WITH MANY ACCOLADES UNDER THEIR BELT, INCLUDING TWO GRAMMY
NOMINATIONS, THE JONAS BROTHERS ADDED ANOTHER ONE ON JANUARY 30TH AS THEY RECEIVED A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME. AFTER BREAKING UP IN 2013, THE JONAS BROTHERS MADE THEIR OFFICIAL RETURN IN FEBRUARY OF
2019, BUT HAVE NOT RELEASED MUSIC SINCE SEPTEMBER OF 2021. THAT ALL
CHANGES THIS MAY.
[Nick Jonas] “We are excited to announce, today, that our new album, The Album, will be
coming out May 5th.”
AS YOU JUST HEARD FROM NICK JONAS, THE JONAS BROTHERS ARE BACK WITH A
NEW SOUND, AND THEY’RE READY TO MAKE THEIR MARK ON THE WORLD ONCE
AGAIN. THE ELDEST JONAS BROTHER, KEVIN, HAS SAID THAT THEIR NEW MUSIC IS
INSPIRED BY THE BEE GEES, ANOTHER FAMOUS TRIO OF BROTHERS. HOWEVER,
SINCE IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR SINCE THEY LAST RELEASED MUSIC, ONE HAS TO
ASK, WHY COME BACK NOW? AND AS FOR BOY BANDS IN GENERAL, WHY COME BACK AT ALL? AMANDA OLIVER, MEDILL FIRST YEAR AND BOY BAND ENTHUSIAST HAS ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER.
[Amanda Oliver] “I think in part because they’re obviously like those bands have been
massively successful in the past, and so I think there's definitely going to be this drive of like money involved. They know they can get back together. And no matter how long it’s been since they’ve been on tour, there’s gonna be people like me and like countless other people who are going to be running the second they hear that they’re gonna be back and who will immediately sign up and be buying these tickets.”
THE JONAS BROTHERS ARE NOT THE ONLY BAND TO MAKE A GRAND COMEBACK
RECENTLY. BOY BANDS LIKE BIG TIME RUSH, THE BACKSTREET BOYS, AND NEW
KIDS ON THE BLOCK HAVE ALSO MADE RETURNS TO THE STAGE AFTER BREAKING
UP. EMMA MANLEY, SESP FIRST YEAR SHARES THEIR THOUGHTS.
[EMMA MANLEY] I think there’s demand, like people wanna listen to them. I think it’s
been a while since we’ve had any like huge, huge mainstream boy bands and also,
the people who were kids at the time of like their biggest popularity are now adults now
who can stream music, buy merch, go to concerts and stuff. And you know, I feel like
with Covid and just the general state of the world, people just want boy bands.”
SOME BOY BANDS HAVE HAD MORE SUCCESS THE SECOND TIME AROUND THAN THEFIRST. THE JONAS BROTHERS’ COMEBACK SINGLE “SUCKER” WAS THE FIRST
BILLBOARD #1 DEBUT FOR THE GROUP. HOWEVER OTHER BOY BANDS, LIKE BIG TIME RUSH, ARE STRUGGLING TO GAIN THE SUCCESS AND POPULARITY THEY ONCE HAD. ALTHOUGH THEY HAVE BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH THE RESURFACING OF THEIR PAST MUSIC, BIG TIME RUSH HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO REACH THE SAME NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH ITS NEW SOUND. BETWEEN 2009-2014, BIG TIME RUSH HAD 4 HOT 100 SINGLES, HOWEVER NONE OF THEIR NEW MUSIC HAS MADE IT ON THE CHARTS.
THEY HAVE RELEASED NEW VERSIONS OF THEIR OLD SONGS LIKE “PARALYZED” AND “WORLDWIDE” AS WELL AS BRAND NEW SINGLES LIKE “NOT GIVING YOU UP”, “CALL IT LIKE I SEE IT”, AND “HONEY”. THEIR CURRENT TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC IS TEENAGERS AND YOUNG ADULTS WHO GREW UP WATCHING THEIR SELF-TITLED HIT SHOW ON NICKELODEON AS KIDS, MANY OF WHOM HAVE RETURNED TO THEIR OLD MUSIC. FROM HITS LIKE “BOYFRIEND” AND “WORLDWIDE”, BIG TIME RUSH IS DEFINITELY ON THE SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE, AS WELL AS THE LIVES OF MANY OTHER GEN-Z TEENS.
[EM] “I haven’t really been listening to the new stuff. I feel like I, a big reason why I listen
to it is cause I’m like, I just want like, the familiarity of the kind of music. So I mostly
listen to old stuff anyway, but I think it’s cool. It’ll probably get around to eventually
listening to it.”
EVEN THOUGH SOME BOY BANDS MAY NOT BE AS POPULAR AS THEY USED TO BE,
THE MARK BOY BANDS HAVE MADE ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY CANNOT GO
UNNOTICED. WHETHER YOU BELIEVE BOY BANDS STARTED WITH BARBERSHOP
QUARTETS, THE BEATLES, THE JACKSON 5, OR NEW EDITION, THEY HAVE BEGUN TO
CAUSE A TREND SINCE. BOY BANDS ARE NOW HIGHLY POPULARIZED GLOBALLY, AND OFTEN PRODUCE SOME OF THE BIGGEST SOLO ARTISTS IN MUSIC AFTER THEY
BREAK UP. ONE DIRECTION, ARGUABLY THE MOST POPULAR BOY BAND OF ALL TIME, HAD WORLD DOMINATION, AND INSPIRED OTHER BOY BANDS LIKE 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER, THE VAMPS, PRETTY MUCH, AND WHY DON’T WE. THEY ARE ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAKING OF HARRY STYLES, ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SOLO ARTISTS OF ALL TIME.
[AO] “One Direction was one of my first concerts that I ever went to. I went there for one
of my, like first like birthday presents. And at the concert we had like front row seats and
then they got into a water fight with the fans right there, like they all randomly pulled out
water gums, like in the middle of singing and just started spraying water at each other.
They get up there and they’re just like pranking each other on stage and it's just like
watching a show. Like it’s just way more like Comedy Central and I really liked that
aspect of it. ”
SO, WILL BOYBANDS CONTINUE TO MAKE RETURNS TO MUSIC? IF SO WHO’S NEXT?
I GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT. FOR NOW, WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO THE JONAS
BROTHERS’ NEW ALBUM.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M JESSICA WATTS.
