Boys and Boy Bands

A friend was telling me about driving in the car with her teenage daughter and singing a One Direction song.  This made me think about the past 15-20 years where there has been a steady stream of boy bands.  It actually goes back further with groups like New Edition.  Now it's all about One Direction.  These names are pretty close.  This got me to thinking about when I was growing up.  We didn't have boy groups. We had girl groups: the Marvelettes, The Supremes, The Crystals, The Shangri-las.  The list could go on. 

Boys were solo.  Some of them started on TV or ended up there, but most of them were one hit wonders. It started around the time of Paul Peterson from the Donna Reed Show and progressed to David Cassidy on the Partridge Family to Bobby Sherman who had two TV shows: Here Come The Brides and Getting Together. 

I wonder if teen magazine are still popular with girls?  We had Teen Beat and Tiger Beat.  It seemed like Peter Noone, Davy Jones and Desi Arnez Jr were on the cover of every issue.  Tiger Beat still publishes. There are a few lots of back issues available on ebay. Is it time for a 60's party?

Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies

Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies.

Don't make an album expecting to reach a new audience.  If you want to reach a new audience, focus on the single.
-Bob Lefetz

Bob is so spot on.  Consumers stopped buying music because they were sick of getting one or two good songs on an album and the rest were mediocre.  They still had to plop down $12-$15.  When you anaylize the cost, they paid about $7 per song, if there were two good songs on the CD. 

When I was growing up, all we really had were singles.  I did buy, or my parents bought for me Meet the Beatles and the rest of the Beatles albums through Help. I owned all the Monkees albums.  It probably wasn't until the 1970's when I started buying albums on a regular basis. Up to that point it was all singles.  When I bought Build Me Up Buttercup, do you think I was wondering if the Foundations had a whole album of songs like that?  No.  I had three Bobby Sherman singles, but no albums, same for the Supremes. 

I remember the lyrics to all those songs to this day, even if I haven't heard the song in years.  Music sticks with you whether it's a song or a whole album full of them.  Put out music when you make it.  Don't save it for an album.  There are only a few amazing concept albums that are meant to be listened to as a whole.  Keep your fan base active.  There should be no downtime when it comes to enlightening your fans.  No one is waiting three years for your next album. 

Read Bob's full post here.