Where Do the Boy Bands Go By Their 4th Album?
Take a look at where key groups were when they released their fourth studio albums.
One Direction
One Direction releases its fourth studio album, ‘Four,’ on Monday.
With Monday’s release of Four, the members of One Direction find themselves at a career crossroads. For boys bands, fourth albums often turn out to be crucial ones. After the initial flush of success that typically comes with first and second albums, the acts have stopped being the next big thing, and the realities of maintaining a career have started to settle in. The singers are more mature — or, at least, older.
Frankly, most teen-oriented groups find their careers waning by album No. 4. If One Direction manages to maintain its popularity, and its original membership, through this next album cycle, they’ll be bucking the trend.
The Beatles
The Beatles, Beatles for Sale
If there was such a thing as a filler Beatles album, 1964’s For Sale was it. The fourth album released in fewer than two years, it contained only one big hit, Eight Days a Week, and several covers, as John Lennon and Paul McCartney had pretty much exhausted their catalog (and felt exhausted, too, if the cover photo is any indication).
In the USA, the analogous Beatles ’65, which contained eight For Sale tracks, hit stores 10 days before Christmas and became the year’s fastest-selling title. But great things were just around the corner: Help! and Rubber Soul came in 1965, and Revolver was just 20 months away.
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5, Maybe Tomorrow
Between December 1969 and October 1970, The Jackson 5 released three studio albums and a Christmas set and hit No. 1 with four consecutive singles. The career heat cooled a little with Maybe Tomorrow, released in April 1971. After Never Can Say Goodbye reached No. 2 as a single, the title track barely cracked Billboard‘s top 20.
Michael Jackson’s first solo single, Got to Be There, followed in that fall, forever changing the group dynamic. “How long can this structure contain this one very extraordinary talent? The answer was not very long,” Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis says. “They clearly were a kind of backup for Michael. That situation becomes untenable.”
New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block, Face the Music
Eight years into their recording career, New Kids on the Block desperately wanted to be taken seriously — and they weren’t kids anymore. So they new-jacked their sound and changed their name to NKOTB, which didn’t fool anybody.
Released in 1994, Face the Music debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard album chart, and NKOTB quickly fell from headlining arenas to playing theaters and large clubs. Jordan Knight soon left the group. The Kids didn’t release another album till 2008.
Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue
The Backstreet Boys were at the top of their game when Black & Blue came out in 2000. Just their third album released in the U.S., made them the first act to sell a million copies of back-to-back albums in the 1st week of release, but they wouldn’t stay there much longer.
Before the group released its next album, tensions and A.J. McLean’s drug and alcohol problems nearly destroyed the group. Never Gone, released in 2005, the group pursued a more rock-oriented direction, and sales plummeted.
‘N Sync
‘N Sync, none
‘N Sync was the one boy band that got out while the getting was good, releasing just three albums between 1997 and 2001, all massive successes. After No Strings Attached and Celebrity, the two fastest-selling albums of the SoundScan era, the quintet went on an indefinite hiatus and hasn’t recorded together since.
Justin Timberlake released his solo debut, Justified, in 2002, quickly becoming a superstar in his own right. “With boy bands, everybody’s got their role,” says music journalist Alan Light. “If one starts to demonstrate a different kind of star power, that creates a tension. You could see Justin straining against the limitations of that band.”
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men, Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya
Following a debut studio album and a Christmas release, Boyz II Men’s 1994 effort, II, sold 12 times platinum on the strength of singles such as On Bended Knee and I’ll Make Love to You, consecutive No. 1 records on Billboard‘s Hot 100.The group’s members exerted more creative control on fourth album Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya, released in 2000, but it went only gold, due partly to a shifting musical climate.
“There was a revivalist aspect to them, a Motown/Philly idea,” says DeCurtis. “How do you sustain that in an environment that’s totally changing? I think the culture changed underneath them.” The group has continued to record and perform, releasing its 11th album, Collide, in October.
