alrightokay

LOL, the lyrics are pretty clunky. "I want you illuminated"? "We just crashing on these dummies"? You're right, though, that Brady has the worst/hardest part. It's a shame, because he's one of the strongest singers in the group. Early in the show, when he was singing mostly ballads, he was a standout for me because he had such impressive control over his voice; but the awkward phrasing/arrangement in "Eyes Closed" makes him sound like he's losing that control. During his verse, it's as if he's barely holding on and is constantly in danger of veering off-pitch, if that makes sense. On a separate note, any Harry Potter fans here? Brady recently did a live, with Michael chiming in from the comment section, and they revealed which Hogwarts houses the boys would be in (it's something they've actually talked about together): Brady: Ravenclaw (yeah, I can see that) Chance: Gryffindor (yep) Sergio: Hufflepuff (totally) Michael: Slytherin (no question) Drew: Slytherin (REALLY?? Maybe his shy, spacey goofball persona is all an act....)

Now Chance's video is up.

Yeah, the publicity has dwindled down to a (sloooow) trickle. And the only outlets that have interviewed IRL so far are relatively minor ones on youtube; I'm surprised they haven't done more interviews on ABC's morning/late night shows or even short promo spots on Disney Channel. IRL's youtube channel still only has Brady's video up; the others' are there but are still set to "private." I'm not sure why they're waiting to release these. Maybe they think it'll create suspense/anticipation to slowly add each vid? I agree with you that things aren't looking so good PR-wise, but hopefully they'll do another round of promo once the "Eyes Closed" video drops....

IRL is slowly unveiling "Get to Know..." videos about each of the boys. First up is Brady. I'll add more links to this post as the videos get uploaded. Chance. Drew. Sergio. Michael Conor.

The boys' fears/hated foods. I'm with you, Drew; I don't like onions either (they give him such a hard time about it)! LOL, Brady goes on to lecture on the difference between "caramel" and "care-amel."

Interview with Shine On Media. It'll be interesting to see/hear how they incorporate Michael Conor's violin-playing into the band's album and performances. That'll make them stand out from all the other boy bands, right? :)

Coincidentally, this article just came out about boy band style over the decades, and it includes interviews with both BSB's stylist and IRL's stylist (here's her Instagram, where she details the labels for the outfits she put together for the boys during the show).

Aww, it was a bad summer (scroll down to see what they say about this show), but for lots of other reasons (world/political events). Boy Band, as "dumb" as it could be at times, was a fun escape for me, and I'm glad it was on. BTW, the writer of that article is Dave Holmes, who used to be a VJ on MTV; he was a finalist on "Wanna Be a VJ?" and then hosted a bunch of shows on that channel during the 90's boy bands' heyday. Maybe he appreciates BSB and NSYNC too much to like IRL. :)

I remember them! "Back Here" was a great song! This is the only visual teaser IRL have given for their music video so far. Sheesh, my eyes might as well be closed; can't see a thing except that Drew's hair is down.

So. Many. Boy. Bands. And looking at all these pics, I stand by my theory that boy bands aren't hot until you see them in motion. (The comments at the bottom of the page are pretty funny and unfortunately prove that no one knows who IRL or any of the other new boy bands are, at least for now.) On a related note, something I've noticed in recent years that I didn't see with the 90's bands, is that whether or not any of a boy band's members are gay, a lot of teens/tweens enjoy "shipping" them with each other. Maybe this comes from kids just being more comfortable these days with gender- and sexual fluidity. A lot of times, the shipping is just harmless fun, but in some cases, it can turn into an obsession where fan-demands negatively affect the group dynamics (see Louis/Harry/"Larry" in 1D). I hope the shipping doesn't get too intense for IRL, because so far I love their sweet, supportive, happy-go-lucky dynamic. The boys are getting some time off to be with their families. Good for them!

Gotta say, Michael Conor was the best here: Truth or Dare with IRL.

Interview with Zach Sang. More good questions!

I've joked about this before, but Chance really could run for office one day.

Afterbuzz TV asked really good questions here; the guys got to go into more depth than usual, and they come across as genuinely nice, humble, and lovable.

I loved that part, too! The three of them have a spark together, and that liveliness is what I feel is missing so far from IRL, even though they're all sweet and eager to please. Marcus is also smooth and engaging in interviews--he's a great storyteller--and that would have helped during the group's early, somewhat awkward media appearances. (Sigh, I'm still sad about Marcus.) I'm sure IRL will get better chemistry-wise over time, but as soamused said above, there's so little publicity for these guys right now that they might not have much time left to make an impression on a larger audience. LOL, so true! What is it about Simon and his girl groups; their styling is always so jarring. I love Little Mix's singing and dancing, but their "look," except for in the "Move" video, has been all over the place.

I think the guys in IRL are at least cute, if not "hot." It's weird, but I think it takes time and familiarity for boy band members to become "hot." When BSB and *NSYNC first started out, I didn't find any of them attractive (not even Justin); didn't they all have funny hair back then :)? It wasn't until I started liking their songs and appreciating their harmonizing and dancing in their videos that some of them became "hot" to me. Some people just look better when they're doing something they're really good at. Boy Band viewers (and admittedly there aren't that many of us--the ratings were really bad) got to see the contestants share their talents over ten weeks, and maybe that familiarity/bonding made the guys seem more attractive to us than to casual/drop-in watchers.

You can barely hear the question and answers, but IRL got interviewed last night at the VMAs.

The poor guys had the bad luck of releasing their single the same weekend that Taylor Swift dropped her latest song and video....

There's hope for IRL vocally, because 1D started out sounding terrible (back then, only Liam could really sing). They got vocal training, toured a ton, and got so much better, so that now three of them are excellent singers (Liam, Zayn, and Harry), Niall is good, and Louis is okay. Amazingly, all five of them now have solo top 40 hits. What really made 1D work, though, was their chemistry; they had distinct personalities that bounced off each other well. They were so much fun in interviews and behind-the-scenes videos (though I know a lot of that might have been manufactured). In recent years, it became clear they were splintering and hated being stuck together, but early on, they were a delight. It's not that IRL needs to copy 1D; as Winston9-DT3 said above, "Eyes Closed" already sounds too similar to "What Makes You Beautiful," and that might turn some potential fans off. But IRL definitely needs more vocal and media training (hopefully Disney/Hollywood are already working on this), and they need to show more personality. They're all really adept at social media, and they'll probably take advantage of that to help show different sides of themselves. During the run of Boy Band, I watched some of the boys' individual Instagram Lives, and it was fun to see the quirks that couldn't come through on the TV show. For instance, Drew seemed pretty soft-spoken and earnest on the show, but his Lives, especially those with Jaden and Marcus, revealed his random sense of humor and wacky dancing (I love the guy, he's always been my favorite, but he's a hilarious dancer--if the timestamp doesn't work, go to 22:00). As IRL gets more comfortable and confident as a band, hopefully they'll be able to show how much fun they can be. I wonder if the way the song is arranged makes Brady's part really hard to sing, because it's surprising how much he's struggling with how he has to sing "finger" and "think of" here. He's also being forced to sing in a belt-y "pop" voice when he's trained more as a choral singer (when he changed up how he sang "think of" in the band's recent Live, it sounded lovely--I hope he keeps doing that).

Aww, look at the boys giving their best "Blue Steel" looks on the MTV VMAs red carpet. ETA: PrettyMuch is there, too. I know IRL was literally put together three days ago, so they're still figuring out their "vibe" and how to do media events, but just comparing how the two groups look in these links, PM just seems more fun. I wasn't a fan of the styling on Boy Band and now it looks like IRL is using the same stylists--everything is just so monochrome (and somewhat somber). I know they want to distinguish themselves from PM's sporty/b-boy look, but more color and more playfulness would be nice!

Great point--that song has been on the radio all summer (and is still going strong); the boys in that group definitely benefited from that association. And I finally thought of another (somewhat) mainstream Asian American female singer--Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls is Filipina/Hawaiian.

I tiptoed around this topic above, but I was upset as well about Marcus and Jaden. I can't really fault the show, though, because the Architects all praised Marcus and Jaden's performances and really rallied for them on solo night, with Nick even saying that Marcus reminded them of Justin Timberlake, Bobby Brown, etc. My only misgiving is that Marcus had to perform first, which I think threw him off and also made him less memorable as the night went on. And I'm still not sure why Jaden shaved his head--did he feel pressure from the producers to look a certain way? But they did give Marcus star turns in both "Jealous" and "Fighter," and Jaden was treated as a vocal standout throughout the competition (the only stumble was on "Since U Been Gone," a song that didn't fit any of the boys, really). I think the producers did the best they could to ensure that the Top 8 was diverse; it was super important that Devin got eliminated at Top 9--he might have snuck in and taken Drew or Sergio's spot. It was all up to the voters, and for some reason, Marcus and Jaden just didn't have the passionate fans that the others had. As you said, there's so much to unpack here, but it might get too unwieldy. And yes, I would love to see an Asian American/API finally be a successful mainstream singer. Harry Shum on Glee might be the closest we've gotten. The only really prominent female Asian singer I can think of is Lea Salonga--can anyone here think of others? To be honest, I'm Asian myself, and I think part of why Zayn Malik appealed to me so much in 1D (besides the fact that he's got an amazing voice) was that he's South Asian. It was great to see an Asian finally be in the spotlight, though I know it's taken a toll on him (he's had to deal with a lot of racism and Islamophobia). Not to get too off-topic, but one of the reasons I love the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is that the main love interest on the show, Josh, is Asian and he sings and dances. (And funny enough, in one episode, the protagonist imagines Josh in a boy band where he plays all five members.) It's been wonderful seeing an Asian on TV not acting out the usual stereotypes. But tellingly, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has terrible ratings.... It would have been great for IRL to be even more diverse than it already is, because even though it's just a cheesy boy band, it does play a role in showing kids what's "ideal," and it would be awesome to show that people of all races and backgrounds can be seen as desirable. O-Town came really close, with Erik and Trevor (and almost Ikaika!). And we'll see how well PrettyMuch does; it's diverse without it being a big deal (though their members were hand-chosen, rather than voted on by the public). Okay, sorry for the essay; I'll get off my soapbox now!

Thanks for this--they're really endearing here. Lots of fun moments and interesting announcements in that video, but the one I was most fascinated by was the offhand reveal that Drew had tried out for PrettyMuch (I had been wondering about that, because he seems to be friends with one of PM's members who's also from the Bronx). Nick is now trying to start up a (friendly?) rivalry between the two bands, but I like them both. (And nothing could be as rabid as BSB vs. *NSYNC.) In the video, the guys spoke briefly about their "boy band roles," with Brady being the "baby," Michael being the "bad boy," etc. From how he took charge at certain moments, Chance seems to be more of a "big brother" than a "heartthrob." But as I was watching them together, they totally reminded me of Friends: Chance is both the Rachel (the hot one) and the Monica (keeping the group on task/on schedule) Brady is the Ross (earnestly persnickety and professorial in the Realists vs. Lifelines argument) Michael Conor is the Chandler (snarky/witty but also self-critical and self-aware; the way he talked about being the last to make the band and wanting to be sensitive to Marcus, Jaden, and Mikey's feelings at that moment was really interesting) Drew is the Phoebe (joyfully sweet and sometimes seems like he's in his own world) Sergio is the Joey (seems suave at first but is deep down a likable, easygoing joker) Will they still be as sweet and affectionate with each other two years from now? Or will they be jaded, tattoo-covered messes? I can't imagine Brady with tattoos; then again, I couldn't imagine 1D with them either, when they first started out....

Hmm, the part after Michael C. sounds like Drew to me (?). And the part Sergio sang in the live show sounds like Brady in the recording. Maybe Sergio was doing background/harmonies here and will get a bigger part on a later song? I agree that Chance sounds good on the single--weirdly, his voice sounds the best to me because it's the least autotuned, whereas I can really hear the processing on Drew, Brady, and Michael's parts. And it's interesting that the live version was longer, with an extra bridge for Chance; I wonder why they didn't include that part in the recording. Here they are singing the song with Sergio playing the piano; unfortunately the song is chopped up into really short clips, so you have to swipe/click through to hear everything. Here's Part 2. They look so happy. ETA: Another version (full song), this time with Chance on guitar. They're starting to harmonize! And I'm glad Brady is softening that part that's been giving him some trouble in his verse.

That would be so much fun. Nick impressed me with his performance last night (I had to laugh at the "Am I sexual?" line)--he sounded the best out of the Architects. Rita did well in her solo number, as well. The autotune flattened out some of their voices, but they sound pretty good! I still can't hear Sergio, though! Does anyone hear him on the single?