WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL. British group One Direction is reinventing the quintessential boy band formula. Photo from paroutudo.com

Whether we admit it or not, we have all sung along to at least one boy band song in our lives. It may be while a friend belts out the Backstreet Boys’ “Quit Playing Games With My Heart” during karaoke, or when a radio station plays a random 98 Degrees song. Boy bands have definitely been a part of our childhood.

Girls remember Nick Carter’s boyish looks and floppy hair with a tinge of kilig, but also with bit of mortification (his hair was just too floppy). We also thank *NSYNC for making Justin Timberlake realize that he can sing. But these boy bands are now often remembered with nostalgia, something that we fondly look back on when we want to feel a bit younger than we are now. Clearly, we’ve all moved on from boys that dance and sing with almost freaky synchronization.

However, British boy band One Direction begs to disagree. Just when we thought that boy bands peaked in the O90s, these newcomers9 fast ascent to fame proves that boy bands are definitely back, now armed with blazers, tight pants, and perfectly windswept “but-I-barely-had-time-to-fix-this” hair.

You are my fire, the one desire

Boy bands, as the name suggests, are composed of (traditionally) good-looking male singers. As “vocal groups,” they busy themselves with choreographed dancing (or in the case of One Direction, jumping up and down) instead of playing instruments. It’s vital that all members can and will at one point sing, so that no one dominates the stage. They’re usually put together during their teenage years, much like a sweatshop, but less dangerous and generally acceptable by child labor laws.

The Monkees and The Jackson 5 were considered the first boy bands, who catapulted to fame in the 1960s. They pioneered most of the musical conventions that boy bands follow, such as distinct harmonizing and catchy, almost repetitive lyrics. Though not everyone would agree, The Beatles also helped set the standards for most boy bands, as they were marketed through their looks and distinct personalities. Each member has distinct roles to play: “the bad boy,” “the charming one” or “the funny one,” among others.

The more familiar T90s boy bands were the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Westlife and 98 Degrees. Along with a few others like The Moffats and Hanson, they ruled worldwide pop charts, marking the peak of boy bands that has never been seen since. They were followed by acts like A1, Blue and (in the late 2000s) The Jonas Brothers. Their images were carefully controlled to such extents as accessorizing them with purity rings.

By 2001, the popularity of boy bands started to wane. This was, however, the same time boy bands from East Asia garnered attention, as Taiwanese boy band F4 rose to fame after the success of Meteor Garden. Many Asian boy bands have since emerged, eventually leading to the rise of “J-Pop” and “K-Pop” with groups like Super Junior and Shinee.

Get out, get out, get out of my head

2010 saw the beginning of One Direction, the English-Irish boy band formed during the seventh series of X Factor UK. A year later, their debut album Up All Night sold almost 200,000 copies on its first week, making One Direction the first ever British band in history to achieve that feat. One Direction, for all intents and purposes, seems to be the ultimate comeback for this long-time phenomenon.

With hit songs (that you have surely heard at least once) “What Makes You Beautiful” and “One Thing,” these five teenage boys have become the object of screaming and crying—and then some—all over the world. With their sometimes too well-constructed outfits (suspenders, really?) and coiffed hair, they sing about young love, wholesome partying and even subtle hints at sex (their newest single “Live While We’re Young” talks about “getting some,” if you know what they mean).

It’s no coincidence that boy bands “returned” after Canadian pop star Justin Bieber notoriously rose to fame. The Telegraph’s chief rock music critic Neil McCormick wrote that, recently, “[pop music] has been hip hop and RnB, with its bad attitude drawn from rebellious black cultural roots, styling itself as overly swaggering and sexy.”

This, according to McCormick, left a gap for “clean cut, wholesome, whiter-than-white, middle class parent-friendly pop.” And as Bieber moves on to a more mature genre, today’s boy bands have comfortably filled that gap.

This resurgence of boy bands paved the way for other boy bands such as The Wanted, another English-Irish band formed through nationwide auditions a year before One Direction’s climb to fame. The Wanted aims to cater to more music genres aside from pop. With a pretty solid fanbase of their own, their songs “Glad You Came” and “Lightning” topped charts all over the world. One Direction and The Wanted are being collectively referred to as “The British Invasion,” both rising to fame despite their numerous differences.

These newcomers have even prompted the convenient return of ‘90s boy bands, as Backstreet Boys and New Kids On The Block tour the world and bands like Westlife and Blue reunite for concerts. Fans of these ‘90s boy bands found themselves reminiscing as they watched their childhood idols sing the very anthems of their first crushes and puppy loves.

So that’s what makes them beautiful

It’s not a secret that the images of boy bands are created so that they would appeal to every teenage girl. Communication junior Chang Casal admits that she initially only liked One Direction because she found them attractive. However, it’s not only their good looks that manage to pull millions of fans in. These boys, no matter how orchestrated their clothes and hair are, are still performers.

Senior Abby Alcanzare says that the boy bands of today are starting to experiment with their genre, adding new innovations to their songs while still maintaining a distinct pop sound. “I think it’s because young people now are more open to listening to new kinds of music,” she adds.

But their fame doesn’t end with the female population. Sophomore Miguel Feria, who plays the guitar for the AMP band Imelda, has no problem with admitting that he listens to and enjoys One Direction songs. “I like One Direction because they’re very unique, and their lyrics are really good,” he says. Though other people often make fun of him for this, he says he doesn’t really understand why, adding that most of his guy friends like the boy band as well.

Not everyone agrees, though, as communication senior Will Fernandez asserts that boy band music is “just composed of simple songs with catchy tunes.” Biology junior Trina Martinez also says she’s “not so crazy about [One Direction],” because she doesn’t think they can replace boy bands that she grew up with. “Boy bands from before wrote more meaningful songs with more variety in arrangement,” she adds.

Thank God I found you, Internet

Perhaps one of the reasons why boy bands of today are “overexposed” is because of the vast amount of media attention they get. Their online presence is so overwhelming that fans are updated on what these boys are up to almost every minute. “We know everything,” communication junior Mikee De Ocampo says, “from their pranks, their girlfriends, to their new tattoos.”

Social media is a huge factor to the success of boy bands. One Direction’s manager Will Bloomfield, in an interview with Rolling Stone, claims that the One Direction boys “live online, and so do their fans.” This has also given these boy bands a more approachable side, with fans becoming privy to the fact that they’re not just idols—they’re also regular teenage boys.

The boy band craze of the ‘90s didn’t have that kind of opportunity. They had to stick to traditional magazine interviews and TV appearances, creating a divide between them and their fans. Today, boy band enthusiasts seem to know even the most intimate details of their lives. “They all seem like five best friends having a really good time doing something they love,” says Casal.

Dirty pop, baby you can’t stop

Boy bands are a globally manufactured trend. A lot of people would even say that they are created just to generate profit, since they are put together for fitting a certain formula producers know would sell. The success of boy bands then and now ascertains that with the right amount of hair wax, boyish charm and—arguably—talent, the boy band formula is a tried and tested one.

However, One Direction proves that this formula can be modified to fit their liking. They might be your typical boy band at first glance, but they’re also so much more than that—they don’t have squeaky clean reputations, they go to award shows drunk and they occasionally sing about one night stands (with earnest) and taking you home to do God knows what. They are, as their new hit single says, just living while they’re young.