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Moist Megatron

What Happened To Mixed Gender Pop Bands?

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Whatever happened to mixed gender pop bands?

 

During the late 90s and early 2000s, there were lots of mixed gender pop bands and they were getting lots of it hits. We had Steps, S Club 7, S Club Juniors, Vengaboys, Aqua, A*Teens, Hear’Say and Liberty X.

 

Then we had Black Eyed Peas and N-Dubz with a bit of a different slant mixing rap with pop but now these sorts of groups seem to be  nowhere to be seen and BEP have gone back to being a male trio.

 

Back in the day there was Abba and bands like Bucks Fizz and Brotherhood of Man.

 

We’ve had Steps reform and deliver and amazing album, Bucks Fizz have reformed as The Fizz due to a rights issue and released 3 albums and Vengaboys still tour but on the main charts there doesn’t really seem to be any new or high charting singles from mixed gender bands anymore so what happened to them?

 

I guess a lot of them could be referred to as cheesy and that sort of sound isn’t in anymore but some of them like Liberty X had a more edgey sound than just bubblegum pop.
 

Also feel free to share some of your favourite mixed gender band songs below :) 

 

Here are some of the songs from mixed gender groups

 

 

 

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Aside from Little Mix can you name any pop bands that are relevant right now, other than KPop?

In almost all the examples you gave, the women were the prominent singers and the men were just there to make up the numbers and/or play the instruments. The turn-of-the-century mixed-gender acts were all manufactured and that has fallen out of favour in recent years (except for KPop for some reason?)

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2 minutes ago, LÉON said:

(except for KPop for some reason

Thats cos the KPop idols go through training in their teen years which is VERY hard to complete, not to mention the anxiety and metal health issues surrounding the pressure of being an idol (several have taken their lives in the past 2 years alone) so the fans are absolutely rabid to support their favs.

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5 minutes ago, Chris Morlock said:

Thats cos the KPop idols go through training in their teen years which is VERY hard to complete, not to mention the anxiety and metal health issues surrounding the pressure of being an idol (several have taken their lives in the past 2 years alone) so the fans are absolutely rabid to support their favs.

I don't know how anyone can support KPop and still feel like a decent human being rih9

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2 hours ago, LÉON said:

Aside from Little Mix can you name any pop bands that are relevant right now, other than KPop?

In almost all the examples you gave, the women were the prominent singers and the men were just there to make up the numbers and/or play the instruments. The turn-of-the-century mixed-gender acts were all manufactured and that has fallen out of favour in recent years (except for KPop for some reason?)

Tea, after writing this I was wondering about boy bands as well and the only current one I could think of was Why Don’t We and they don’t get hits 

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The dual-gender groups, like S Club and Steps, were definitely more of a '90s thing. It is nice that they were both able to find their successes last decade, though. S Club with their reunion tour, and Steps with their new music and touring.

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2 hours ago, Moist Mahomie said:

Tea, after writing this I was wondering about boy bands as well and the only current one I could think of was Why Don’t We and they don’t get hits 

I've never even heard of them rip2

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Definitely no mixed bands anymore, at least not in front of the public eye. Little Mix, 5SOS and the Jonas Bros still going somewhat strong (more flopping but succesful enought to at least be somewhat talked about), but they are all-(fe)male groups. I think not only mixed-gender groups, but generally pop music groups are left in the past, especially considering Western music, only the already established bands can have some impact. I don't really mind tbh, I find these bands (especially the ones in the OP) kinda cheesy, I always preferred solo artists.

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Well, the concept of bands in general has been slowly dying out in the pop field. While it's other genre's bread and butter, the pop lane has evolved over the years far more than other genres have. It mostly, at least in my eyes, comes down to what is most easily digestible to the widest possible audience. It's not that pop bands, mixed and same gender both, no longer exist it's just that they're not getting mainstream attention. It's easier for the business side of the industry to market a solo artist, and it's easier for the consumer side of the industry to associate a song with one person. It's not really that way for other genres because genres like rock and metal are built around the "band" idea. From the birth of modern pop music, the model for the genre has been mostly built around individuals. The notable exceptions would be boy/girl bands like NYSNC, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, One Direction, etc. but even then the spotlight was mostly centered on one or two of them anyway. 

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