Editing Boy band (section)

===1990s: Boyz II Men, Take That, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Seo Taiji and Boys and the birth of modern K-pop ===

The ongoing international success of New Kids on the Block inspired music managers in Europe to create their own acts, beginning with [[Nigel Martin-Smith]]'s [[Take That]] in the UK (formed in 1990) and followed by [[Tom Watkins (music manager)|Tom Watkins]], who had success with [[Bros (British band)|Bros]] in the late 1980s and formed [[East 17]] in 1991. East 17 were marketed and pitted against Take That as "rivals" with a rougher or harsher attitude, style and sound. Take That reformed in 2006 after a decade-long hiatus and became one of the most successful groups in British music chart history, with renewed chart success internationally, especially in Europe. Irish music manager [[Louis Walsh]], who had witnessed the impact of these British boy bands, put out an advert for an "Irish Take That", thereby creating [[Boyzone]] in 1993. [[MN8]] (formed in 1992),  [[Let Loose]] (formed in 1993), and [[Damage (British band)|Damage]] and [[911 (UK band)|911]] (formed in 1995) were also successful boy bands in Britain; however, by the late 1990s all these bands had split up.

All these artists were very successful on both the singles and albums charts domestically and internationally; however, with the emergence of [[Britpop]] and the commercial co-option of [[indie rock]], many boy bands were ridiculed by the British music press as having no artistic credibility, although some, such as East 17 and Take That, did write most of their own material. The media attention was then placed on the "Battle of Britpop", and the bands [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]] and [[Blur (band)|Blur]] replaced the importance and rivalry of Take That and East 17 as the two new biggest bands in Britain. However, boy bands continued to find success in the late 1990s, such as [[Five (band)|Five]], [[Another Level (band)|Another Level]], [[Point Break (band)|Point Break]] and [[Westlife]]. In 1995 successful German music manager [[Frank Farian]], who had been manager of [[Boney M]] and [[Milli Vanilli]], put together [[Latin American]] band [[No Mercy (pop band)|No Mercy]] who scored a few worldwide hits during the mid-90s.

Although being American and the sons of [[Tito Jackson]], a member of [[the Jackson 5]], [[3T]] had several hits singles across Europe in the mid-1990s, despite limited success in the US, and finished the second biggest selling act of 1996 in Europe behind the [[Spice Girls]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sortmusic.com/_0/3t-biography,len.html |title=3T Biography |publisher=Sort music |access-date=August 5, 2012}}</ref> With the success of North American boy bands like [[New Kids on the Block]] in East Asia, Japanese entertainment company [[Johnny & Associates]] formed [[SMAP]] in 1992. The group enjoyed tremendous success, selling over 35 million records.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2049025/full/|title= 【オリコン】SMAP新曲が32作目首位 総売上3500万枚突破 |date= February 24, 2015|access-date= January 4, 2017|work= Oricon Style|publisher= [[Oricon]]}}</ref>

In 1992, after the disbandment of the heavy metal band [[Sinawe]], in which he had a brief stint, [[Seo Taiji]] formed the boy band [[Seo Taiji and Boys]] (Korean: 서태지와 아이들) together with dancers Lee Juno and [[Yang Hyun-suk]], which went on to become highly successful and created a craze at the time. Seo Taiji and Boys is credited with changing the South Korean music industry by pioneering the incorporation of [[Rapping|rap]] and [[Breakdancing|breakdance]] as well as the fusion of Korean music and various popular Western music genres in Korean popular music, and in turn creating the prototype for the modern hybrid [[K-pop]] genre or "rap-dance", as it was called at the time, and K-pop groups. They also left a lasting impact by explicitly putting social criticism at the forefront of their music, as well as paving the way for artistic freedom in South Korea by challenging censorship laws and the television networks hegemony over the music market. In 1995 the Korean Broadband is not 6&nbsp;ft to a particular location casting Ethics Committee demanded that Seo Taiji and Boys change the lyrics for "Regret of the Times". As a result, Seo decided to release the song as a purely instrumental track. This incited protests and resulted in the abolishment of music pre-censorship in Korea. Seo Taiji also did not have to rely on television networks due to the fact that he owned his own studio. This autonomy allowed Seo to bring subcultures in Korea, such as heavy metal, to the forefront of popular culture and challenge pervasive social norms. The band's independent success diminished the power of the television networks to dictate which artists appeared on shows, and gave rise to the influence of record labels and talent agencies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maliangkay |first=Roald |date=2013-01-01 |title=The Popularity of Individualism: The Seo Taiji Phenomenon in the 1990s |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/347/chapter/116844/The-Popularity-of-IndividualismThe-Seo-Taiji |language=en |doi=10.1215/9780822377566-018 |isbn=9780822377566 |publisher=Duke University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shim |first=Doobo |date=2006 |title=Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia |journal=Media, Culture & Society |volume=28 |pages=25–44 |doi=10.1177/0163443706059278 |s2cid=204327176 |language=en}}</ref> In 1996, Seo Taiji and Boys disbanded. In April 1996, Billboard reported that the band's first three albums had each sold over 1.6 million copies, with the fourth nearing two million,<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iw0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Seoul Music: Rockin' in Korea |date=1996-04-20 |publisher=Billboard |pages=16 |language=en}}</ref> making all four some of the [[List of best-selling albums in South Korea|best-selling albums of all time in South Korea]] to this day. Lee Juno became a record producer, and Yang Hyun-suk was successful in founding [[YG Entertainment]], one of the three biggest record companies in the country. Seo Taiji returned to music two years later with a successful solo career as a rock artist; he rose to become one of the most prominent and influential cultural icons in South Korea and was dubbed "the President of culture".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Herald |first=Korea |date=2012-03-23 |title=K-pop before and after Seo Taiji & Boys |url=https://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20120323000748 |access-date=2022-11-17 |website=The Korea Herald |language=en}}</ref> In 2017, Seo Taiji released a 25th Anniversary album with his greatest hits and remakes by prominent Korean artists, including the group BTS. He also held a joint celebratory concert with the latter, in which he acknowledged them as his spiritual successors in K-pop due to the socially conscious thematic similarities in their music as well their shared [[Hip hop music|hip hop]] leanings, and metaphorically passed the torch, saying "This is your generation now".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Herman |first1=Tamar |date=2017-09-04 |title=K-Pop Legend Seo Taiji Holds 25th Anniversary Concert, Passes Torch to BTS |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/k-pop-legend-south-korea-seo-taiji-25th-anniversary-concert-bts-7950056/ |access-date=2022-11-17 |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Backstreet Boys 2005.jpg|thumb|left|[[Backstreet Boys]] sold over 100 million records.<ref name="bsb">{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/backstreet-boys-are-back-20100106-ltvn.html|title=Backstreet Boys are back|first=Katherine|last=Feeney|work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=January 6, 2010 |access-date=January 21, 2014}}</ref>]]
In the early 1990s in North America, with New Kids on the Block's continued success and [[Color Me Badd]] also having success, boy bands became a continued staple of the Billboard charts. Continuing this success in the mid-1990s, most prominent boy bands were African American and had R&B and gospel elements, such as the groups [[All-4-One]] (formed in 1993) and [[Boyz II Men]] (formed in 1988). Boyz II Men are also the most successful boy band act on the [[U.S. Hot 100]] as well as the [[Australian Singles Chart]]. Although they had success on the Billboard charts, they were not marketed towards youth but more towards adults. It was not until 1997 and the change to pop-oriented groups such as [[Backstreet Boys]], [[98 Degrees]], [[NSYNC]], [[the Moffatts]], and [[Hanson (band)|Hanson]] that boy bands exploded commercially and dominated the market in the United States. This late 1990s marked the height of boy band popularity in North America, which has not been seen since.

Arguably the most successful boy band manager from the U.S. was [[Lou Pearlman]], who founded commercially successful acts such as the Backstreet Boys in 1993, NSYNC and [[LFO (group)|LFO]] in 1995, [[O-Town (band)|O-Town]] in 2000, and [[US5]] in 2005. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC became the two biggest boy bands in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, and Backstreet Boys went on to become the best-selling boy band in history with over 100 million records sold.<ref name="bsb"/>

In the late 1990s in the UK, producer [[Simon Cowell]] (noted in the U.S. for the ''[[American Idol]]/[[The X Factor]]'' franchise) is also known for having managed British boyband [[Five (band)|Five]] (formed in 1997) and Irish boyband [[Westlife]] (formed in 1998). Westlife was created by Irishman [[Louis Walsh]] as a replacement for [[Boyzone]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/x-factor/judges/louis-walsh.html | work = Press Association | title = Louis Walsh Profile | publisher= Yahoo! |access-date= January 9, 2010}}</ref> and was initially managed by a former member of the band [[Ronan Keating]]. Westlife would eventually overtake Take That in number one's tally in the UK although Take That's overall UK sales are still higher. In 2012, the [[Official Charts Company]] revealed the biggest selling singles artists in British music chart history with Take That placed 15th overall and the highest selling boyband act (9.3 million), followed by Boyzone at 29 (7.1 million) and Westlife at 34 (6.8 million).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-20-biggest-selling-groups-of-all-time-revealed-1682/ | title = The Official Top 20 biggest selling groups of all time revealed!|publisher=Official charts |access-date=November 3, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-singles-charts-biggest-selling-artists-of-all-time-revealed-1431/ |title=Official Singles Charts' biggest selling artists of all time revealed | publisher =Official charts |access-date=October 30, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/take-thats-top-40-biggest-selling-songs-3313/ | title = Take That's Top 40 Biggest Selling Songs|publisher=Official charts |access-date=November 29, 2014}}</ref> Even though Cowell is known to have managed several successful boy bands, he is also infamous for passing on signing two of the biggest boybands to emerge from the 1990s and 2000s, Take That and [[Busted (band)|Busted]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bebo.com/BlogView.jsp?MemberId=7322368642&BlogId=7651779757 |title=Blog |publisher=Bebo |access-date=June 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915184945/https://bebo.com/BlogView.jsp?MemberId=7322368642&BlogId=7651779757 |archive-date=September 15, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>