One Direction or BTS? *NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? O-Town, B2K, Savage Garden, Boyz II Men, Hanson, or New Kids on the Block? No matter your favorite, you have to respect the boy band archetype: A group of disparate talents come together and somehow move from obscurity to world domination in the blink of an eye. Maybe it’s the love songs, or the dance moves, or the dashing good looks, but for whatever reason, no formula in pop music seems more precisely calibrated for a meteoric rise (and sometimes, a precipitous fall) than the boy band.
It’s Gonna Be Us: Six questions for the boy bands of the North
