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Pop Literacy


Apr 8, 2019

Boy bands as we know them have been around since New Edition got together in 1978—and now, they’re bigger than ever, thanks to online fandom. New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, 98 Degrees, and Boyz II Men are among the groups who have recently been on tour or recorded new music. And the boy band legacy is evident in two recent developments: An excellent new YouTube Originals documentary, “The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story,” tells the cautionary tale of the impresario behind Backstreet Boys and NSYNC; and, on the lighter side, a New Kids on the Block song, “Boys in the Band,” pays tribute to the form. This week, we dissect the documentary and song, fangirl over our faves, and wonder what exactly is going on with K-Pop phenomenon BTS, the new frontier in boy bandom (more on them next week!).