After months of speculation the news that every take that had been dreading the most successful band of the decade that splitting up. As it was really terrible i had a friend who was also a big take that fan and we cried. Then we sat in front of the radio and recorded it on tape because there was this big interview. And great he said it is going to be a last album from today. Is no will. Be on but we even set up an Emergency Hotline at Bravo Magazine because kids were calling and saying they were going to kill themselves that there really were two or three girls who killed themselves because tate got it split down. Take that in the ninetys they were at the top of a gigantic wave of boy and girl plans the man just a bass Group Of Five had a massive teenage following turned over tiny profits and kept the press on their
and their diehard fans of remain true to this day. But remember this. As ive got photos from every american scene and every country i could get them from. At some point tide connected so much my mother gave me a big bag and said that if i didnt sort it out she threw it all away. From my you of course you daydream when you. Take that knew that too and sat down to develop a fan base by performing at schools in One Thousand Nine Hundred another boy band still ruled the worlds big stages. I. Was. New kids on the block from the United States they were enjoying huge commercial success and operating a carefully managed merchandising machine. They even surpassed the superstars of the eightys like madonna Whitney Houston prince. And Michael Jackson michael. Michael jackson was the biggest influence on the boy bands since they all combined music singing and choreographed Dance Routines but for all five of them would be on stage doing what Michael Jackson did as a one man show. There wouldnt be boy bands if it werent for Michael Jackson. The king of pop first achieved success himself as part of
a point band the jackson five as a solo artist he laid the foundation for the ultimate Entertainment Experience challenge conventional ideas about masculinity and femininity as did many of his fellow pop artists by the end of the eightys gen. Bending gave way to cute boys in the saloon. With a sort of new wave of boy bands starting with New Kids On The Block and Going Forward there was a lot more kind of sexual directness. Its been taken off bodies being shown i think the big influence you know generally that culture had got more and more explicit about sharing back flash people like bobby brown these new much more raunchy kind of r. And b. Styles and rap styles did show off theyre so well muscled kind of physiques
offered up for the enjoyment of female fans and also i found as well. I. Definitely trained as sex symbols you know tops coming off you know im painting all that kind of stuff and while so it was a whole show it was the dancing it was. It was the looks it was the clothing it was the moves and the songs that. You. Love in every way is a very gay video because we got purple it somewhere in cut off top scene stuff. When you look back on some of those boy bands in the ninetys like they look really gay right but that was a time where. People didnt know you know people didnt think boy george was gay in
the eightys people didnt think George Michael was gay. And you look at well now youre like what those obviously gay you know you have you know take that you know looking very effeminate doing. Thing is that people didnt translate that as being. In one Nine Hundred Ninety Three boys appeared on islands biggest late night show without a song all record deal but plenty of hot moves and no shortage of sex appeal. I was going to go forward to hearing from you when youre famous. But it wasnt done skills that made them famous lead singer Ronan Keating voices what catapulted boys own to the top of the chops. But there was one fact that they werent allowed to mention at the beginning. Stephen gately was gay. And yet it was the gay and lesbian clubs in large cities that provided the pethick springboard full fledgling boy bands and girl groups what went over well then i would also catch on with the mainstream londons legend. Posted them all. Dressed in leather perform for an Adult Audience with at this time. Zone and westlife did shows that. We used to perform quite regularly its just a great night its a really full day it was the one night we could perform and let our hair down because you know most games youre taking taking it seriously. You know youre kind of conscious of Whats Going On but the something about why its such
a part of the audience is just everybodys drinking everybodys having fault. But the Gay Community was any targeted on officially the official target group was a completely different one. Girls lose their minds coming this way paolo and that scream is deafening you just you know stop and you know and it will just be screaming i remember some of the reviews from some of our shows the reviewer used to get upset because they would say you know were going to give the show a bad review because the screaming was so loud we couldnt hear the music to actually review it. We got to perform with take that and they were huge at the time i remember traveling from our hotel we were going to do a Show Manchester and they had to travel in up trucks and we were. Like these Limousine Cars and their fans thought that we were them because you couldnt see inside they were shaking how come we were a group. So for the next show as we said we were Riding Mc Trucks like take back the kids theyre going to kill us. Screaming and swinging girls were already doing that in the beatles era. The Teeny Boppers could integrate the boys on stage into their dream worlds which are free of sexual marital obligations a place where fantasies can run wild. From the middle of the sixtys you still get these groups theres a sort of calm of the man there particularly with the teen age and preteen the audience for these sort of bands like somewhere between. Pets and sex
objects you know its like an early experimentation with ideas of love and romance and sex but a very sort of sorry for a girl who may not be allowed to have a boyfriend could have her imaginary bravery in dealy its from all one and have posters up and hearts around his face and you know and go see him in concert and parents dont feel weird about it because hes there and shes hearing or you scream as loud as you want. But for many fans the boys represent more than just pin ups on the walls they are companions who accompanied them through a tumultuous time in their lives. A lot of our fans and especially now as they are adults and they come to our shows and they tell us about how they felt when i would sing and dance we may not be you know you to music Doesnt Sort Of Change The World but the one thing we do team and we did was that when they have really difficult times and when they got into their
teenage years and those years can be very emotional and very difficult. I think we can give them a lot. You can really get brows now you know the whole study was for us and why i have even today from dallas they say youre my first love ive got a fall memories of the toil of the band i would come home from school. I had a boring day or something is troubling me i would put your music on the fly my bad the song it just it was almost like hearing some of it wash over me and it made me just put in some more of. My goodness first on that many didnt understand why young girls like us were wild about it even some of the girls didnt understand what he originally forced on me to hear that it was
a hat thing in contrast to boys their age girls are more bound to the household thats true today but even more so in the ninetys girls have to help out around the house they cant stay out as late in the evening arent even allowed to go out on their own as much as their male counterparts and generally have less access to the potential sources that could allow them to acquire a certain amount of selfconfidence and even toward society and when young girls do go out often theyre not taken very seriously or given much attention groups gather to let off emotional steam boys want to play football and girls go to a Backstreet Boys concert i think girls is and should be taken more seriously they shouldnt be dismissed as swoon as who obsess over pop stars we dont do that to male soccer fans and no one laughs at them when they sing their fan songs and yell and scream because they want. The entertainment
industry didnt mind the kids had money to spend and it offered them for. Empty of ways to spend it. Boy bands are perfect bait they spring up like mushrooms or even join forces with the competition like the french band and the irish band boys earn twice the fun and twice the profits boy bands are an International Money making machine and their fans will following with purchasing power. Things about once was it was. A relatively prosperous time the worlds economy did recover it did boom it was filtering down and so everyone has a lot more money and including teens and preteens you know theyve actually got a Lot Spending Power has a huge potential to make money not just with selling the records but with all the merchandise or color spinoffs movies d. V. D. s thing much and dice has always been
around just to hit new levels in the heights in the ninetys when when people knew that they could release one song and have three different versions of it just by changing the cover you know you go five if you want five boys in the band you got a single with five different faces the show five i mean that thats taking it to the extreme yeah i think then you have people jump on the bandwagon that like the dolls and we had our most wins we had kept resounding while the pop played on the bed sheets on the way and sunglasses and none is was that was a massive explosion to really capitalize on need as much as you could to make money in. The ninetys are high on the new economy the digital age made room for new markets Internet Startups have the stock market booming multimedia products are created for a childs play be it video games or tamagotchi is and the Entertainment Industry
turned its attention to girls. America ive heard of there was a noticeable push of products onto the market especially targeted to girls if you take Girls Magazines for example there were all sorts of new publications in the Ninetys Like Brigade To young miss magazines with a lot of content related to the cosmetics and Fashion Industries consumerism was promoted as a lifestyle in those magazines then there were also t. V. Shows that revolved around the software lies ation of women. Yet as with female protagonists were in the foreground on shows like clueless. Then there were novels like Bridget Jones diary these characters were incredibly independent had jobs usually in the Media Industry had lots of Friends Money and could look after
themselves but there was one thing missing Prince Charming. And this Prince Charming should be of their own age if possible whether in t. V. Shows films or advertisement the boy band style was everywhere the metrosexual man with youthful looks and well groomed appearance became the new ideal of beauty. Well for the girls the guys were very good looking all of the girls were to it it was a great looking cast to want to have some pretty people on their literary whos still gorgeous to this day so it was a group of pretty kids we did not have heart that episode. Got to perform every day of the week. A time when men were the primary Marketing Target in the ninetys it opened back up to the wider masses of the city but i think. When you look at issues of gravel from the sixtys seventys and the early eightys there were also a fair number of adults on the covers so thats just alone for example in the seventys there was but spencer wearing a full beard you know it again and then they you thought began in the ninetys and there were more and more boys on the covers. And many of the female figures on t. V. Were also girlies now plats past slides and sneakers the style of dress is colorful and diverse theres rest for life palpable their motto youthful freedom instead of half it super woman despite the fact that top models were also experiencing a boom. And i think the ninetys were an era of supermodels with
big names like Cloudier Chef ErinCindy Crawford the ideal with ninety sixty ninety i really believe that the girl is. Are already that unconventional they were worried whether men like it or not that was very extravagant. And the different Fashion Styles were put together completely crazily i think it wasnt targeted so much at the mens views of the funny the wiki of them picked them at all of. The girl next door she defined Music Television of the ninetys established channels like v h one n m. T. V. Catered to cool kids but things changed to a new Music Channel shook up the market and drove the Youth Culture to an absolute peak. Television became a Cuddle Program happy babbling with slip ups and breakdowns but close to the
action provided there was Satellite Reception or cable in the house in the ninetys private programs entered the living rooms throughout europe. Who took sick you go perceptive and when Satellite Television became available i got the chance to see a little more of what was going on out there suddenly i could choose between all sorts of programs and Music Channels i discovered fever fever one and the other two that was incredible i became aware of all sorts of countless artists on the just the European Youth programs provided the main showcase for boy and girl bands in europe even american bands like the Backstreet Boys and n sync were aware of their importance and took advantage of them because by the mid one Nine Hundred Ninety s. Interest in singing and dancing boys in white pop culture had dropped significantly in the United States. The White Boy Band Couldnt Get arrested americas enough we
just came up a whole New Kids On The Block maybe three years earlier four years or. When their popularity soared when the old and everybody had moved on to grunge and it wasnt about you know nobody wants to watch a boy band or europe celebrated synth pop in the one Nine Hundred Eighty s. It was heading for a big dance wave in the one Nine Hundred Ninety s. But grunge and hip hop dominated the american pop charts. Hard times there was no room for sweet dreams of love. From the eightys you had a Crack Epidemic we had the h. I. B. Aids epidemic we had the failure of trickle down economics so the non threatening fun hip hop of the Sugarhill Gang or run d. M. C. That would change in the ninety eight people were suffering people were angry Police Brutality poverty Ronald Reagan ruining the country George Bush Sr coming in
it was time to talk about Whats Going On in your community in the ninetys. And for all of the criticism of cornhole gangsta rap it really was a reaction to what people were going through women to found new possibilities of expression in this music like mc lyte. The ninetys definitely opened the door for Womens Rights again through music because of hip hop. And all of these people who are screaming about their status with women. Open the doors for the r. And b. Singers in the soul singers to have an opinion. Vogue
storm the stage with found us vocal and plenty to say and songs that took on Racism Sexism and discrimination they were clear and then to moms. In the ninetys i think women were definitely thinking more about their own sexuality you know are there some of the lyrics were pretty racy the lyrics were definitely forward thinking in terms of what we want were not just you know an object we have feelings and desires and we wanted to be right. Afro American Girl bands like jade didnt mind calling things as they were that texts were adult as was their audience however another band became the voice of
a whole generation t. L. C. Im not. Going to go out. On. T. L. C. Determine the whole Nine Hundred Ninety s. Wrote him for young women with their songs whether its contraception Sexual Exploitation all sick beauty ideals all these issues were mentioned. In the late lisa Left Eye Lopez stood for. A concept which still had to find its way into mainstream. Go power the spice girls became the power bottom and of the movement. From englands Working Class and they brought feminism to the masses and their message the struggle is now lets have. As melanie c. Says you know you dont have to burn a bra to be a feminist i think it means that you dont have to you know protest and believe in everything all the feminists did in the suffragettes did you just have to be confident and biggest self and not be. Told what to do by anyone its a very its a very simple version of feminism but a very effective one they formed a counterpoint to the many boy bands and gave girls new models with which to identify. Spice girls had so much energy they had five different personalities which is great because it meant that you could decide which one you liked best i never had a favorite actually changed because i changed so my favorite spice girl depended on
where i was in my development so one point i was really. Into my mom when i was particularly young so it was baby spice who on the side identified that in her. And as i got older i really enjoyed margaery Costume Sequins Sparkle so jerry was mad and favorite and so it just changed like that and now victoria because i think she sets a great role model for young businesswoman and top an aerial spirit. To. See. Dramatic outfits and cheeky behavior were also part of the Spice Girls Schtick whenever they appeared they created a scene and substantially rattled much oh man she can do it let me make sally you know right now im just a little we are your theories flapping about the Politics Around the globe and i
think that was made by the us. Public well you know they were very very. Com for the quiet irreverent generally they just made a spectacle of themselves they just loved showing off and that was the whole thing thats what they existed to do they seem to have this kind of tremendous. Confidence gang mentality and they had all this Girl Power Philosophy to have a good time be themselves stick by their friends i think those things are important what message is that that got through. The five women where the greatest girl band in the world they stood for Cool Britannia transformed the union jack into a Fashion Statement wrote a girl power manifesto gave girls Self Confidence and they made profit with it. The kind of guy power you could always buy girl power and they sold plenty of it the spice girls had up to twenty Advertising Contracts going on at once there was
for example the Spice Girls Deodorant girls thought ok if i use this storage and i have girl power to do that was fantastic and also affordable there was even a spice girls polaroid camera to record your girl palin moments and there were Spice Girls Bobbys Typical Girl Culture which was then transferred to go power would be that off guy power but yet because the Power Message i think was all about marketing i recognize that even as a little girl i thought that it was a marketing mans dream it was a way to sell records and merchandise and that dolls and. Even though they believed in feminism. In spite of the hype they were never taken very seriously that was a problem for all boy and girl bands theyre seen as products of the Casting Industry Bands constantly have to combat this Image Problem not even the fact that many of them write their own songs seems to help. Wanted to get the attention at the girls it was important that all the band members stand side by side on stage they were equal no more important than another that allowed every goal to choose their favorite star. Its not. Looking good dancing and singing in harmony well driving girls wild rather than strumming it in White Music Culture that contradicts the ideal of real masculinity the rock up. The. So in the. Country as well a lot of people sing songs written by other people by sort of professional songwriters by hit factories. The rock is my dears you have any meaningful if you write your own lyrics they come from you a tend to be a sort of. Belief that image and clothes are a glamour
a kind of not that important somebody frivolous trivial my looks sort of helped in that area and i think i thought he looks great as a man does he have the voice not sure we can welcome back a lot of people just love just about the boy band you know it was that period where everyone at boy bands you know we need to prove ourselves every time we were anywhere same for us that was i think it was like one show us you you not just pretty boys have no talent my hair on. Her back you. Know as it was in about proving we could sing everybody knew that we could sing it was more of a thing of them to say you know we really want to hear you sing it wasnt like we dont believe you can sing are proving. That. Africanamerican artists face fewer of the stereotypes generally associated with caste bands but they do struggle against the cliche of being considered natural talent this skill is greatly influenced by experiences with Church Choirs and longstanding music to dish and. Singing gospel requires technique that only comes with years of training. Coming from gospel you know to sing in a black church here you have to be saying to sing jazz you have to understand certain movements you you know certain notes you need to know more than just opening your mouth and. Singing you have to understand Control Inflection you know proud of the gotta learn the language its not like you just get up and saying we you know at least our group j didnt come from that we came from Serious Musical histories. The first boy bands descended from this history doo wop
even before rocknroll a lively style of music based on harmony developed in the africanamerican communities in large cities in the u. S. This tradition celebrated a revival in the ninetys. And the next level down and you had a group like and vote and vote truly a throwback to the supreme right truly a throwback to the girl groups and for ya graffiti and all these kinds of things. Our first single in the states and worldwide was a do up song so our introduction as a group was the do up sound of the fiftys and sixtys so yeah we were you know part of that revival i think if i came out again one of the first credits of a kind of swing this back around was boys to man i believe. Drive. The Backstreet Boys were aware of that and seized opportunities on stage to show what they were capable of and to counter the conventional image of a boy band. Those who wanted to earn money had to fill arenas the ninetys with a decade of huge stage shows pyrotechnics video screens backup dances and elaborate Stage Designs have been standing ever since in a crowd of Fifty Thousand fans even those in the very last row should be entertained. I mean at the time for the money we spent on that and we didnt do anything cheaply with the stage design and twenty changes of clothes and. Its
a big production. One hundred people or more. Months. In order to keep the machinery going manages wanted band members who did what they were told Drill Methods like we use. The idea of. Nothing new really. Preparing getting the boys ready. Play ready. For public consumption the dance moves and theyre rehearsing them rehearsing them rehearsing them rehearsing them and its all to keep them out of trouble. And then there was the image based on illusions designed to foster the loyalty of lovesick fans. Having a girlfriend all being gay is to do number one rule of youre single. That was kind of like the managements rule we have to change our ages too but of course the fans in holland knew. And they were like its not twenty ten we twenty five you know and it was just im twenty two and im single. And i was friends with benjamin and we met and the story oh yeah and and then we made him and then. I mean. The compressor friend. While male friendships had to be invented a number of things had to be kept in the dark like those of elijah young from cold in the yanks and the late Stephen Gately from boys a. Month really from westlife and lance bass remained single also had to wait
a long time before they could reveal that they are gay. Lance bass of course and saying there was no way you could have an openly gay back that. No way that could have happened it was a dangerous time to do that and if they did even acknowledging they had a gay following in the early part of their career because you know. The Boy Bands Girl bands they had no say so for the most part they were very controlled by the record label. Whether it was. Whether was lou pearlman. Lou perlman was considered one of the most colorful music manages of the nineteen ninetys bands like the Backstreet Boys and same cool well under his management the ninetys were the golden decade for Production Companies the new economy was the fertile soil for the Entertainment Industry who perlman is going to. Be
a chef. Is a tough business make a lot of money with trans continental and. He had a Pizzeria Chain somewhere in america he gave me his business cup once there were eight Companies Listed on it and he wrote a book that then called benz brands and billions and not the smartest on it. I mean he was primarily a businessman. And only than a music fan was a fan. These days hes in prison because of Investment Fraud his pyramid scheme didnt work out the new economy bubble burst and even Boy And Girl Bands Dont Go On forever many break up after a few years they cant stand the pressure or they become adults find other interests or internal conflicts break them. Out of the challenge and. Robbie williams drowned his frustration in alcohol and drugs thereby provoking his exit from the band and sealing the end of take that. Robbie leaving the band was more or less the beginning of the end of take that at first everyone thought theyd carry on as a foursome but at some point it was all over and that was a disaster of course. As much as well yes it was bad it was really bad because they had determined our youth they had been our hobby had marked us and suddenly they were gone now one of them i suspect in lets close this race despite the big shock the fans didnt have to mourn for long gary barlow and mark owen embarked on solo careers as did Robbie Williams who enjoyed the most success and ten years later the big reunion even if only in a band of four. I find it nice that they exist again
i thought the reunion was brilliant it was so great i couldnt believe it at first just as i couldnt believe the separation i thought it was simply great and we should get the posters out again no i didnt think that. And other bands are following suit boy and girl bands of the ninetys are making comebacks much to that fact still a little i didnt really think about at the time. Youre still a great theyre a fabulous that by step that kind of a concept that scream in there you know fantastic but to sort of look back and think. A lot of them say we missed the ninetys you know its like a real important nostalgic memory for them yeah yes this was al use these
a nice memories this is what made it so special it was great little. Little. For sarah willis playing the horn is a passion. And profession joined her on a journey as a musical discovery. This time she made some new some long humbard. The
female Quartet Moves with ease among john was. Fifteen minutes d. W. High up in the snowy owl going. Forward through a lot of adventures. Outraise enter lucas to go works up a sweat. A Winter Vacation close to nature. The other way region in winter. In thirty minutes on w. Ws Program Guide to the highlights of the whole. Dot com highlights. I shot maggie has no children which makes her feel worthless and incomplete