![]() The Chipmunks, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” (1958) (To see us hash out the “Are They a Boy Band?” arguments for all three of these cases and several others, click here.)īut enough trying to be Webster’s, let’s get to the songs - with a Spotify playlist of all 100 of ’em at the bottom. They’re original, they’re the only ones, they’re (occasionally, unthreateningly) sexual, and they’re definitely everything you need.ġ00. Others, like The Beatles - yes, The Beatles - were given the boy-band OK for early stretches of their career, but a hard cutoff was instituted for after they matured and self-actualized as just a “band.” And some, like modern self-identifying “boy band” BROCKHAMPTON, were just a little too far outside the conventional sound of a boy band for us to make the mental leap - for now, anyway. Some groups, like 5 Seconds of Summer, were deemed eligible even though their structural makeup wasn’t classically boy band, because the way they were marketed and fan-devoured was. Ultimately, we took every boy band argument on a case-by-case basis, and came to some difficult conclusions. If anything, what really unites boy bands throughout history comes not in their conception, but in their reception: How young, rabid and ear-splittingly friggin’ loud was their fanbase? If the answer is at least “very” to all three of these, you’re already 80 percent of the way there. This week, Billboard is celebrating this venerated pop institution with a week of boy band-related coverage, starting with our list of the 100 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time - spanning nearly the entire Hot 100 era, and recognizing the absolute tops in innocent male harmonies and synchronized dance moves.īut what is a boy band, you may ask? Ask any two music fans that question and you might get answers as varied as if you asked a 47-year-old FM DJ and a 19-year-old SoundCloud rapper to define “hip-hop.” There are common elements most everyone can agree on as being obviously boy band-core, natch: the aforementioned harmonies and dancing, as well as matching outfits, major pop choruses, a puppet-string-pulling svengali behind the scenes, a general sense of ridiculousness (and a relative lack of self-consciousness), and of course, youth.īut aside from basic membership - by pretty much all definitions, boy bands need to have at least three members and be all male - there’s no one unifying factor that links every boy band in history name any classic trope of the format and we can name at least two obvious boy bands who it doesn’t apply to. Here are the best hip-hop party songs of all time.Liz Phair on Getting Her 'Warrior Back On' For the 'Exile in Guyville' 30th Anniversary Tour A dance battle or a fight might break out to the same, bass-heavy soundtrack - either way, there ain’t no party like a hip-hop party.Īnd hey, I know this list is very aughts-centric, but what can I say? Millennials rule the world right now, and “Rapper’s Delight” feels a little dated. ![]() ![]() Even some of the hardest gangsta rappers have utilized some of the funkiest beats to get their menacing threats across, making a hip-hop every bit as dangerous as they are entertaining. So, while the mission of the music has changed over the years, its soul remains the same - deep down, we all just want to dance. While fans of more revolutionary acts like Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest may harp on the genre’s potent social commentary and Afrocentric activism, before those acts rose to prominence, rap music was designed to do one thing: Put bodies in motion on packed-out dance floors. Hip-hop may be considered the modern voice of a generation, but at its heart, the music was always made to party. ![]()
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