Sunday, 1 July 2012

Behind the Artist - Conventions of a Boy Band (Preliminary Project)

Our task for this preliminary course is to create a boy band of our liking, however they must follow certain conventions and themes of that of most boy bands. The conventions are usually dictated by the demographic of the artist or band, the target audience in mind for this course will be young teenage girls.
In this blog post I will look at the different types of conventions found in nearly all boy bands.

  • Three to four heads are better than one...
The first convention is that bands generally come in groups of either three, four or maybe five people. These are a good number of people to use as not only most people only have three to four good friends, it also makes each band member a little easier to remember individually.

This site shows the top 10 boy bands of all time, most of which have four or more members:
  • The Trend Setters.
Not all, Boy Bands will come out in smart suits and tailored trousers, however they do try to were the latest fashion labels that might be attractive to their demographic. For instance they may wear  clothing from shops such as Top Man or Hollister. Boy Bands make an effort to be at the fore front of most trend and modern movements, it makes them seem desirable and is also a good source of income for the music label and band.

1direction are a big fan of wearing the latest trends, this is demonstrated in this album cover artwork.
  • Making a Song and Dance about it
 Obviously given that they are musicians they will be expected to be able to have some singing talent, although it is not vital that an artist must be able to play an instrument. Boy bands will also be expected to dance, most boy bands will then have dance routines which they do in synchronization in order to give a stronger feeling of chemistry between each member.

Here is a video to the Jackson 5, they were known for there synchronized dancing routines and having particularly strong chemistry: