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How to Be the 'Perfect' Boy Band

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How to Be the 'Perfect' Boy Band On CD and ONLINE! AUDIO TRACK 6: Listen to an 80s’ boy band member THEBUZZ talk about life behind the scenes www.mg-plus.net/audio HOW TO BE THE ‘PERFECT’ BOY BAND Harry Styles Niall Horan Zayn Malik Louis Tomlinson Liam Payne THE 5 COMMANDMENTS ne Direction – Britain’s newest boy phenomenon. Just how successful? The band One Direction band sensation – almost didn’t “America is one of the toughest places O happen. In 2010, five English and for UK artists to crack●, but this band has become a global Irish solo singers, aged 17 to 19 – Niall made it look easy,” writes Greg Dawson Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry on BBC online. phenomenon. CURRENT Styles and Louis Tomlinson – auditioned Last spring, their debut album Up to compete in the talent TV series The X All Night went straight to number one reveals the secrets Factor. None of them made it through. in the U.S.: “They’re the first British But as X Factor producer and judge band to top the charts with their debut, behind their success. Simon Cowell tells it: “When they left, I something even The Beatles failed to had a bad feeling – and the idea came manage,” says Dawson. Band member about to see if they could work as a Niall Horan’s response: “As you can group. The minute they stood there for imagine, we were over the moon●.” the first time together, it was weird. They Just what makes One Direction so just looked like a group. And after they ‘perfect’? worked together for five weeks, they came back and were sensational.” Turn the page for the One Direction didn’t win the ‘5 commandments’ Before you read: series – they came in third – but in • What are the key qualities that another sense they won the bigger behind their meteoric make a good boy or girl band? prize: they went on to become a global success. CURRENT November / December 2012 15 THEBUZZ Online activities at: www.mg-plus.net/activities Thou shalt Thou shalt NOT Thou shalt Thou shalt Thou shalt make 1 be cute. 2 have your own 3 have constant 4 have no public 5 feel-good cheesy style! exposure. girlfriends! pop music! When One Direction made their first U.S. Under the constant watch of producer One Direction’s first U.S. visit last spring Despite many media interviews, boy band “Each One Direction song follows some TV appearance on the Today show in Simon Cowell, the band exude● a was a thoroughly planned six-week members past and present have kept version of the standard boy band formula: New York, they were mobbed● by 10,000 clean-cut ● image: “Simon’s a master publicity blitz● – “a gruelling● schedule of their private lives guarded, especially start with simple alternate solos, then screaming fans, mostly teenage girls. image-maker, and he wants to keep meet-and-greets in TV and radio stations Simon Cowell is a master girlfriends. And given their heartthrob build into a foot-tapping hook backed by Why? “They are deemed● to be cute in One Direction squeaky-clean●,” says around the country,” says The Guardian. image-maker,“ and he wants status with young females, One Direction pulsating electronic beats,” says Time ● different ways – a must for boy bands – Hollywood writer Bonnie Fuller. They sang on high-profile TV shows to keep One Direction can’t risk losing their massive fan base. magazine. “The group takes cues from since part of the fun is having a favourite Paul Williams of Music Week like Saturday Night Live; their U.S. So, girlfriends are kept secret, the boy bands of yesteryear with bubble ● • ● member to pine for ,” says The New York magazine compares their wholesome● Facebook fans rocketed from 40,000 squeaky-clean . although in June the Daily Mail leaked● gum lyrics about young love.” Times. image to American boy bands of the late to over half a million. Worldwide, their ” this bombshell: “It was heartbreaking A team of music writers and Time magazine adds, “They look the 80s and the early 90s, like New Kids On music has scored nearly 90 million enough for his young fans when Harry producers manufacture One Direction’s part of a classic contemporary boy band: The Block, Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync YouTube hits. Styles started going out with a TV hits like “What Makes You Beautiful” – 1 each member has his own personality: [see Match It below]. In December 2011 the group kicked presenter 14 years his senior. So the news winner of the 2012 BRIT Award for Best Horan is the ‘cute little Irish one,’ Malik is So, depending on the event, Cowell’s off ● a six-month sell-out tour that that Caroline Flack wasn’t the first older Single. Many industry-created boy bands the ‘quiet and mysterious one,’ Payne is hotshot ● stylists create the ideal look for included shows in the U.S., the UK, woman to catch Harry Styles’ eye may be don’t write their own songs. “I tried to ‘go ‘the sensible one,’ Styles is ‘the charming the group – perfectly co-ordinated jeans Australia and New Zealand. Next spring rather too much to bear.” cool’ and write ‘edgy’ alternative music,” one’ and Tomlinson is ‘the funny one.’” and T-shirts with floppy hair, or identical they launch a second world tour – with When the paper exposed Styles’ says Matt Willis from boy band Busted. One American fan, Meaghan, 17, suits with neatly-trimmed hair. 40 arena tour dates. ex-romance with married radio presenter “It was a disaster!” ● ● says, “The fact that they’re British just Just don’t think about having your “Cowell thinks they’re the hardest Lucy Horobin, she received some vicious Given the unusually short shelf life of makes them cuter!” own style! working pop group of the moment,” MTV Tweets from his teenage ‘Directioners’. boy bands in general, are One Direction reported that he rewarded each member And Emily Ostilly, another girlfriend of concerned about the future? No way, says ● with a £2 million bonus! “Cowell wants Harry’s, was also hounded off Twitter – Louis Tomlinson: “We just want to keep them to know what they deserve. They as was a girl he asked on a date. working hard and having fun. As long have been a massive success, and what The point is, public girlfriends are a as the music’s good, people are going to MATCH IT they have achieved is phenomenal.” no-go! want to come and see us.” Test your boy band IQ. Here ✱ WORDWISE are some of pop music’s most A They first conquered America in 1966 commandment (n): an instruction to be carried out; in with their bubble gum pop. Known for the Bible, a divine order famous groups. Can you match to crack (v, inf): to break into and succeed in a difficult their colourful 60s’ onstage outfits, their the fact with the band? area biggest single hit was I’m a Believer. over the moon (exp): very happy, ecstatic meteoric (adj): rapid rise to success B Formed in Florida in 1995, their second thou shalt (old English): ‘you shall’, often Biblical, as in album, No Strings Attached, sold one The Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shalt not kill’, etc. ● million copies in a day. Their breakout : to mob (v): to crowd and sometimes overwhelm 1 THE BEATLES Justin Timberlake. to deem (v): to consider to be to pine for (v): to be sad because you want someone C They’re called the ‘Fab Four’ and have you can’t have sold over one billion records. Their mop- to exude (v): to present or radiate a clear quality or trait top haircuts started a craze, while their clean-cut (adj): neat and tidy 2 THE MONKEES music has influenced every boy band squeaky-clean (adj, phr): always acting in an honest, ever since their first single in 1962. moral way wholesome (adj): innocent and sensible D Their pop songs and ballads topped the hotshot (adj): very successful at something UK charts in the early 90s. They split blitz (n): a quick, concentrated effort gruelling (adj): demanding and very tiring up in 1996 when one member went to kick off (v): to start or begin something solo and became a superstar. The band to leak (v): to let out private or secret information reunited briefly in 2010 – and performed vicious (adj): very cruel and hurtful at the London 2012 Olympic Games. to hound off (v, inf): to force someone to leave something E They’ve sold over 130 million records cheesy (adj): lacking quality and taste and their chart-topping singles include cue (n): a signal or prompt Everybody and As Long As You Love bubble gum (adj, inf): light and without substance 4 TAKE THAT Me. They’re known as wholesome shelf life (n): period of time, often short breakout (n): to break away from something, or achieve role models with close family ties and quick success 3 BACKSTREET BOYS respect for fans. 5 ’N SYNC Answers ➜ Page 23 Now go to page 23 for a language activity 1 The British recording industry’s annual pop music awards 16 November / December 2012 CURRENT CURRENT November / December 2012 17.
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