About a new era, and how the Netflix series “Building the Band” captured and facilitated this very well.
As someone born in 2000 I grew up with incredible girl groups like Little Mix and Fifth Harmony and of course boy band One Direction. They truly left their stamp on the music industry, but at the same time no group came without drama. Whenever the first person left, whether it was Jesy, Camila or Zayn, band members and fandoms started to get divided and looking back it was the beginning of the end.
However, that was nothing new. Just take a look at the bands who came before them: Take That (and the rivalry between Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow), Spice Girls (with several issues between the women over the years), *NSYNC (where Justin Timberlake’s solo ambitions were a turning point), Pussycat Dolls (where Nicole Scherzinger being in the spotlight was seen as a problem)…
For a long time, bands seemed to be designed for drama because that’s part of what kept audiences engaged.
But today the tides have turned. And that has a lot to do with agency. The bands that exist now mostly consist of members who are in their twenties, similar in age to me. This means they also grew up with a lot of girl and boy band drama, but saw the consequences (like Jesy of Little Mix being body shamed) of it on a rather personal level through their phone screens. Moreover, they are of a generation that doesn’t hesitate to call out wrongdoing – especially to women – within the creative industry.
Automatically a new era has started for bands. A clear testament of that new wave is the Netflix show “Building the Band”, and especially how it felt more relevant compared to “Simon Cowell: The Next Act” on the same streaming platform.
If you watched the latter show – in which Simon Cowell basically wanted to recreate One Direction – you probably had a lot of questions after the final episode. Did the chosen band release something? Where can I even find it on social media? Will the childish behavior of the boys (they’re still teenagers) be a problem?
The first couple of days after the release of the series, it was practically impossible to find anything about the winning band online. Turns out another small band went by the same name, “December 10”, and came up in the search results. However, this was fixed a couple of days later. Some time after the series aired, the band released a cover of “Bye, Bye, Bye” by *NSYNC, but for a while there was no sign of actual new music (today they have two singles out). And it felt like they missed their momentum.
Not many bands/artists have the opportunity for Netflix to show their launch to a worldwide audience. So you would expect the professionals surrounding these boys, would have taken advantage of that. Especially since there’s quite some time between filming and airing dates, which means the necessary preparations could have been made.
But looking back, these unfortunate circumstances might actually have been the best thing that could have happened for them. In the end, a key point in the series was the band members’ immature behavior. And knowing what happened to teenage, somewhat naive, singers suddenly becoming super stars and ending up under mass scrutiny in the past, I feel relieved for them not immediately reaching stardom.
While the idea to create another band like One Direction might have sounded great at first, the execution wasn’t that. Industry professionals – especially Simon Cowell – should have looked further than the financial success of similar bands in the past, meaning they also should have taken the emotional toll on the young band members into account. Moreover, you can’t recreate something that is still adored by so many. One Direction’s music lives on and all the former bandmates – minus Liam sadly – have their own careers.
The mentors on “Building the Band” all knew exactly what it meant to actually be in a band, not only to create one
The aim behind “Building the band”, another similar Netflix show, was smarter because it made room for new band concepts that feel relevant and better suited for today’s world. In the end, it’s not 2010 anymore.
Instead of being put together, the contestants of “Building the Band” could pick their own bandmates. Only already talented singers – usually in their twenties – were included, all sitting in separate booths similar to the ones in “Love is Blind”. They all sang for and talked to each other, without seeing the other singers, and formed bands based on that. Then the bands proceeded to compete against each other. Finally, 3Quency won well-deserved, and was already teasing new songs at the time the final episode aired.
And that’s how it’s done.
The professional environment definitely helped. The mentors were a dream team: AJ McLean, Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and Liam Payne, who sadly passed after filming. They all knew exactly what it meant to actually be in a band, not only to create one, which means they could put themselves in the contestants’ place.
But what also shouldn’t be ignored, is the fact that the contestants stepped into the adventure knowing exactly what kind of career they aimed for and were encouraged to build it themselves. The agency was entirely put with the contestants.
Another important element is that the show wasn’t limited to boy or girl bands. The contestants could choose whether they wanted a girl, boy or mixed band, how many people they wanted their band to consist of and the image they wanted to create, breaking traditional band stereotypes. Ultimately, the top three consisted of one girl band (3Quency), one boy band (Soulidified) and one mixed band (SZN4) – who are now all releasing music and performing. On top of that, they all have a clear direction and are diverse, with each bandmate having a strong personality.
All these elements are incredibly important today to make it in a creative industry. Something that stuck with me, is Nicole Scherzinger mentioning to the contestants that being in a girl group now means something entirely different than it did when she became famous with the Pussycat Dolls, highlighting that creating a sexualized image isn’t necessary anymore.
Female audiences today expect different things
She touched an important point: female audiences – who support girl groups and boy bands the most in general – today expect different things. And to be honest, I’m not sure whether a boy band today could reach the level of admiration One Direction got. In the end, there are now so many powerful girl groups, who dominate the band industry, giving women and girls the role models they are looking for. There’s 3Quency, FLO, Say Now, IIII, Katseye…
And yes, there’s still the occasional drama. Recently, word got out that Manon of Katseye was being pushed out, probably because of her skin color. But this time, the internet fought back, even gaining support of Normani and Leigh-Anne who have been in a similar position within Fifth Harmony and Little Mix. And honestly, it’s encouraging to see women showing up for each other like that. Because if girl bands in the public eye get defended instead of torn apart and stick up for each other, this means something is shifting for women in their daily lives too. And that’s a long-overdue evolution.
Written by Nikita
Nikita – founder of Nikita’s World – is a Belgian author of feminist feelgood & a journalist specialized in pop culture and the creative industry.