A clean-cut boy band from the US

The boy bands are back and the Brits, acknowledged experts of the genre, are once more up there on top of the charts. One Direction and The Wanted, the newest descendants of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, are making hits and winning fans all over the world. Not to be outdone, US also has its own boy band. Not the Jonas Brothers, who are either married or on Broadway but Big Time Rush, which was recently picked Favorite Music Group at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

Take note these young bands are nothing like the over-made up, over-gelled, generally over-processed collection of boys from Asia that wreaked havoc in hit charts and concert halls these past few years. These kids are clean-cut with wholesome appeal that parents idealize and look more like the cute boy-next-door than androgynous models. They hark back to The Beatles and The Monkees in the ’60s and in recent times, to the Backstreet Boys or N’Sync.

The Monkees, the first manufactured band in pop music history, was the inspiration for Big Time Rush (BTR). The members were chosen from an open casting call that drew thousands of boys. Those picked for the group and who later became BTR were Kendall Schmidt the leader, James Maslow the dreamboat, Logan Henderson the genius, and Carlos Pena the comedian.  They can all sing and dance and look like they could play hockey.

Still like what was done with The Monkees, these boys were drafted into TV and recording at the same time. They were cast in the TV show, also titled Big Time Rush, where they play hockey players who became a band. A band in a television show means lots of musical numbers and BTR recorded lots of songs for the series, which were later released in an album also titled Big Time Rush. Among their early hits were Til I Forget About You, Big Night, Famous and the biggest of them all Boyfriend, that they recorded with Snoop Dogg.

With the big push from Nickelodeon and music label Sony, Big Time Rush notched a high-rating TV series and a Gold-selling album on its first time out.  The results of the second season with higher ratings, sold-out tours, TV movies and a new album titled Elevate are even better. Would you believe there are even plans to take these guys out on tour with One Direction soon? Given the number of fans who will surely turn up, I am sure having these two bands together in one place would be a security nightmare. But such is success. 

With so much attention being paid nowadays to good singing, I like it that BTR is made up of boys who can really sing. Although much of their popularity is driven by the TV show, it is still nice to know that they continue to work on their music. In fact, Elevate has an original composed by Big Time Rush with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. I also like the new single If I Ruled The World featuring Iyaz. Other good bets for the charts in the new CD are Music Sounds Better With You with Mann and Superstar.

The music of Big Time Rush is strictly boy band pop, which is good because that is what their fans want to hear. But changes or I should say improvements will be due soon. I guess that also goes for the other boy bands of the moment. Growing up is inevitable and that is when we will know who will be Robbie Williams or Justin Timberlake or the next John, Paul, George or Ringo.

Still on boy bands and back to The Wanted. Looks like Hollywood has now also admitted that they sell and would be an asset to its film productions. And so the big news: The Wanted has joined forces with Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios to celebrate the return of Ice Age to cinemas this summer.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift will feature Chasing The Sun by The Wanted in its soundtrack. The beloved franchise will also bring back those friends from the prehistoric era, Manny, Diego and Sid, and ta-da, Scrat, who is still in active pursuit of that acorn in his biggest role ever. The film hits local cinemas on July 12.