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Site Philosophy
98º Not a BOY Band is a
"we love 98 Degrees" site. I realize that the guys are human and have their faults,
so please have a sense of humor about things - on the other hand, don't be dissing
the guys!!! This site was designed to inform fans about the group in general and
all the members.
People sometimes label 98 Degrees as a "boy band," and I say this is wrong! Of course
it depends on your definition of the term boyband, but generally it is used in a
derogatory sense. Here's the evidence why 98º is NOT a boy band!
1) They write their own songs
and produce them.
2) MOTOWN signed them. Motown is a fairly well respected R&B label.
3) Each of the guys are over 25. They aren't immature like some guys
can be, so you can hardly call them boys.
4) The guys are more concerned with singing and sounding great than their
choreography and dance moves.
5) They model themselves after Boyz II Men, not NKOTB or N'SYNC. They
formed in 1995 and released their first efforts in 1997, before the whole boy band
craze really took off.
6) Unlike "boy bands," 98 Degrees formed on their own. Jeff Timmons is the
founder. 98 Degrees is not some manufactured group put together through auditions.
7) 98º isn't even a "band!" They are a VOCAL group, but have had extensive
musical training and could play nearly any instrument you put before them.
8) They're not from Orlando! They are from Ohio. And they aren't
affiliated with Transcontinental or Jive Records as many boy bands are.
98 Degrees says:
* According to Jeff "We're older,
and we have a live band with funk, a lot of live singing, and not as much choreographed
dancing. Those guys are good singers and good dancers; as far as musicians, I don't
know how they'll fare later in their careers, after the young audience goes home.
Although we have a young audience, too, half of our fan club is over 25. That surprises
a lot of people, but even though we get marketed as a teen act, a lot of older people
buy our records, too."
* In an interview with Carson Daly, when asked if he gets offended when people label
98 Degrees a boy band, Jeff said: "Well, we wanted to be a vocal group, and there
were no boy bands out at the time. But then Backstreet came out, and they're good
but they were put together as a group by someone else and had a record deal waiting
for them. We put ourselves together; we had no money and worked hard and learned
music and theory and produced all the vocals on the record - and then we just got
lumped in with them."
* When asked: What are your feelings on the current rise of the "boy band"
with bands coming over from the UK such as Boyzone and, of course, the Backstreet
Boys, 911 and N’Sync?
Justin responded: Well, we think that some groups such as N’Sync and Backstreet
are talented and deserve their success, while others take away from those groups
because they’re manufactured and can't really sing. But we personally don't consider
ourselves a "boy band."
* Here is the transcript from a Tiger Beat Magazine article:
TB: Do you consider yourselves a typical boy band?
Together: NO!
Justin: There's nothing wrong with being a boy band. The difference is that
boy bands are generally people that a producer put together to do a song or an album,
and it's more a question of images. For us, it's the music that counts. We put ourselves
together, and we struggle to do what we do, so being categorized a boy band doesn't
really fit us.
Jeff: I think our music is more mature, more soulful, smoother and mellower
than boy band music.
Justin: We have all kinds of fans, from teenagers to people between 25 to
35 years. It's a very wide range of people that we are touching, our music really
makes us and so many people happy.
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