Boy Bands

What exactly is a boy band? Well, to me a boy band is any group of teenage boys brought together by a corporation that only sing and dance and don't play their own instruments.

They have a long and "glorious" history in the United States dating back to the 1980's with New Edition and New Kids on the Block, extending into the '90's with the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. Even today we have One Direction to carry on the torch for teenage girls all over the world. Well, Japan also has their share of teen boy dancers.

The most popular boy bands in Japan are SMAP, which was formed in 1991 and is an acronym for Sports Music Assemble People (don't ask) and Arashi, which was formed in 1999. Now in the US boy band have a limited shelf life, usually within five years the members of the group begin to argue among themselves and show a desire to launch their own solo careers.

Things are a lot different in Japan. Both SMAP and Arashi are still together and releasing new CDs every year! So those teenage boys of Arashi in the photo above taken in 1999 at the average age of 16 are now in their early 30's and still pulling off the same dance moves on stage as they did 15 years ago and that would make the members of SMAP approaching their 40's and still doing the same.

While in the United States some old boy bands have reunions like New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, fans look at them and realize just how old they've gotten, but since their Japanese counterparts never broke up, fans don't notice their slow aging.

It's not to say that the kids (men) don't have their own TV and movie careers, Ninomiya Kazunari of Arashi even starred in Clint Eastwood's 2006 film "Letters From Iwo Jima," but the members still perform and record CDs together year after year. It must be quite a sight going to an Arashi concert and seeing the legions of screaming teenage girls struggling against their screaming mothers, as each tries to get closer to their idol.

I just wonder at what point will these groups in Japan cease to be referred to as "boy bands" and graduate into "geriatric groups"?