After One Direction’s Liam Payne’s death last year, questions have been asked about the toll taken on pop group members.
From the hysteria of Beatlemania in the ’60s to the synchronized choreography of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC in the ’90s, boy bands have consistently been an effective means for the music industry to capture young audiences.
Every decade has seen its own defining boy band, each leaving a unique impact. One Direction’s formation in 2010 sparked a monumental success story, with the band selling approximately 70m records during their time together.
Kate Pattison is a third-year PhD candidate, researching pop culture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
She said: “In the last 25 years, there’s been this realization of just how much commercial potential there is in a boy band beyond just music. It’s all part of the package now: merchandise, collaborations, and more.”
Being in a band with such success comes with challenges, and Payne is not the first boy band member to speak about mental health struggles. The recent BBC documentary Boybands Forever explored mental health challenges faced by Robbie Williams from Take That and Brian Harvey from East 17 and Five.
Colette Balmain, a media lecturer at Kingston University, spoke about the pressure K-Pop boy bands such as BTS face. “The idea that you can’t have time off… the only reason (K-Pop) idols can have time off is when they’re suffering from some sort of physical or emotional illness. So it has a huge impact on them. You’ve always got to be perfect.”
Unlike the boy bands of the past, the rise of social media has intensified this pressure on ‘modern’ boy bands.
Balmain said: “You can’t say anything wrong in interviews or on a live stream because then it will be thrown back in your face, so you have to be very careful all the time. It’s very highly pressured.”
Pattison said: “With boy bands, you’re always on display. It’s inescapable now with social media. I imagine it feels like being a caged zoo animal.”
Despite the mental and physical turmoil faced by many boy band members, their influence on music and pop culture will always stand out. Pattison and Balmain both believe that the industry and its audience will always need boy bands as they appeal to a specific part of the market.
Pattison said: “The lifespan of a boyband is short, but their legacy lasts much longer.”
