According to The History of Boy Bands, boy bands have been around for years, tracing back to the 1950s. From the Jackson Five to One Direction, many fell in love with them along the way. Multiple fan pages for different bands like the Jonas Brothers, NSYNC, One Direction and more are still active on social media apps, like Instagram and Twitter. However, some could also say that even die-hard fans may find that they enjoy their solo work more as time moves on.

“As I have matured, so has Justin [Timberlake],” English teacher Kelly Taylor said. “His solo work is my preference now, but the 90s teen in me will always love NSYNC.”

Based on a recent poll, one can see that recently solo artists are more preferred. In an Instagram poll of 74 people, 72% voted for solo careers after a band had broken up, and 28% voted for boy bands.

“I think the boy band/pop group thing is over for now,” Taylor said. “The trend will come back, that's what trends do.”

Boy bands could possibly be just that; a trend where it depends on the music industry and what people enjoy listening to. Based on the best of 2020 songs by Spotify, it also shows that the majority of the listeners prefer solo artists. Since the 1950s, music has evolved and could be a possible reason for why people may decide to listen to different types of music.

“I think music has moved away from bands and more towards pop,” global studies teacher Jennifer Ruley said. “There are a lot of artists that can only sing and cannot play other instruments or write their own music. There are still a lot of great new artists, but I think there is a smaller talent pool today than there was in the past in reference to musicians.”

A recent boy band that has come back together are the Jonas Brothers. After they had broken up, Nick Jonas moved on to creating his own music and Joe Jonas joined another band. In 2019, the band had reunited, coming out with the song “Sucker” from the album “Happiness Begins,” which has over 870 million plays on Spotify; their song “X” from the album “Burnin It Up” came out in 2020 and has just over 85 million plays. This shows a significant decrease in popularity over a small amount of time, even though they were quite popular pre-reunion.

Based on the Spotify songs, plays, polls and personal preferences, it could be said that solo artists are more preferred by today’s audiences even though boy bands are still around. Bands like the Jonas Brothers, who are losing views, One Direction, who have broken up and gone their own separate ways and NSYNC, who also broke up with Justin Timberlake going solo, can show how boy bands are slowly becoming obsolete and how solo artists may be taking over the music industry.