I'm A Bad Boy But I'm Nice (Boyband 15)

[koganbot]

Inspired by Christophe calling Big Bang's "Blue" the greatest boyband song since Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way," I compiled a list of fifteen boyband tracks. Not a best-of, not a survey, but some stuff I think highly of, and enough gaps to call forth lists of your own:

The Jewels "Hearts Of StoneDion And The Belmonts "I Wonder Why

Comments

[arbitrary_greay]

I love Shinee's "Sherlock," but I can't say that it's really it's a song that is either a pioneering leader of its era's sound, nor particularly its own unique style, either. "Replay," "Lucifer," and "Sherlock" stand out as superbly executed songs, but not more than that. This is also what's disqualified just about every Jpop boyband song I like, especially anything from Johnny's boybands.

DBSK's "Rising Sun" does qualify as quite distinct, though.
Teddy Robin & The Playboys - "Magic Colors"
The Four Seasons - "Bye Bye Baby"
Wow, I have so little knowledge of non-Asian boybands.

There are a few all-women boybands in Japan, but their music either sucks or is nothing special.

[koganbot]

For my list I wasn't requiring either leadership or uniqueness, just the ability to look good on a list.

A whole bunch of Four Seasons tracks would've cut a fine figure on my list, esp. "Beggin'," "Walk Like A Man," and "Dawn."

Based on my very incomplete listening to SHINee, my favorite track of theirs is the very familiar-sounding "Juliette" (I think that by boybanding it they improved it). But "Sherlock" sounds adventurous to me, in that it's a mashup that waits a long time on its emotional release.

(I'd never heard DBSK's "Rising Sun"; I may take a while figuring it out. And until just now I'd never heard any version of "Magic Colors." Seems it's a song that trying-to-be-hip Greenfield & Sedaka wrote for trying-to-be-relevant Lesley Gore in '67. A total nonhit for her, which maybe indicates that Teddy Robin & crew were record collectors!)

[arbitrary_greay]

Hmmm, most of Jpop boybands are still way too cheaply derivative. I suppose at least one standard Johnny's song should be heard to characterize their sound: a less obviously frat-boy douchey One Direction. (It's all about the synth strings with Arashi.)

I was wavering between "Dawn," "Who Loves You," and "Bye Bye Baby." Of course "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is my favorite, but that's technically a solo single.

The one responsible for Shinee's "boyband harmony"-type songs (Sherlock, Juliette, Love Like Oxygen) seems to be mostly Remee, plus or minus different co-writers and arrangers. Since their other signature sound is relentless beats (Ring Ding Dong, Lucifer) I liked how "Sherlock" appeared to be trying to combine the two styles, going for an ultimate epitome of Shinee.

Wow, I didn't realize that the Teddy Robin song was a cover! Their "Gloria" cover is pretty fun, too.

[koganbot]

Not only is "Magic Colors" a cover, it's a cover of a song that failed to chart and that had its album canceled. So, if you're Teddy Robin & The Playboys, you'd likely have had to have been an extreme fan of Lesley Gore to even know it existed, unless you were connected to some producer or talent scout who's scouring America for available material. This assumes that Hong Kong did not remain a major market for Gore after the U.S. faded. In any event, she'd seem not to be the sort whom a psychedelic band - if that's what Teddy Robin & The Playboys were - would be likely to pay attention to, not even during her aborted attempts at being "with it" herself in 1967 terms.

(Gore's major impact had been back in 1963, and her sensibility and style and musical world had been wiped out by the British Invasion; if the person who posted this on YouTube is correct, the Teddy Robin version didn't come out until 1969, which was a different planet from 1963.)

[koganbot]

Hmmm. I'm assuming that Hong Kong's hipsters followed the same musical demarcations as America's, but this is not necessarily a good assumption. Hong Kong in 1969 could have been mashing together sensibilities that in America had sharply diverged.

Their "Gloria" copies the Shadows Of Knight version in substituting "Then she called out my name" for Them's original "Then she came into my room." Presumably the Shadows Of Knight thought her coming into his room would be a bit risky for American radio in 1966.

[koganbot]

If Wikip is right, Remee didn't have anything to do with "Sherlock," though his sometime collaborator Thomas Troelsen is on board (Troelsen also there for "Love Like Oxygen"). As far as I know, "Deal With It" was written with Jay Sean originally in mind as the performer, though the song sure screams "We need a boyband to do this justice." I read somewhere (think it was Wikip, though I'm not seeing this info in current postings) that it was Jonghyun's idea to cover "Deal With It." He's the one credited with the "Juliette" lyrics.

[koganbot]

For me, most J-pop is in the category "I don't get it." Which means that I'm not generally able to identify what groups like Arashi derive from, as opposed to my being able to hear whom SHINee sound like.

[arbitrary_greay]

Apparently, The Runnaways were more famous in Japan than they were in the States, so it may be the case with other artists having some unknown momentum overseas. But you're right, it does seem an odd choice for a psychedelic band to cover, much less in the direction they arranged it with

[koganbot]

Ah, Wikip informs me that Lucas Secon was on hand for both "Echo" and "Lazy Girl"! And he's not even Scandinavian. (Is British.)

Two months ago I'd have had zero name recognition for each of those three.

EDIT: Wait! Secon lives in London but was born in Denmark. So Scandinavia takes it back!

[koganbot]

I love Shinee's "Sherlock," but I can't say that it's really a song that is either a pioneering leader of its era's sound, nor particularly its own unique style

Does seem as if a lot of the Korean boyband melodies and harmonies hark back to the early and mid '90s (e.g., *NSync and ilk), which themselves were drawing noticeably on the '80s and '70s. Compare this to a girl group like 2NE1 - it's not as if 2NE1's styles come out of nowhere (I'm sure CL would happily create a list of her rap and r&b antecedents), but what the group have made of those antecedents belongs unequivocally to the '10s (or so I think, anyway, though note Michelle Myers at the Jukebox saying, about "I Am The Best," "those circa-2003 pentatonic string synths sound delightfully anachronistic against all the 2010s dirty bass and sing-rapping," which can be cited to either challenge or support what I just said).

[arbitrary_greay]

It has been noted that Big Bang and 2NE1 (YG Entertainment) stand in contrast to the other idol groups. Their influences tend to be not just more modern, but also less European. (Definitely less Scandinavian.) So this might actually be a reflection on American R&B/Hip hop focus vs. European electronic/dance focus, although the lines have blurred with the influx of electro recently

[koganbot]

Regarding "Scream" versus "Sexy And I Know It," 2NE1 are adorable and female* and, as singers, genuinely talented, and they don't try to make a virtue out of clumsiness. And LMFAO don't just look frattish, they sound it. But they also pretend to be clumsier than they actually are. And I'll mention that my friend Dave recently made a terrific mashup of "Sexy And I Know It" and Aaron Carter's "Aaron's Party," which is so good that I just put it on a mixtape

[ext_878085]

"Fantastic Baby" is my least favorite from "Alive". There are things I like about it but I find the chorus boring and I'm automatically turned off by the phrase "boom shaka-laka". I just can't take it seriously. On the other hand, I can't stop listening to "Love Dust" which also has it's share of cheesiness.

[ext_878085]

I have always heard a lot of British pop and specifically Girls Aloud in SNSD, especially in "Gee". That might be more in production than composition but not knowing the language at all they still provide a ton of hooks for me to latch onto and sing along with, which is what Girls Aloud did at their best. There's also the name Girls Generation that just makes them an extension of Girls Aloud in my mind. Except for the language, I could imagine Girls Aloud sounding a lot like SNSD on "Oh! - The Second Album". I can't think of any other k-pop I've heard that comes closer to that style of British teen pop.

[arbitrary_greay]

Wow, that mashup makes the lyrics sound a lot more humorous than the original. This one could almost be a Lonely Island product. Not seeing the MV visuals helps, of course, I can pretend that they're rapping with a wink at the audience, not leering fratboy faces. Obligatory sound association link.

Does British teen pop include the S-Club-and-its-offshoots sound? (Or do you refer to current British teen pop?) Plenty of Jpop sounds like that, and Kpop has its share, as well, including blatant Max Martin replications.

Would you elaborate on the Girls Aloud-ness in "Gee?" I don't hear analysis of "Gee's" influences often, so it interests me.

[ext_878085]

I would love to elaborate more but as I was listening to some Girls Aloud last night and comparing it to SNSD songs, I was specifically thinking of the song "Oh" and not "Gee". Today I see you were writing about "Gee", which I agree is a bit different and unique