Lopez Blogs

20 ~ East 17- back in the early 90s you either liked east 17 or take that. Well I kinda liked both. East 17 were like take thats slightly dirty cousins and I think songs like Deep and Stay Another Day really stand the test of time
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19 ~ Bad Boys Inc- another early 90s band. I seem to remember they only had one album, but it was a classic boyband album with cheesy pop and ballads. I think Take Me Away was my ultimate fave of theirs...
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18 ~ Brother Beyond/Worlds Apart- Nathan Moore was the driving force behind Brother Beyond who never had a proper hit til they released a couple of so so Stock Aiken & Waterman numbers back in 1989 when the SAW factory could do no wrong! When their second album bombed, he went on to sing with famous-in-germany boyband Worlds Apart who were ever so slightly better
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17 ~ N'Sync- I never really took to the Sync, but i thought their album with Bye Bye Bye and Its Gonna Be Me was pretty good and those were two of the best pop songs of the year. At that time Max Martin was producing them, and Britney and the charts were a fun thing to listen to
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16 ~ Phixx- they were the band that formed out of the losers of Popstars the rivals (that spawned One True Voice and Girls Aloud ) I think Phixx didn't really get a fair crack of the whip because of where they came from, and they were doing that 80s synth sound that is so popular now months before The Killers et al. Hold On Me was a great classic pop song
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15 ~ Busted/Son Of Dork- have put these two boy bands together as really they are just the same group I loved Busted back when they first came out as they were a real breath of fresh air to the boy band scene and pop as a whole, but now I kinda blame them for the failure of every other cheesy pop group since V... Oh well - you can't top Sleeping With the Lights On as a top top tune
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14 ~ Bros- Aaah, Bros probably feature a lot higher on here to the Deb Connection. I don't think I would have liked them as much as I did if I hadn't gone to see Bros in2 Summer on 19 Aug 1989 with Deb as the main support act Still they defined a nation of teenage girls at the time, and i thought Too Much was a rather marvelous tune if i recall accurately
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13 ~ 911- as recently featured on Hit Me Baby One More Time. They weren' the hippest boyband or the best looking but they did write their own tunes and Bodyshakin still gets all the gays on the dancefloor at my local club Despite not being together any more they still pop up on the music tv channels with some regularity!
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12 ~ Five- Five were brill at the time. They were sort of the antithesis of Boyzone and Westlife and came out with some really great pop-rock tunes. I listened to their greatest hits the other day and was surprised at how many good songs there were on the thing! All went a bit wrong at the end when they recorded their overlooked third album, released it and split up about 3 days later! What a waste of about 3 potentially really good singles
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11 ~ A1- Aah these sweet lads started out as cheesy pop for the first album, then went all NSync american for the second before becoming the prototype for acts like Mcfly by being *serious musicians* on the third album. Another - we write all our music act, but pretty good with it. Make It Good is one of the best pop songs of the year 2001!

10 - NKOTB- probably one of the first boybands that I was a little bit obsessed with. Who didn't swing their legs from side to side while dancing to The Right Stuff and fall a little bit in love with Jordan?? Oh, just me then. Sadly they peaked and burned too quick even though I loved Step By Step and Tonight. Heck i was so devoted i even bought Dirty Dawg. Now thats dedication - although seeing what a tosser Danny has become on Totally Boyband has soured the memory somewhat...
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09 - Blue- there have been lots of r'n'b inspired boybands but Blue is really the only one that got me hooked. They were so much better than Another Level and managed to create the exact right blend of pop and r'n'b to hook me in. Some of their best ballads sadly were not released - Best In Me?? - but Fly By, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word and Bubblin remain sublime pieces of pop...
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08 - v- Sigh. I had high hopes for V. They seemed to be the new Take That. And one of them was a definite boylover and is now shacked up with some dude from westlife They had some great pop singles that flirted with some minor guitar but still managed to be totally dancey. Of course when their big ballad *only* made number 11 it was soon all over for the poor lads. Probably didn't make much cash either :( I loved them though...
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07 - Backstreet Boys - probably the best boyband to come out of the USA and happily they are still going and not with dross like the last NKOTB album, but with proper tunes like Poster Girl and Just Want You To Know. I won't drivel on too much about them other than to say they should probably be higher but has produced the best in US teenybop pop.Drowning was a fave of mine for ages!
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06 - Westlife - I constantly mock them and i think 5 of their last 6 singles have been covers and their last single Amazing owed a huge debt to the act abovebut after the mocking is done, they have great voices and they are incredibly good and successful at what they do so why change what is so successful? You Raise Me Up was one of their best tunes to date, although I am partial to a bit of Fool Again...
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05 - The Click Five - like V, they only have one album out, so maybe don't deserve to be so high on the list. But, like V, what a corker of an album. This is one where every and any track could be a single. They have a great look, tremendous energy live, a smooth yet somehow raw polished sound and seem like charming lads. I forsee a big future for them that may yet see them move up this list...
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04 - BBMak- I truly loved both of BBMaks albums. They played all their own instruments, wrote great power pop songs and had the looks and voices to back it up. Why they weren't 2000 times huger than they were continues to baffle me to do this day. Their second album with tracks like Staring At The Sun and After All Is Said And Done remains a modern day pop classic :)
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03 - Boyzone- the original Westlife! Boyzone benefited hugely from Take That splitting up - how esle would they have lived down that horrendous appearance on some Irish talk show where they all danced incredibly badly. No Matter What is still their crowning moment, but it was a bright day in British pop when Love Me For A Reason bought them to my attention properly some years before that. Sadly defunct now and we only have dreary Ronan to show for it...
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02 - McFly- probably so high because they are so current, but i love these little scamps and are my current fave boy band obsession. More rock pop than pop rock, their tunes are utterly catchy and adorable, and they aren't afraid to embrace the cheesiness either - their comic relief single was 70s guilty pleasure all over and it was brilliant. Am hoping they will stay together for at least one more album, to split now - like the rumours say - would be criminal. Partial to showing off their cred credentials by covering Killers and Kaiser Chiefs, but let them get on with it I say. Aaah my boys!
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01 - Take That!!!!- No Surprise then that my most fave boyband ever was the one that launched Robbies career - and the one that thanks to a tv documentary chronicling their success, acrimonious split with the Robster and final days back in 1996 are currently also the hottest boy band in England at the moment(Take That indeed, Upper Street). Every single released was a high quality with Back For Good, Never Forget and Pray being the cream of the crop. New single Patience is a matured elegant sound and I can't wait to hear the new cd...