Joey Fatone and AJ McLean just announced a 2024 tour. For many people, those names may mean nothing. But for those who know (yes Millennials, I’m talking to you), this is BIG NEWS.

Perhaps a little more context: Joey Fatone was (is?) one member of *NSYNC, while AJ McLean was (is?) from the Backstreet Boys. Ahh, should sound a lot more familiar now.

Quit playing games

Before there was BTS and Seventeen (no clue myself, but my colleagues assure me they exist and are really popular), before even One Direction or Jonas Brothers, there was, of course, what I would consider the Golden Era of boy bands - the 90s to early 00s.  

I would say that, of course. I am a product of the 90s. Quite literally - born in 1990, and growing up exactly to this sort of music on the radio.

The Jackson 5 was probably the first widely recognised and loved boy band that combined singing, dancing and magical harmonies

Of course, boy bands did not start with the Backstreet Boys nor *NSYNC. Not even 80s icons like Boyz II Men or New Kids on The Block. Wind the clock way back, and the history of boy bands (defined as a group of well, boys, that sing and dance) date back to the early 1800s and African-American barbershop quartets.

However, it was probably only into the 1960s that boy bands (or at least one) entered the general popular (and international) consciousness. The Jackson 5, a band of brothers headlined by a little kid called Michael (you might have heard of him).

Don't wanna lose you now

But, this isn't a history lesson. I (desperately) want to talk about the 90s - my era. It might have been the height of boy band-mania, and also when the entire notion and concept of a boy band was most concretised.

With curated and coordinated outfits, highly produced and polished pop music (in contrast to the R&B leanings of earlier acts), elaborate dance moves, and a general pretty-boy aesthetic precisely engineered to appeal to screaming pre-teens, boy bands dominated the 90s and early 00s. There is undoubtedly a kitsch-ness to it, but I believe that is its inherent appeal - sincere in their simplicity, unyielding in their unoriginality, and united in their ubiquity.

Growing up in the 90s and 00s, it was hard to avoid them - perhaps also owing to the sheer number of boy bands then. They were all over the radio, we all bought the CDs at the Heeren HMV, even the music videos were all over MTV (remember MTV??). In many ways, these groups were larger than life.

Denim on denim on denim. Could there be a more iconic image of the 90s? 

And they leant fully into it. I am not sartorially opposed to all-white suits or even a full denim get up (both iconic to this day), but let's be honest, even for the bravest fashionistas among us, that's a choice. And personally, I find all of it quite charming - there's a tragic earnestness to the pop music zeitgeist of the 90s that's at once both hilarious and heart-warming.

And even till today, I am unashamed and unwavering in my love for these bands, no strings attached.

Thinking of you

Why then, does such music still resonate in 2024?

Nostalgia is definitely part of it. I went for the Backstreet Boys concert in 2019 and it is still one of the best nights of my life. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion that taps into deep seated memories - even as my music tastes have grown, expanded and evolved (though some may argue otherwise, including my Spotify wrapped), these songs are deeply ingrained in my musical consciousness.

If Taylor Swift can get wildly excited about *NSYNC reuniting in 2023, then I sure as hell can too... 

But it's also the music. Yes, the music was mostly quite cookie cutter and somewhat generic (one Max Martin did write most of it), but the simple and memorable melodies, the catchy and often cheesy lyrics, and sing-along refrains and the inevitable up-key final chorus - it is pure, unadulterated, nostalgia-laced delight. You may not have heard the song in ages, but when it comes on the radio (sometimes on Gold 90 FM, my god I'm getting old), you know all the words, and you SING IT.

And I do also think that the appeal is precisely because it harkens back to a simpler time and evokes feelings from a "better" time.

As we grow older and more cynical, chiselled down by the day-to-day grind of work life and all the perils of adulthood, there is no doubt a desire for that return to child-like innocence (there may even be a psychoanalytical element to this, but that's a rabbit hole I certainly do not want to go down). These songs and these bands evoke feelings of simplicity and naivety. Even if there is an element of rosy retrospection, where we remember history in a more positive light, I don't think that's a bad thing at all. It allows moments of sentimental reprieve, incomplete as they may be, allowing you to bask in a corny yet warm fuzzy feeling. 

The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but its a defining song from a defining boy band that makes EVERYONE sing along

It was a simpler time, even musically. As songs get more complicated and even boy bands more elaborate (Seventeen has 13 members, which is 1. way too many and 2. eponymously confusing), there is something pleasingly simple and comforting about 5 boys singing 5 broadly familiar songs about the same damn thing (it's always l-o-v-e, isn't it).

Drowning (in sentimentality)

Admittedly, there is something a little bit tragic or cynical about these 20-year old boy bands still touring in 2024 singing songs from the 90s. Does it feel like them milking past fame? Yes. Is it music that is probably no longer relevant or popular these days? Yes. In a world like this, is it just a little bit cringey? Sure. Would I still go? Every. Single. Time.

Music means many different things to different people. Our taste in music is rarely singular - I predominantly listen to rock, but there are days that I just want to listen to classical music, R&B, or maybe a bit of slow blues. 

A WhatsApp (yes, we're not young enough to use Telegram) conversation only Millennials can have, or will understand... 

But 90s/00s boy bands will always have a special place in my heart, a feeling I think (or perhaps more accurately hope) other Millennials will understand. Even if they may now be Backstreet Uncles, the music of that era is uniquely the one that tugs at my tragically nostalgic heart strings. 

So I say a little prayer (wrong band reference, I know) that the Joey/AJ tour somehow some way makes its way to Singapore. I'll be there, this I promise you. 

~ Desmond