My students asked me the other day if I liked One Direction. I was like, “they sure don’t beat BSB and *NSYNC!” and my students were horrified that I liked them! I can’t understand it, One Direction wouldn’t exist without them (although I do recognize NKOTB really paved the way)!
To be honest, I’m not sure why we keep comparing them. Yes, they are both pop boybands and obviously they owe a lot of their structure to those who came before them, but *NSYNC and BSB were much more “pop” than bands like One Direction and the Jonas Brothers are. While 1D doesn’t play their own instruments per se, 1D and JB definitely perform music with more rock undertones than the boybands of our childhood. 1D and JB don’t make rock music, but it’s more rock-driven than *NSYNC and BSB, at least to me.
Source: imnotmorrissey