success as well, thanks in part to their hit "Glad You Came" and new management in the form of [[Music/JustinBieber Scooter Braun]]. Despite (or perhaps because of) marketing to a generally older audience, they were completely outperformed by One Direction, and their international popularity quickly plummeted.
106* JLS, from England; like One Direction, they rose to popularity after their season of ''Series/TheXFactor''. Much like 98 Degrees, though, they formed independently and initially auditioned for X Factor together. They never made any impact in the United States (or in Europe).
107* Triple 8, described as "Britain's answer to *NSYNC" though they formed in 2003 when the Boy Band craze was fading away. They had two successful singles "Knockout" and "Give Me A Reason" before abruptly parting ways with the label and leaving their album unreleased. Member, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_James Iain James]], however, would become a major British songwriter who would write fantastic UK number 1 songs "Read All About It" by Professor Green featuring Emeli Sande and "Wings" by heroic GirlGroup Music/LittleMix, and... erm, Azerbijani Eurovision winner Running Scared by Ell and Nikki? Yes he wrote all those!
108* D☆DATE, a Japanese Boy Band formed from members of the D-Boys acting troupe, is quite possibly the only place where you can find a [[Series/KamenRiderKiva Kamen Rider]] and an [[Series/UltramanMebius Ultraman]] singing with a [[Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger Super Sentai villain]]. (And [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg a couple of other guys]].)
109* Music/{{Auryn}}, Spanish boyband established in 2009. They didn't really take off until a failed Eurovision bid in 2011, and still their first album was financed by themselves and their manager before landing a deal with Warner.
110* [[Music/FiveSecondsOfSummer 5 Seconds of Summer]] (5SOS) technically doesn't fit the definition of a boy band. The band was formed out of interest between friends, not by a label. Not only that, but they write their own songs and play their own instruments, something that most boy bands don't do. Nonetheless, they still warrant being an example here, due to being marketed as a boy band and being very strongly associated with Music/OneDirection (they opened for their 2013 and 2014 tours). Also, since they target the same young/teenage girl demographic that other boy bands do, have [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys photogenic appearances]], put emphasis on each member as "equals", and have heavy merchandising, they seem to be straddling a line between "boy band" and "authentic musician". 5SOS are also notable for being the only Australian "boy band" (and only the second international boy band, ''period'') to achieve popularity in the United States, and although not nearly as popular as 1D, they are easily the second-biggest boy band of their generation -- and with 1D going on a very likely breakup at the end of 2015, they'll be the only ones left.
111* The Music/{{Vocaloid}} producer Pantans C & D made [[https://www.youtube.com/user/gensoairly "Gensou Airly"]], sort of Boy Band consisting of four male Vocaloids--Kaito, [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Len Kagamine]], [[{{Samurai}} Gakupo Camui]] and [[HotTeacher Kiyoteru Hiyama]].
112* 5quad was formed in 2015 by the five most popular broadcasters on the social media app [=YouNow=]. All are attractive boys between the ages of 15-22. Initially just a group of friends, their popularity grew to where they began producing music both as a group and as solo artists, morphing them into a true boy band.
113* Stolen City are an Irish band whose members correspond quite well to the archetypes - Dave as the Heartthrob, Ian as the Bad Boy and Sean filling the dual roles of Cute One and Older Brother. They do however play their own instruments and write their own songs.
114* Music/{{BTS}}, years after their debut in 2013, has become the most successful {{Korean|PopMusic}} boy band in the world, being the first Korean group to get into the Top 10 in Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in Billboard 200 and achieving records worldwide, and rivalling only One Direction in global popularity. With heavy influences mainly from HipHop, a [[GenreRoulette wide range of musical genres]], members with backgrounds in the underground rap scene and heavy involvement in the creative process, and music with an underdog [[ComingOfAgeStory coming-of-age]] narrative heavy on social and political messages, the group managed to gradually build a diverse audience (both in cultural backgrounds and ages) on a global scale. The group is also notable for their ''huge'' presence in social media, their unusually close relationship with fans with an emphasis on genuineness, and their use of multimedia storytelling through what's known as the ''Music/BTSUniverse''.
115* Music/{{PRETTYMUCH}}, Simon Cowell's newest boyband. Performed at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards.
116* Music/{{Why Dont We}}, notable for the singles "Something Different", & "Trust Fund Baby".
117* Music/VoicesInPublic : One of few notable Canadian "boy bands," VIP was also a quartet. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, the group began as a trio consisting of Marty Beecroft, Glenn Coulson, and Joe Heslip, high school friends from Barrie, Ontario. They later added Peter Luciano. They performed live around the province, primarily at universities, while attending school themselves, and completed two cross-country tours before they disbanded. Their best known single, "Just My Luck" received heavy airplay on MuchMusic. They received a Genie Award for "One Thing To Say," which appeared on the soundtrack to Film/JacobTwoTwoMeetsTheHoodedFang. Glenn was "the cute one."
118* Music/SelfInsert is an experimental group consisting of three singers that functions as a sort of boy band with extremely exaggerated and mechanical singing and voice modifications, strange choreographed live dances, a lack of any played instruments, and surreal love songs that bring in bursts of violence and inanimate machines.
119* Premyer-Ministr is a Russian boy band that represented Russia at Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with a FiveTokenBand line-up (Moldovan Vyacheslav Bodolika, Romani Jean Milimerov, African-Russian Peter Jason and Tatar Marat Chanyshev). They are a RevolvingDoorBand - Chanyshev has replaced another member, and current lineup that performs under the name Premyer-Ministr has no original members left. At one point, the original members parted ways with producer Evgeniy Fridlyand and began touring as Group PM, though they since reconciled with him. They're a bit of a ZigZaggedTrope when it comes to the usual boy band standards, as they weren't marketed exclusively to usual audience of such bands, and their first big hit was actually a cover of a 1968 song written by acclaimed composer David Tukhmanov.
120[[/folder]]
121
122!!Boy Band Parodies
123[[folder:Advertising]]
124* Early in 2021, Del Taco introduced the Crys P Boys, who were used to promote the company’s Honey Mango Crispy Chicken Tacos and Jumbo Shrimp Tacos in commercials filmed to resemble music videos. The fictional band was a style shift for advertising character Crys P, who had previously been the lead singer of the also-fictional hair metal band Crys P Tiger. The Crys P Boys disbanded by the spring of that year, with Crys P going solo and “going country” for another Del Taco ad campaign.
125* Advertising/JackInTheBox once featured the Meaty Cheesy Boys, made up of five performers known only by their initials (EJ, TJ, RJ, JT, and the other EJ), singing the praises of Jack's Ultimate Cheeseburger. It's a campaign-within-a-campaign in which Jack is exasperated with the clueless advertising executive who presents the MCB's ad for Jack's approval.
126-->''[Meaty Cheesy Boys commercial plays on TV screen]''
127-->'''Clueless ad exec:''' ''[dancing awkwardly]'' Girls love this stuff!
128-->'''Jack Box:''' ''[annoyed]'' Our target is men!
129-->'''Clueless ad exec:''' ''[still dancing]'' What's a target?
130[[/folder]]
131
132[[folder:Anime And Manga]]
133* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'' turned the Matsuno brothers into this for the first episode, complete with OtomeGame-styled visual ArtShift. The shift didn't stick for long, though, as the brothers had trouble maintaining their cool appearances while keeping their outdated comedy origins under wraps.
134* Parodied in ''Manga/ShirokumaCafe'' with the Yama Arashi, which is a mockery of Music/{{Arashi}}. Except they're '''porcupines'''.
135[[/folder]]
136
137[[folder:Comic Books]]
138* ComicBook/HowardTheDuck tackled boybands in the first issue of the MAX miniseries, when Howard's girlfriend Beverly gets a job marketing a boyband called, imaginatively, the "Backdoor Boys." She finds it suspicious that the songs (with names like "U R 4 Me," "I M 4 U (remix) and "Love Puppy") are all recorded and the bios for the band members before the actual members have been cast, but Howard mentions Music/MilliVanilli and Music/TheMonkees as examples of similar "packaging a band name for a demographic segment, Bev, it has nothing to do with actual music or atual people." Turns out that there ''is'' something more sinister going on, as the band members (A.J, B.J, T.J, J.T. and Justin) are actually clones being grown in a vat, and if one band member doesn't perform well he's killed off and replaced with an identical clone.
139[[/folder]]
140
141[[folder:Film - Animation]]
142* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' (which takes place in 2002, when boy bands were still popular in North America), Mei and her friends are huge fans of a boy band called 4*Town, and a major conflict is how Mei's mother Ming won't allow her to go to their upcoming concert. While the film plays the boy band angle completely straight with almost no irony, [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] state that Jesse is a bit too old to be in the band ([[OlderThanTheyLook despite his youthful looks]], he's a former art student and has two kids) and Robaire is likely the only one who will have a successful solo career when the band dissolves.
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
146* The Australian comedy film ''Film/{{Boytown}}'' is about a boy band of the same name from the 80s who, in the 2000s, decide to reform as middle-aged men. Their songs are geared towards the demographic who were teenage girls in the 80s, so their new album has titles like "Picking The Kids Up From School", "Cellulite Lady" and "Dishpan Hands".
147* ''Film/JosieAndThePussycats2001'' features a boy band called ''[[MeaningfulName Du Jour]]''. To make fun of the effeminate nature of many boy bands, their hit single was called "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Backdoor Lover]]". When they find out that their record label is putting SubliminalAdvertising into their music, their manager (who isn't a big burly dude, but is instead an evil Creator/AlanCumming) tries to have them killed by causing their plane to crash. [[spoiler:They survive, having managed to safely land the plane on their own... only to find that they had landed in the parking lot of an arena hosting a Music/{{Metallica}} concert and subsequently get the ever-loving crap beaten out of them (sans Les, who only comments "I thank god every day I know the lyrics to 'Enter Sandman'!").]]
148* ''Film/RockOfAges'' has the [[XtremeKoolLetterz Z-Guyeezz]] ("Double the E, double the Z, double the flava!"), an early (''Film/RockOfAges'' takes place in 1987) parody on boygroups, complete with ridiculously colorful and oversized clothes, and yes, complete with lip-syncing at what's supposed to be a live concert. Their manager even reminds them of shutting off their headset microphones.
149* ''Film/SonsOfProvo'', a mockumentary of a fake boy-band trio called Everclean. The group is a parody of the Osmonds, from their origins (Provo, Utah) to their religious affiliations (Latter-day Saints) -- one of the members even asks "What Would Donny and Marie Do?" when confronted with a moral dilemma.
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
153* During the 1990s British boy band boom, there was a short-lived TV sitcom called ''Boyz Unlimited'', about a parody boy band. It's chiefly notable because the writers went on to create another series called ''Series/LittleBritain''.
154* Philippine gag show ''Bubble Gang'' has come up with two. The first is the Sex Balls (a parody of the Sex Bomb Girls), who made parodies of novelty songs and theme songs from TV shows. The second is D'Wonder Boys, a parody of K-pop boy bands, fawned over by fangirls who squeal at the smallest things and completely repetitive lyrics.
155* The crew of ''Series/TheChasersWarOnEverything'' dressed up as a parody of boy band and did a live song. The song started out normally with dancing and [[strike:singing]] lipsyncing at a nice and steady pace. Then [[HilarityEnsues the music skips on a few words and starts to rewind and start over, then proceeding to speed up and slow down randomly.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb_xdL2HT-Y/ Forcing the "boy band" to improvise quickly and beautifully.]]
156* In ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'', the main character as a child wanted to watch a Pay-Per-View concert of the boy band "Room Temperature." She never got to, but later on, she imagines her crush Josh Chan in a boy band. A boy band made up of four Joshes (each one with a different outfit).
157* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' has the Monks of Valenzia, who have taken a "vow of singing" and are portrayed as a boyband. They're led by Music/WeirdAlYankovic, and the other four monks introduce themselves as "the smart one," "the cute one," "the shy one" and "the bad boy (but not so bad 'cause I'm a monk)."
158* Less a parody, more an affectionate homage: Season 3 of ''Series/{{Glee}}'', specifically the Valentine's Day episode "Heart", saw Mario's "Let Me Love You" performed as a classic boyband routine performed in the choir room. Interestingly, the sequence involved some revision of the typical boyband tropes; though the lineup included a Heartthrob (Sam), a Bad Boy (Puck), an Older Brother (Mike), a Cute One (Kurt) and a Shy One (Artie), the leader of the group was definitely Artie -- partly because the song was a step in his courtship of Sugar Motta, and partly as a reference to Creator/KevinMcHale's stint in the boyband [=NLT=].
159** Also, in the third episode of the first season, "Acafellas", Will's all male a cappella group has boy band elements
160** In the season 2 episode "Comeback", Sam, in order to get Quinn's attention, forms a Creator/JustinBieber one-man cover band called The Justin Bieber Experience, that expands into a full-on boyband when Artie, Mike and Puck decide tag along in order to impress their respective love interests at the time.
161* Two of ''Series/HorribleHistories''' trademark music videos full-on parody this genre: 'The Four Georges', who sit under moody spotlights to sing "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=zPtYmq5qFVA Born 2 Rule]]" (and identify themselves as the sad one, the bad one, the mad one, and the fat one), and '[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFATmD68sg The Few]]', a group of slickly-choreographed WWII RAF pilots who specifically spoof Music/TakeThatBand.
162* ''Series/InsideAmySchumer'' features a skit with a boy band that magically [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyeTJVU4wVo appears]] in Amy's apartment to sing a song about how she doesn't need makeup to be beautiful. They change their minds after seeing her without makeup on.
163* ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'' created one out of the series PeopleInRubberSuits to sing the DoItYourselfThemeTune. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIUqtKZDJic No,]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TpzCAaK5no seriously.]]
164* ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' features a boy band called [=Ume4ever=], which Dawn and Belinda are huge fans of. In the episode "The Year of Fridays", Dawn mentioned that Kirby vandalizing the band's poster in her room was the most "unforgivable" thing he had ever done to her, and their parents banned Kirby from hanging out with Fish and Eli that Friday night right when they were about to hit the one-year anniversary of their tradition. Dawn and Belinda's plot in that episode involved them going to stay in the band's hotel, only for them to get locked outside that night and never getting a chance to meet them. She has better luck in the episode "Get a Grip", when a lot of good things suddenly begin happening to her after Kirby breaks his hand and is unable to draw. She wins a date with Chadwin, who sings a SillyLoveSong about sandwiches to her. Unfortunately, the date quickly goes downhill after Belinda (who felt Dawn was ignoring her) taught Kirby to draw with his left hand, and Dawn subsequently throws up on Chadwin.
165* ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'': DS Brooks' [[DirtyCop corrupt ex-partner]] cites the numerous favors that he did to cover him during his drinking days, apparently feeling that all this should have warranted Brooks turning a blind eye to his involvement in criminal activities, given that he then blasts him for "letting your boy-band partner come after me", (a derisive reference to the youth and good looks of [[FairCop DS Matt Devlin]])
166* ''Series/TheMiddleman'' has an episode in which a boy band turns out to consist of aliens trying to get back to their home galaxy. The Middleman has apparently read this page, because he identifies all of them by role.
167* ''Series/OddSquad'' has Soundcheck, which is a direct parody of Music/OneDirection. They're extremely popular across the globe, with songs that are hilariously corny and rife with WordSaladLyrics, and are even a hit with the employees of Odd Squad -- all except Olive, who can't understand their appeal (at least for a time before she too is eventually swayed by them in "Disorder in the Court").
168* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' did a number of sketches featuring a boy band called "Seven Degrees Celsius", in an obvious parody of 98 Degrees, *NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys. The members of Seven Degrees Celsius usually included a Heartthrob/Sweet One, one with a crazy hairdo (a nod to Music/ChrisKirkpatrick's box braids), and an Older Brother type that was a lot older than he claimed. In one episode, the Backstreet Boys' famous folding chairs were replaced with inflatable hippity-hops, giving a not-so-subtle impression of the band having massive testicles.
169** One notable "Seven Degrees Celsius" sketch featured a boy band called No Refund, who sang in nothing but food innuendos... and were portrayed by that night's musical guests, Music/{{NSYNC}}. They were pretty fond of the sketch, [[http://youtu.be/173UFV-Pg1I?t=1m45s having once made a video shout out as the fictional boy band]] during one of their visits to TRL.
170* The UK series ''Star Stories'' contains an episode wherein boy-band West Life appear and identify as "the fat one", "the thin one", "the one losing his hair", "the cute one", and "the secretly gay one".
171* In the ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' MusicalEpisode "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E09SubspaceRhapsody Subspace Rhapsody]]", the BigFinaleCrowdSong features the arrival of a Klingon battlecruiser whose bridge crew is briefly turned into a KPop band. The captain's gruff voice even shoots up to a tenor.
172* The KoreanDrama ''Series/YouAreBeautiful'', while not a parody, is basically about a made-up boyband.
173* ''{{Series/Becoming}}'' was made during the height of the boy band craze, and many were imitated on the show. Both the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC were done ''twice'', as well as O-Town.
174* The Japanese comedy sketch show ''Warau Inu no Bōken'' (Adventures of a Laughing Dog), has the song "Music/{{Yatta}}", with the ficticious boy band Happa-tai (Green Leaves) dancing and singing in underwear with a fig leaf attached, singing about optimism in hard times.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Music]]
178* Lance Bass of Music/{{NSYNC}} pulled a truly [[Creator/AndyKaufman Andy Kaufman-esque]] stunt in 2011 when he appeared to unleash an absurd boy band called [=Heart2Heart=]. A single music video called ''Facebook Official'' was released to utter bewilderment. A quick search of the member's real names (they went by such stage names as Chad Future and Pretty Boy Pete) reveals they were in fact a cast of film and television actors. Bass later admitted it was a parody that he co-authored with singer David Lehre.
179* Hilariously mocked by Music/{{Blink182}} in the video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAEasqYox8s All The Small Things]]". It's well worth noting that many established Boy Band fans [[MisaimedFandom missed the point entirely]]. The guys were vocally alarmed to see a surge in attendance by [[{{Squee}} squealing]] teenaged girls at their concerts. They didn't mind, of course. They just hoped the fangirls were at least aware that they were also responsible for songs like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9UGQfPq-oY this]] (NotSafeForWork).
180* MTV's MadeForTVMovie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKktTRdkHW4 2ge+ her]]'' was an AffectionateParody of Boy Bands and their formation. It later spawned a TV show and album, and several of their songs got played on TRL. The main clue-in that the group was a joke (aside from their goofy lyrics) was that one of the members was Creator/ChrisFarley's brother Kevin, who was over 30, fat and balding. Sadly, the show was quickly canceled after the death of member Michael Cuccione at the age of 16 from lymphoma, which caused many a HarsherInHindsight as his [[RealLifeWritesThePlot disease was written into the story]] -- [[DudeNotFunny as a gag]].
181** Amusingly, *NSYNC loved the parody and joked about wanting to collaborate with the group.
182* Creator/DavidLetterman had a parody of boy bands on with the fictitious act Fresh Step (which is actually a brand of cat litter).
183* Conan O'Brien also had a fake parody band, Dudez-A-Plenti.
184* Music/MitchBenn's Boy Band song: ''Twenty minutes have gone by/since I met these other guys/and we've already had a hit/and you're listening to it/and I'm sure you think it sh-/ould be number one already''
185* Internet parodist David Lehre's fictitious boy band Heat Street, featuring songs such as "Girl, Touch My Weiner."
186* Music/TheMidnightBeast, the heavily {{Auto Tune}}d UK comedy PowerTrio, are in their own words [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0mH5epMSp4 "Just Another Boy Band"]]
187* In Hot Chip's video for "I Feel Better", directed by [[Series/ThePeterSerafinowiczShow Peter Serafinowicz]], a bunch of[[PrettyBoy pretty boys]] called [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kyng, Mar'Vaine]], Octavian and Popeye are attacked by a floating man as well as a ScaryBlackMan with EyeBeams.
188* In Music/JonLajoie's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijr4rwb2WbE "Pop Song"]] he sort of parodies this (though it's mostly a parody of Justin Bieber).
189* Amongst their mockery of pop culture in the late 90's and early 2000's, Jack In The Box had a fake boy band called "The Meaty Cheesy Boys" sing the praises of their Ultimate Cheeseburger. If you're curious (and goodness knows, why wouldn't you be), you can find the OFFICIAL SITE!!! [[http://www.meatycheesyboys.com/ here]].
190* ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'' has BBBFF, a band which Francis Sparkle is a member of. It's a pretty obvious parody of Music/{{NSYNC}}, like how the band's name is an acronym of the members' own names (Ben, Ben, Ben, Francis, and Francis).
191* The 2000 Teen Choice Awards opened with a parody of ''Series/MakingTheBand'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwpP69zya0 starring the geriatric and aptly named Old-Town]]. Despite the name, they were more a parody of Music/{{NSYNC}}, performing a mash up of the group's songs and one member rocking Chris Kirkpatrick's infamous braids. The members of *NSYNC present for the awards loved it.
192* Music/TheArrogantWorms song "Boy Band" is a parody of this.
193* Creator/HowardStern's "Backside Boys" have the songs "Every Homo (Backside's Back)" and "The Gay Way" which are parodies of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and "I Want It That Way" by the Music/BackstreetBoys.
194* In a rare combination of making fun of boybands and a defense of what society does to boy band members, Music/BarenakedLadies did a song called "New Kid (On The Block)" that included stanzas like this:
195-->''I didn't ask to be famous, but I'm not sad''
196-->''You see, I've got everything that I always wished I'd had''
197-->''I thank my manager and I thank the screaming girls''
198-->''I thank my hairdresser for giving me such beautiful curls''
199** And then, this:
200--> ''Now I'm a New Kid on the Block''
201-->''Well I'm twenty-three and they won't let me grow up''
202-->''I went down to register for the draft''
203-->''Well I got up to the counter, and the lady there just laughed''
204** The end of the song is [[LyricalDissonance downright disturbing.]]
205-->''I'm a New Kid On The Block''
206-->''And I may not be Johann Sebastian Bach''
207-->''There's no need to be afraid of us''
208-->''But it just might be your daughter on our bus''
209* Parody artist Jon Cozart, aka WebVideo/{{Paint}}, sings about the crass marketing and eventual obsolescence of several popular boy bands in his "Boy Brand" video.
210* An actual musical example, ''Music/BigBadBosses'' is one for [[BigBad video game villains]].
211* UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} stars Roger Federer, Tommy Haas and Grigor Dimitrov created their own "boyband" called The Backhand Boys and two videos of them butchering "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (with Haas' in-law and the producer of the song David Foster providing the piano accompaniment) were uploaded to Federer's social media. The first time was done with hilarious 'so bad it's good' singing. The second one had harmonies, a lot of not-so-subtle autotune... and a videobomb of Novak Djokovic joining in right before the chorus.
212-->Roger Federer: ''(caption for the second video)'' No seriously, we're actually starting a boyband.
213* According to British actor and comedian Creator/JamesCorden, he was in a boyband as a teenager. Their name was "Insatiable" and he wrote the songs. He included the lyrics to one 'Girl Are You Ready' in his autobiography, claiming he wrote it in the hopes of being as good as "Ready to Rumble."
214* Starting from ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'', Music/{{Eminem}} loved mocking boybands in order to poke fun at the fact that he'd started out as a HardcoreHipHop artist but had ended up developing a PeripheryDemographic of TeenPop fans who swooned over his PrettyBoy appearance. The beef also covered for what seems to have been some genuine fondness for their work - and provided the opportunity to satirically work elements of their sound into his work, cementing his appeal to the boyband fandom.
215** Eminem's [[SitcomArchNemesis satirical beef]] with Music/{{NSYNC}} was mostly intended to differentiate himself from them, because people were calling him a 'pop rapper'. He performed garish stunts (like throwing a bucket of pig's blood over them on ''TRL'') and dissed them in interviews, but would also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VxKE-qC6-k sing silly anal-sex themed parodies of their songs]] as part of his stage show and copy their dancing. When Slim dissed Chris Kirkpatrick ("''you can git-yer-ass-kicked!''") in "Without Me", music critics noted that it was impressive that Eminem could name a specific member of the group (and one who wasn't Justin Timberlake or Lance Bass). (Chris Kirkpatrick [[ActuallyPrettyFunny was apparently delighted to be referenced by his favourite rapper]].)
216** In the music video for "The Real Slim Shady", Slim dresses up as a Creator/TomGreen-style superhero character and antagonises a bunch of boyband-like men, forcing them to kiss his ass.
217** A lot of the production on ''The Marshall Mathers LP'', fitting its [[ConceptAlbum concept]] of Eminem [[CelebrityIsOverrated dealing with becoming a pop star]], satirises the boyband style TeenPop of the day, particularly the Max Martin-esque panting and boombap on "I'm Back", the panned-out vocal harmonies and Latin guitar in "Marshall Mathers" (which even has Slim singing an offensive SongParody of "Summer Girls" by Music/{{LFO}} in the middle-8), and the campy, stompy pianos in "Criminal". Of course, while they might ''sound'' like something by a boyband, [[LyricalDissonance the impression vanishes as soon as you listen to the lyrics]]. (Assuming Eminem's [[NerdyNasalness shortcomings as a singer]] didn't destroy the illusion for you already.)
218** In the song and music video for "My Band", Eminem [[AdamWesting sends himself up]] by imagining Slim Shady as the douchey lead singer of a boyband, resented by the rest of D12 for hogging the spotlight from them. In the song's middle 8, it goes into a stereotypical, glittery boyband-pop vamp with Slim singing in a harmonised, vocal style, "''girl, why can't you see, you're the only one for me...''" with himself and the rest of the band dressed in cheesy white Music/BackstreetBoys-esque suits.
219[[/folder]]
220
221[[folder:Podcasts]]
222* One episode of ''Podcast/MissionToZyxx'' mentions that AJ used to be in a boy band named [=CLINT-SYNC=]. He claims to have been the Bad Boy.
223[[/folder]]
224
225[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
226* Unsurprisingly, ProfessionalWrestling got in on the act. Wrestling/{{WCW}} faction Three Count, consisting of Wrestling/ShannonMoore, [[Wrestling/GregoryHelms Shane Helms]] and Evan Karagias, were a parody boy band. They even had a variation of the large, intimidating boss in enforcer/#1 fan Tank Abbot. And just like several real boy bands, they had a BreakupBreakout. After Wrestling/{{WWE}} bought WCW in 2001, they picked up Helms' and Moore's contracts, though Moore was sent to the developmental promotion Heartland Wrestling Association in Ohio. Helms was repackaged as the wrestling {{Superhero}} The Hurricane.
227* Japanese ProfessionalWrestling promotion Wrestling/{{Toryumon}} X tried this. They cast Taiji Ishimori as a pop idol and identical twin brothers Shu and Kei Sato as his backup singers. Then they pushed the trio as the top faces of the promotion, even going so far as to have them actually release an album. Fans didn't take to them. The funny part? Their rivals were "Los Salseros Japoneses" -- a salsa band. And they DID become popular, with the Salseros gimmick outlasting the promotion itself, going into Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling and Wrestling/DragonGate.
228* Wrestling/{{AAA}} had "Los Spice Boys" Jimmy Boy, Billy Boy and Vangelis, though they later dropped the boy band gimmick when Vangelis left the group and was replaced by Decnis in what became Los Warriors (The now [[GratuitousNazis Nazi]]'s Vangelis's group) vs. Los Barrio Boys (Decnis's group) feud.
229
230[[/folder]]
231
232[[folder:Theatre]]
233* The musical ''Theatre/AltarBoyz!'' is an AffectionateParody of boy bands and ChristianRock.
234
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:Video Games]]
238* Xbox snowboard game ''Amped 3'' had an ExcusePlot that included one snowboarder joining a French-themed boy band called Mengae a Brahs. Their hit, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqNllLkBCcY Bling 4 U]], has a SubliminalSeduction twist.
239* ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' starts off with [[Creator/JackBlack Eddie Riggs]] as a roadie for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7W864JuLsY Kabbage Boy]], a [[GenreMashup Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band that sounds like Music/LinkinPark mixed with Music/TheJonasBrothers. Needless to say, Eddie is far from pleased with this gig.
240-->"I can fix anything. Except '''THAT'''."
241* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and its prequel, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories'' feature fictional boy bands on the Lips 106 radio station with hilarious names.
242* One of the Megastar groups for ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'' are 1010 (pronounced Ten-Ten). Five [[VirtualCelebrity androids]] that act as TheDividual. 1010 satirizes over-produced boy bands as identical, synchronized, autotuned androids only superficially distinguished by color and hairstyle. Their manager, Neon J., can also [[WeHaveReserves replace]] any of the band members that fall in combat instantly with a portable manufacturing machine, making them a [[StealthPun literal]] manufactured band. They are, in-universe, [[MrFanservice quite effective]], as main character [[GenkiGirl Mayday]] gets weak-kneed at the sight of them. She shows more remorse fighting 1010 then when she fought a [[InnocentProdigy literal child.]]
243* Hammerhead's ending in ''[[VideoGame/TwistedMetal Twisted Metal: Small Brawl]]'' has him wishing to become a [[TheRockStar rock star]]. Because Calypso is a JackassGenie, he puts the young {{metalhead}} in a flamboyantly-dressed [=Y2K=]-era boy band called the Silky Boys. Cue the BigNo as the kid, looking around at his costume and his bandmates on stage in front an audience of screaming girls, realizes what's happened to him.
244[[/folder]]
245
246[[folder:Webcomics]]
247* ''Webcomic/AngelMoxie'' has N'Tune, part of Candi Shugari's (a powerful demon who mixes cute with evil) plot to eliminate Alex, Riley and Tristan.
248* ''Webcomic/ThePaulReveres'' gives us the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American Revolutionary War]] hero Ethan Allen, and his lengedary [[http://paul-reveres.com/?comic=page-6-5/ Green Mountain Boys]]. Some historians might call it disrespectful, others ''want it thaaaaat way''.
249* Early in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', Tagon's Toughs are hired to guard the "[[LawyerFriendlyCameo New Sync Boys]]" -- who turn out to be the holographic creation of a single AI owned by the record company, who ends up "defecting" to the mercenary company. "Ennesby" is still a main cast member.
250
251[[/folder]]
252
253[[folder:Web Original]]
254
255* [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgV-hgprraRb071mumQFw2g The Merkins]] heavily parodies this with the 'Slashstreet Boys' videos and songs, which star Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, Ghostface, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees as a boy band. Naturally all their songs tend towards [[VillainSong far more gruesome territory]] than is typical for this trope.
256* Youtuber boyinaband made his own parody called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U5tuTx_ztQ "Metal Boy Band"]], where they have the aesthetics with a metal sound.
257* [[Creator/BrianDavidGilbert Brian David Gilbert]] is [[PlayingTheirOwnTwin playing his own twin]]...squared as 2winz in their real-time, autobiographical expulsion of the band's [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Man]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdVgPCM5wEk "Just One Day"]].
258* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8FA25a22dQ "Delete This Tweet]], by Creator/KevinTemmer, featuring a group of five [[AnimateInanimateObject living trashcans]] singing about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin why someone should delete a tweet]]. It's SugarWiki/BetterThanItSounds.
259* As part of ''Achievement Hunter: The Musical'', Creator/AchievementHunter has The Dusk Boys performing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zX1YbVJm-c "Hard 2 Breathe"]]. Upon closer inspection though, Gavin is actually reading off definitions of breathing and oxygen and choking while Trevor and Alfredo mug it up.
260[[/folder]]
261
262[[folder:Western Animation]]
263* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' has an in universe band called "outta Sync" and another band called Graystar.
264* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' had an in-universe boy band called The Sulky Boys. You know they're meant to be a parody when all the members' names are two initials (JT, TJ etc.), they dress TotallyRadical and the one song we hear is a SillyLoveSong about math.
265* In spite of only having three members, ''Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' parodied the UnbuiltTrope as far back as 1959, but especially in their [[WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks 1980s]] and [[Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks 2000s]] versions. The genuinely aim for the same "tween" audience.
266* The ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Can I Be Frank (With You)" thoroughly explores this through a twelve-person boyband named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Boys-12]]; specifically, they show how similar they can be through covering [[DeconstructedTrope every imaginable boyband characteristic]]:
267-->'''B1''': "[[BigFun Fat boy!]]"; '''B2''': "[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Bad boy!]]"; '''B3''': "[[ForeignFanservice Japanese!]]"; '''B4''': "[[TroubledButCute My sister died.]]"; '''B5''': "[[NiceGuy I'm sweet!]]"; '''B6''': "[[BeautifulSingingVoice I can sing!]]"; '''B7''' "[[BlatantLies Gorgeous!]]"; '''B8''': "[[SweetPollyOliver I'm B8,]] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I've got the penis of a man!]]"; '''B9''': "[[StoicWoobie My parents got divorced.]]"; '''B10''': "[[WheelchairWoobie Hypoglycemic!]]"; '''B11''': "[[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs I'm grumpy.]]"; '''B12''': "[[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs I'm sleepy!]]"
268* In (of all things) ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', boy band Binky is not real... sort of. In concerts, holograms are used in concerts, somehow, without anyone noticing at all. Which kind of leads to the question -- who does the singing? (Though, by the sound of the only example of their music in the show, which consists of "wheeowheoowheeo" repeated over and over, it could be Music/YokoOno.)
269* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' brought us [=Boyz4Now=], a group whose concert Tina dragged the entirely uninterested Louise to only for Louise to entirely fall for the Cute member of the group, Boo-Boo.
270* ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'': In Season 3 "[[Recap/CentralParkS3E10MoneyCandy Money Candy]]", Money Candy is a fictional band based on popular K-Pop groups. Members consist of Min-Jun (the best singer), B (the second-best singer), Ki-Moon (the best rapper), Bugs (the best dancer), and QT (the best looking).
271* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' features Sev'ral Timez, a boy band who came a decade too late. (The show even got Lance Bass himself voice them.) It turns out that they're actually a group of clones who their manager keeps in a giant hamster cage, and they know absolutely nothing about the outside world as a result. [[CloudCuckooLander Mabel]] and her friends rescue them, leading to a BatmanInMyBasement plot.
272** Note that the show didn't just "get Lance Bass" to voice the band. Creator/AlexHirsch's RealLife sister ([[WriteWhoYouKnow whom Mabel is based on]]) was such a huge fan of Bass when they were kids that Hirsch made this episode ''specifically'' so that he could hire Bass, then invite his sister to the studio to meet him.
273* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' has the ''Oh Boyz' in the episode of the same title. A four-man boyband, they'd outlived their popularity (which lasted about a week) with only Ron and Rufus liking them by then. Señor Senior Snr. kidnapped them on Señor Senior Jnr.'s birthday (the plan was their safe return for Junior to be made a pop star). The kidnapping brought back their sales up and they fired their weasel of a manager once the thing blows over. (Two of the band's members were actually voiced by Lance and Joey from *NSYNC.)
274* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' has Bobby becoming a fan of a boy band, which Hank supports after hearing their supposedly clean, Christian act. Then he accompanies Bobby to a concert and is horrified to discover it's actually LyricalDissonance as their act is highly sexualized.
275* Boyz Will Be Boyz from ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' from "For Bros About To Rock". They also made a cameo on TV in "The Green House".
276* ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB!'' brings us "The Sugar Boyz" A fake parody of several boy bands although they only use one repetitive hook no matter what lyrics they sing. Their career is comically ended when all four of them hit puberty onstage. This lowers their voices, fills their faces with acne and gives them crooked teeth, not to mention lots of facial hair.
277* In ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw,'' [[OnlySaneMan Zack]] is revealed to have once been TheFace of a regionally-famous boy band called the Lumberzacks. [[OldShame He's not proud of it]]. This actually sets up a storyline where he, [[BornUnlucky Milo]], [[UnfazedEveryman Melissa]] and [[GranolaGuy Mort]] form their own band, which winds up going up against the Lumberzacks (now signed with a major music company and renamed the Lumbermaxes after their new leader) in the local Battle of the Bands.
278* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has the Paisley Sideburn Brothers, a pretty obvious nod to fellow Creator/DisneyChannel-associates Music/TheJonasBrothers.
279* Blossom, Bubbles, and Bubblecup from 'WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' are fans of the boy band "The Sensitive Thugz". The first episode revolves around Bubbles winning two tickets for their concert and having to figure out which of her sisters to take.
280* ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements'' had Todd, Sheldon and the rest of the Boy's Choir become "Boy's Rock" when he replaced his choirmaster with a Large Intimidating Boss in an episode fairly similar to the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' examples.
281* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The Party Posse featured the well-known heart-throbs Bart Simpson, Millhouse Van Houten, Nelson Muntz, and Ralph Wiggum. The band was in fact a front for the US Navy to recruit people via [[SubliminalSeduction subliminal messaging]] (their manager, Lt. L.T. Smash, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WDi4tAqPkM explains it's]] "part of a three-pronged attack -- subliminal, liminal, and ''superliminal''", which basically amount to him leaning out a window and yelling at people to join the Navy).
282** And Music/{{NSYNC}} appeared in a cameo to [[SelfDeprecation parody themselves]].
283---> '''NSYNC:''' Thrust, Spin, Turn; Pivot, Pout, Jiggy; Jiggy, Robot, Do-Si-Do...\
284'''Lance:''' And close with a ''[[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]]''.\
285''(band members jump as the camera makes a BulletTime sweep)''
286* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode, "Battle of the Boy Bands", after [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Justin Beaver]]'s manager brainwashes all of the village's girls into becoming {{Fan Girl}}s of Beaver, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles form a boy band called "Dreamboat Express" (later renamed "Dude-itude") to stop the brainwashing.
287* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
288** The gang form the band [=FingerBang=] in the episode "Something You Can Do With Your Finger". [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] the FiveManBand aspect (they hold auditions for their 5th member with ''Wendy'' being selected and later [[spoiler:Randy]] after Kenny's usual episodic death and archetypes).
289** "The Ring" was also focused on Music/TheJonasBrothers, if one considers them a boy band. They were characterized as {{Clueless Chick Magnet}}s who really were as wholesome as they seemed, but with the Disney Company (portrayed by a violent, very ''un''wholesome WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse) as the evil manager forcing them into doing things they didn't like.
290* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has Boys Who Cry, a three-man boy band that Pearl and [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide Squidward]] are fans of (the latter even claims that he knows all of their songs by heart). All of them are identical, save for their hair and skin color. Apparently, it charges a million dollars just to hire them for a performance.
291* "It's My Party" from ''WesternAnimation/SummerCampIsland'' has a boy band of tiny magical PrettyBoy creatures (voiced by little kids) called "Boy Band". Hedgehog and Alice are huge fans of them.
292* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', Star, Marco and Tom are fans of the boy band Love Sentence. The lead singer Justin Towers is voiced by former 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey.
293* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' "Celebrity Manhunt" special bridging Season 2 and Season 3, Justin, Trent, Cody, and Harold make up a boy-band called The Drama Brothers. Many tropes are played, such as the band spiraling out of control, breaking up, and reuniting, most of which is revealed in a {{Where Are They Now|Epilogue}} segment. The Drama Boys perform in the first ''Total Drama [[NewSeasonNewName World Tour]]'' Aftermath segment at Blaineley's behest.
294* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' had an episode where a washed up boy band kidnapped a "hip" boy band and stole their faces.
295* ''WesternAnimation/TuffPuppy'': The episode "Monkey Business" introduces a boy band made of three SurferDude monkeys -- Bingo, Bango, and [[OddNameOut Robespierre]]. Their main song consists of saying the words "dude" and "girl," and lampshading that they don't know many other words. They're very popular (especially with girls... and the Chief), but Dudley doesn't like them for most of the episode. Bird Brain attempts to use their melodious voices to open a portal to a world of other blue-footed boobies. At the end of the episode, after foiling Bird Brain's plans, Dudley realizes he loves the band's music, and it's another band, the Hunky ''Donkies,'' who he hated.
296* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' features a three-man band called Fate's Fools. They want to replace female singer Lindsay Pagano as the opening act, making them suspects.
297* Parodied in one ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode, where Steven attempts to use a time machine to form a boy band using only versions of himself for Beachapalooza. A number of boy-band roles are namechecked, although none of the different versions of Steven can remember which one they were actually supposed to be, and the whole thing dissolves into chaos before too long.
298[[/folder]]
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