Boy, oh boy!

Forget the dreamy stares and saccharine melodies of popular all boy outfits like the Backstreet Boys; there’s a new style of all boy band in town. These new kids on the block have traded the matching melodies and outfits of boy band boomers from the 90’s like NSYNC and 98 Degrees for skinny jeans and catchy rock hooks. These days, bands like The Kooks are the new kooky kings of the pop music charts.

To say that The Kooks are a boy band is not to say that they belong to the same family of music as the infamous lad bands of the 90’s. The fact is they not only belong to separate decades, they also produce vastly different music. Although there is no one definitive definition of the boy band genre that has become synonymous with groups like the Backstreet Boys, there are certain trends which many of these all boy bands exemplified.

Not only did boy band groups of the 90’s appear to have hoards of screaming female teens following them round the globe, they also tended to incorporate dance moves into their routines to accompany the requisite sweet harmonies of a repertoire composed mainly of heartfelt ballads. In 2008, bands with all male line-ups like the Kooks are ditching the squeaky-clean look and pop-flavoured lyrics that cluttered the charts in the 90’s and are opting for an edgier take on popular music. As Luke Pritchard, the lead singer of the Kooks said in an interview with The Guardian, “My whole thing, when we started the band, was that I wanted to bring back great pop music. Soulful pop”.

Although bands like the Backstreet Boys and the newly re-formed New Kids on The Block are still hanging round the neighbourhood of the pop charts, this isn’t the point. By looking at the shift in style that has occurred from the Backstreet Boys to the Kooks, you can observe a shift in mainstream taste. There are still plenty of all boy bands creeping their way up the charts these days, it’s just that they’re less likely to be singing sweet melodies, and more likely to be rocking out with guitars.

Naming themselves after a song from David Bowie’s 1971 Hunky Dory album called ‘Kooks’, the British boys of the Kooks certainly are the new pretty things of the pop charts. Their debut album Inside In/Inside Out sold over two million copies worldwide and peaked at the number two spot on the UK Albums Chart. Building on this success their latest release 2008’s Konk debuted at number one in Britain. Their bright pop sound is also making waves in America, coming in just shy of a top 40 position peaking at number 41 on the Billboard charts.

With Konk these cheeky, self-effacing lads have made popular music that is at once bold and bubbly, and the only ballads in sight, like the acoustic ‘All Over Town’, are backed with a scruffy rock sound. Infectious sing a long’s like ‘Shine On’ and the debut single off the album ‘Always Where I Need To Be’, which peaked at number 22 on the Billboard charts, are helping to ensure that popular all boy groups are sounding more like the Beatles than the Backstreet Boys these days.