Were the Beatles just a boy band in the beginning?

[Foxhound]

Boy bands are now just as much as ever in the news. Although most of us sneer at these bands in disdain, there are some who counter with the argument that even the Beatles were a boy band at the start of their careers.

Well I myself disagree. The Beatles had spent a couple of years building up their popularity in the smoke filled nightclubs of Liverpool and Hamburg before they finally hit it big. As a result, their fanbase was from the beginning much broader than just pubescent girls.

But what do you think?

[That 70s Guy]

No. The fan base of the Beatles was much broader than young girls right from the start.

And they could actually write and play,boybands can't do that.

[METALPRIEST]

No. The fan base of the Beatles was much broader than young girls right from the start.

[Vic2010]

They were always a rock band. They played their instruments and wrote a lot of their own songs from the very beginning. Not a boy band, imo. No way.

[Flower]

boy band definition - Dictionary - MSN Encarta


Boy band - Definition

[mystic fred]

Before 1960 the Beatles were very young teenagers and went under many names including "Johnny and the Moondogs" and the "Silver Beatles" after Buddy Holly and the Crickets - they played at family functions and School Fetes, a mixture of Jazz, Skiffle and Rock'n'Roll, very much the music of the day - as for being a boy band, i suppose you could say they were but with instruments.


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[Magic]

I think the Beatles had a much wider fan base, but they were one of the first bands to ever market themselves to the teens. They came out with all kinds of merchandise that was for teenagers, which was marketed by a company called Selteab. (if I am not mistaken, this company was set up originally just for the Beatles). They marketed belts, badges, sweaters, hats, bobble heads, and all types of novelty items. These items were definitely aimed at the teen demographic.

You could call them a Proto-boy band, because of the presedence they set, otherwise.......they are just a Historical Rock Band.

[Flower]

Frank Sinatra ... was first, of course marketing and the media had grown by the time that the Beatles came along.

His legion of 'Bobby Soxers' predated Beatle Mania ...

Frank Sinatra and the 'bobby-soxers' | 1940-1949 | Guardian Century

Many thousands of his "fans" have never seen him in the flesh but have only heard him broadcast or seen him on the films, where, incidentally, he is not particularly successful. Psychologists have written soberly about the hypnotic quality of his voice and the remarkable effect upon susceptible young women. Because he wears a polka-dotted bow tie hundreds of thousands of young people of both sexes wear a similar tie. The teen-age girls who constitute the main part of his audience also wear short white half-hose, and are therefore called "bobby-sox girls" or, more simply, "bobby-soxers."


Macmillan: Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls' Culture, 1920-1945 (Girls' History and Culture): Kelly Schrum: Books

[Mr. Shadow]

They were never boys.

[BeatlesFan]

No, The Beatles appealed to people of all ages, backgrounds, both girls and guys.

[Foxhound]

In order to help our members make a more informed decision on this vexatious question, here's the first fourteen definitions (I got tired of copying at that point) of "Boy Band" that can be found on the Urban Dictionary:

1. a group(usually 4 or 5) sissy boys who do NOT play instruments. sing crappy pop music; stupid gay love songs that they didn't even write themselves. only pre-teens and teenie boopers like them.

2. a group(usually 4 or 5) sissy boys who do NOT play instruments. sing crappy pop music; stupid gay love songs that they didn't even write themselves. only pre-teens and teenie boopers like them.

3. a group(usually 4 or 5) sissy boys who do NOT play instruments. sing crappy pop music; stupid gay love songs that they didn't even write themselves. only pre-teens and teenie boopers like them.

4. buy boy band mugs, tshirts and magnetsA musical group whose frontmen consist of a group of male singers (they may or may not play another instrument). In order to qualify as a boy band 1) they must not write thier own music and 2) thier main fan draw must be how attractive they are. Point one can be waved if they really suck.

5. a worrying bunch of men in their mid 20's who make a living by turning on 6-14 yr old girls and old women.

6. A group of "musicians" who rarely play their own instruments, consisting purely of reasonably attractive males who appeal to girls ages 10-14. This term does not apply to all bands that are comprised solely of males. It is used in reference to a specific genre of music artists who perform for a pre-teen audience in a mainstream pop/rock style.

7. buy boy band mugs, tshirts and magnetsAny group of five homosexual pedophile men who sing manufactured pop songs about love, romance, why women keep dumping them, and other overrated bullshit targeted towards pre-adolescent or teenybopper girls. Normally, these genetic defects should have had careers in flipping McDonalds burgers, since they can't even play a musical instrument or even read a music sheet if their lives depended on it.
How can each boy band be considered unique if they all look the same, act the same, sing in soprano, are all faggots, will never experience a vagina, and have an average shelf-life of only two years?

8. buy boy band mugs, tshirts and magnetsA group of 3-5 homosexuals who claim to love girls. They lip-sync to terrible sounds and their songs are always about wanting to be girls and craving penises up their asses. The fact that this is music and popular proves humanity is doomed and music is dead.

9. The main reason (next to Reality Shows and Dubya) why the world hates America.I forgot hiphop.

10. a group of usually 4-5 guys, that get together to try to make the most homesexual music ever.
during a interview with a boy band they the interviewer asked if there was anyone special in their life and they replied, "we already have eachother"

11. buy boy band mugs, tshirts and magnetsAn outmoded commodity, popular among the steaming shitpiles of the clueless, brainless,post-orwellian masses in the late 1990s amd early 2000s, that was prefabricated by AR types to fit a narrow set of criteria (ability to look attractive, ability to dance....I think that's it).

12. buy boy band mugs, tshirts and magnetsa group of lads- generally about 5, that think they can either sing about love (notice non of them are ever married as such) or can scream down the mic knowing little scrubby shites can wander around in scrubby hoodies preaching how fantastic murderdolls (etc) are HELL YEAH BABY- BONE EM.

13. Any group of young guys who sing/play songs that talk about respecting women and love. Are called gay by haters because they don't talk about bad stuff like hate and violence
Mother: "Guess what is on the invitation our daughter used to invite me to her meeting? Nickelback!"
Father: "That gay boy band?"
Child: "Nickelback aren't a boy band! Just because they get airplay on pop stations doesn't mean they're a boy band!"

14. Usually, a queer choir quartet.

[SchindlerHaughton]

I wouldn't classify the Beatles as being a boy band at any point. My definition of a boy band is a band whose success is manufactured (they're made popular by large companies or other commercially successful artists) and their success is based on their physical attractiveness rather than their music (for the most part). The Backstreet Boys are a boy band, as well as N'Sync and the Jonas Brothers. While the Beatles had their share of screaming fans all throughout their career, most fans liked them for their music and that is how they got successful in the first place.

[annie]

The Beatles are not classified as a boy band because they wrote their own music and played instruments. Also, they were not "manufactured". Here is a list of the best selling boy bands...

Best-selling boy bands based on sales figures

Boy Group Years Active
1. Backstreet Boys 1993-present (17 years)
2. Jackson Five / The Jacksons 1967 - 1990, 2001, 2009 - present (26 years)
3. New Kids on the Block 1984–1994, 2008- present (12 years)
4. Boyz II Men 1990 - present (19 years)
5. 'N Sync 1995 - 2002 (7 years)
6. Westlife - 1998-present (12 years)
7. Take That - 1990-1996, 2005-present (11 years
8. The Monkees -1965-1970 Not on this list, but formed by tv producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson in 1965, the Monkees must be considered pioneers among boy bands, although late in their career they took charge.

The Jonas Brothers are are not a "manufactured" boy band in the classic sense.

One thing we can see...these bands were not a "flash in the pan".

[mystic fred]

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan No, The Beatles appealed to people of all ages, backgrounds, both girls and guys.

The Beatle marketing was unprecedented, you could get Beatle everything at the time, we even got Beatle talcum powder!! must be worth a fortune now, wish i'd kept it...


(i was responding to Beatlefans sig here thinking it was part of his post...)

As for Ringo - he knew the Beatles very well before he was brought in to replace Pete Best permanently, he was one of the top drummers on the Liverpool scene and considered the move very carefully as he was doing very well indeed, but hardly a boy.

A quote from John Lennon...

" Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Starr-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other. I don't know what he would have ended up as, but whatever that spark is in Ringo that we all know but can't put our finger on -- whether it is acting, drumming or singing I don't know -- there is something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced with or without the Beatles. Ringo is a damn good drummer."

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[Craig in Indy]

Originally Posted by That 70s Guy And they could actually write and play,boybands can't do that.

That's the true test for me.