98 Degrees: 90s Boy Band

I grew up listening to boy bands. They were one of the most popular types of bands in the 90s. I particularly loved the Backstreet Boys, but for this assignment, I wish to conduct some research on another popular boy band known as 98 Degrees.
The band, 98 Degrees, is made up of four singers, 2 of which are brothers, all from Ohio. They are Nick & Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre & Jeff Timmons. After deciding to create a band, they moved to Los Angeles, and waited for their chance at fame. At a Boyz II Men concert, the group finally received that chance. The R&B group saw talent in these 4 boys, & they were invited to tour with Montel Jordan. In 1997, 98 Degrees signed with Motown Records (98 Degrees Official Website). The band had created five albums together, before splitting apart to pursue their solo careers. In 2002, they had reached 10 million records sold for their album, The Collection (Wikipedia).
As you can see, the boy band was rather successful from 1997-2002. They had numerous songs that landed in top positions on many musical charts. Some include, Invisible Man, Because of You, I Do (Cherish You) and Thank God I Found You with Mariah Carey and Joe (Billboard Charts). All of these songs are expressions of love – either those they have lost, or those they currently have. I know when listening to Backstreet Boys back in the day, I loved hearing how sensitive boys could be when it came to loving or caring for a girl. I think this is why so many girls adored these boy bands. Also, with each song being played on the radio, a girl somewhere was able to relate to the feelings 98 Degrees was confessing in their songs.
After reading “Bread and Butter Songs: Unoriginality in Pop” by Ann Powers, I remembered this being an issue while growing up. Many of my friends refused to listen to pop music, specifically boy bands because they were unoriginal and did not write their own lyrics. 98 Degrees actually did this same thing. They took the country song by Mark Wills, titled I Do (Cherish You). As Ann Powers states in her article, in the pop music industry, it is ok to take others’ song lyrics, as long as they present it in a different manner (Powers 238). This is what 98 Degrees did. They turned a slow, twangy country song, into a pop song with some R&B smoothness in the beat. It makes the song more appealing to many people, especially the teen girls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4wirSuglyc
^I Do (Cherish You) By 98 Degrees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdEKMZybABk
^I Do (Cherish You) By Mark Wills

I have always loved boy bands, some a lot more than others. I knew many people thought the unoriginality label made them the worst type of music out there, but I still enjoyed listening to them. How they presented themselves in concerts and/or on their music videos goes along with the lyrics in the song – and 98 Degrees did a nice job of putting these two things together. They performed and carried themselves in a way that made them appealing to their young teen audience. I know this, because at one point, I was one of those teen girls who loved these boy bands. I too was experiencing all these feelings. Each one of their songs expressed how I felt at many turning points in my young life.

Lesson:
I had an interesting assignment in one of my high school English classes that I really enjoyed, and I hope to use it in my classroom some day. I had to choose a song where the singer was expressing their hardships within an environment they could not escape from. The song I chose was, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. We had to use some main ideas given to us, and show where in the song these ideas were being expressed and why. I really enjoyed this assignment because my song really nailed the overall idea. This assignment pertained to me, and what type of music I liked, which made it more worthwhile for me to do.
I would do a similar assignment here with my students. I would have them choose a song and write about how this song affected their life in some way. They should be able to reference a turning point in their life, where they felt happy, sad, etc. and turned to music as medicine. It would be a short 2-3 page paper, in a journal type format. This assignment could be used as an introduction for me at the beginning of the year to help me learn about each of my students.