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A boy band (or boyband) is loosely defined as a popular music act consisting of only male singers. The members are expected to dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. More often than not, boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage, and only sing and dance, making the term somewhat of a misnomer. However, exceptions to this type do exist. Mainly, boy bands are brought together by a producer through an audition process, although some of them form on their own.

Some such bands can evolve out of church choral or gospel music groups, but are often created by talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. Due to this and their general commercial orientation towards an audience of preteens, teenyboppers, or teens, the term may be used with negative connotations in music journalism. Boy bands are similar in concept and approach to selling to girl groups as they are targeting the same audience.

History[link]

Early history[link]

The earliest form of boy band music took place in the late 19th century with the use of a capella Barbershop quartets. They were usually a group of males and sing in four part harmonies. The popularity of Barbershop quartets had been prominent into the earlier part of the 20th century. A revival of the male vocal group took place in the late 1940s and 1950s with the use of doo-wop music. Doo wop was a predecessor to the previous boy bands and they sung about topics such as love and other themes used in pop music. The earliest traces of boy bands were in the mid 1950s although the term boy band was not used. The Ink Spots was one of the first of what we would now call boy bands. The term boy band was not established until the late 1980s as before that they were called male vocal groups or hep harmony singing groups.^[1]

1960s[link]

The Osmonds

The earliest predecessors of the boy band genre were groups such as The Osmonds, The Jackson 5, and The Monkees, which helped form the template for boy bands. While The Monkees were originally a manufactured act turned real band that featured members with distinct (albeit fictional) personality types, The Jackson 5 were a family group that established many musical conventions that boy bands follow. For instance, their music featured close harmonies from soul music and catchy pop hooks influenced as much as they were by Motown and acts like The Supremes. All members of the band sang, which is a common convention of a boy band, as opposed to having a front man and the rest on instruments. This is effectively so that no one person dominated the stage. Even so, the members conveniently fitted into the convention of having stereotypical personality types (Michael Jackson being the "cute one", to give an obvious example).

Although not a manufactured band, The Beatles set a precedent for boy bands to follow both in terms of marketing to young girls and certain aesthetic and musical conventions. The merchandising, whether it was films like A Hard Day's Night or novelty goods were possibly the first aimed at a certain demographic on a large scale for a group. This made them a proto-type for boy bands, such as The Jackson 5 and The Monkees. Musical conventions that boy bands adopted from The Beatles were less their technical proficiency as musicians and more the catchy pop hooks, melodies and harmonies combined with their marketability. Their marketability was based on the idea that there was something for everyone, whether it was the music or the personality of John Lennon or Paul McCartney or their sex appeal.

The Beatles were more directly an influence on boy bands that use rock band instrumentation. The precedent for this was when TV Producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson got four members to perform catchy pop tunes while also acting in a television series. The Monkees are often considered as the original pioneers among boy bands as they were the first example of a manufactured boy band. Formed in 1965 under the supervision of Don Kirshner, the group became dissatisfied with Kirshner's control over them and they became independent two years later working on their own up to 1970.

1970s and 1980s[link]

Although the term "boy band" is mostly associated with groups from the 1990s onwards, other antecedents (apart from those already mentioned) exist throughout the history of pop music. The genre has been copied into languages and cultures other than the Anglo-American. There is a popular Russian boy band Ivanushki International. The Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, appealing to young Latina audiences, was founded in 1977. Menudo had a convention unique among boy bands: when a member turned 16, became too tall, or their voice changed, they were ejected and replaced. The members of Menudo were generally aged 12–14.

The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop band who were most popular in the mid 1970s. The British Hit Singles & Albums noted that they were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since The Beatles' and one of the most screamed-at teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s".^[2] For a relatively brief but fervent period (nicknamed "Rollermania"), they were worldwide teen idols. The group were one of the first bands like The Monkees before them to take the formula shown by The Beatles and apply it to a teen market. The group achieved the same amount of success but for a limited period of time. At the peak of their popularity in the UK, comparisons were being made to The Beatles. Also by this time, Bay City Roller fans had a completely distinctive style of dress, the main elements of which were ankle-length tartan trousers and tartan scarves, the group using the benefit of merchandise and promotion.^[3]

In the U.S., the Cleveland-based power pop group Raspberries was generally interpreted as a "teen act", although all the band members played their own music. Vocalist Eric Carmen later commented, "You’d have a thousand screaming girls in the front of the stage and then ten very serious rock critics in the back of the room going, ‘Uh-huh, I think we understand this.’ And unfortunately the great mass of pot-smoking 18 year-olds that bought albums and made you a substantial commodity in the great marketing world of records never took to us. It was not hip for people to like us, because their little sister liked us.^[4]

New Edition were a R&B group formed in Boston in 1978. The group reached their height of popularity during the 1980s. They were the progenitors of the boy band movement of the 1980s and 1990s in the US and led the way for groups like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. The group recorded mostly as a quintet.

Formed in 1982, Norwegian band A-ha became the first Continental European boyband to top the US Hot 100 with their single Take on Me in 1985. Although considered a one hit wonder in that country the group went on to have considerable success worldwide and lasting success.

Bros (abbreviation of the word "brothers") were a British boy band active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, consisting of twin brothers Matt Goss and Luke Goss along with Craig Logan. Formed in 1986, they scored multiple top 10 hits between 1987 and 1989. In Britain Bros also became the first modern era style boyband to have a multiple platinum selling album with Push in 1988, which is still one of the most successful boyband albums in the UK. Other big boybands in Britain during the late eighties were Big Fun and Brother Beyond.

1990s[link]

Although the term "boy band" did not exist until the 1990s, Boston group New Edition is credited for starting the boy band trend in the 1980s. Maurice Starr was influenced by New Edition and popularised it with his protégé New Kids on the Block, the first commercially successful modern boy band who formed in 1984 and found international success in 1988. Starr's idea was to take the traditional template from the R&B genre (in this case his teenage band New Edition) and apply it to a pop genre.

Some managers in Europe soon created their own acts after being inspired by New Kids on the Block. First beginning with Nigel Martin-Smith's Take That in the UK who formed in 1990 and followed by Tom Watkins who had success with Bros in the late eighties and formed East 17 in 1991 who were marketed and pited against Take That as rivals with a harsher attitude, style and sound. Although in previous years Bros and New Kids on the Block had achieved number one singles in the UK, it was Take That who were the first group to completly dominate the charts. Between their first number one single in 1993 and last in 1996 and before their 2005 reunion only one single failed to reach the top spot. This making them one of the most successful groups in British music chart history and the inspiration for most British pop groups ever since. Irish music manager Louis Walsh who had witnessed the impact of these two British boy bands put out an advert for an 'Irish Take That' thereby creating Boyzone in 1993.^[5] Let Loose formed in 1993, MN8 and 911 formed in 1995 and Damage formed in 1996 were also boy bands who enjoyed success in Britain, however by the late 1990s all these bands had ran their course and split up.

All these artists were very successful on both the singles and albums charts domestically and internationally however with the emergence of britpop and the commercial co-option of indie rock, many boy bands were ridiculed by the British music press as having no artistic credibility. The media attention was now placed on the Battle of Britpop and the bands Oasis and Blur replaced the importance and rivalry of Take That and East 17 as the two new biggest bands in Britain. However other boybands who would go on to find success in the late nineties were Five, Another Level, Point Break and Westlife. Ever since the late eighties and nineties, popularity of these groups has meant unlike in other countries boybands have been a yearly mainstay in British pop music and due to numbers of groups can be quite highly contested with lots of groups who don't achieve lasting success despite big promotion.

In 1995 successful German music manger Frank Farian who had been manager of Boney M and Milli Vanilli put together Latin American band No Mercy who scored a few worldwide hits during the mid nineties. One of the most successful boy band managers from the U.S was Lou Pearlman, who founded commercially successful acts such as the Backstreet Boys formed in 1993 and 'N Sync and LFO formed in 1995, O-Town in the year 2000 and US5 in 2005 although he was later convicted of unrelated fraud incidents.

In the late nineties in the UK, producer Simon Cowell (noted in the U.S. for the American Idol/ X Factor franchise) is also known for having managed British boyband Five formed in 1997 and Irish boyband Westlife who formed in 1998 and were created by Irishman Louis Walsh as a replacement for Boyzone^[6] but were initially promoted by a former member of that band Ronan Keating. Westlife would eventually overtake Take That in number one's tally and are currently the most successful boy band on the UK Singles Chart. Cowell is now also having success in the 2010s with his new group One Direction formed on his television show The X Factor. Cowell is also infamous however for passing on signing two of the biggest boybands to emerge from the 90's and 00's, Take That and Busted.^[7][8]

In North America boy bands were prominent in the 1990s like internationally after having started the modern concept with New Kids on the Block. In the mid-1990s, most boy bands were African American and had R&B and gospel elements, such as the group All 4 One formed in 1993 and Boyz II Men formed in 1988 and who released their debut album in 1991. Boyz II Men are also the most successful boy band act on the US Hot 100 as well as the Australian Singles Chart. Although they had success on the Billboard charts, they had been targeted to more of an adult audience and were not marketed for youth. It wasn't however until 1997 and the change to pop orientated groups like Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, 'N Sync and Hanson that boy bands exploded commercially and dominated the market in the United States. This late nineties era marked the height of boy band popularity in North America which hasn't been seen since.

21st century (2000s and 2010s)[link]

Jonas Brothers are described as pop boy band

With the continued success of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, American and British groups like 98 Degrees, Dream Street, O-Town, A1, Blue, Busted and McFly gained quick popularity both domestically and internationally. International boy bands would also occasionally spring up, such as the Moldovan band O-Zone (better known today as an Internet meme), Overground and Tokio Hotel, who are currently the most successful boyband ever on the German Singles Chart. American Christian boy band Plus One also enjoyed brief remarkable success during this time.

At the height of the popularity of groups such as Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC in North America, MTV created their own parody boyband, 2Gether (or "2Ge+her"). Like The Monkees in the 1960s, they were a manufactured act, which turned into a "real" group, featuring members with a distinct fictional type. 2gether played off of the idea that every successful boyband must have five distinct personality types: the bad boy, the shy one, the young one, the older brother type, and a heart throb. All of the members of 2gether were actors and have moved onto other projects since the end of the MTV series that followed the made for TV movie.

Since 2001, the dominance of traditional boy bands on pop charts began to fade, although Gil Kaufman of MTV has described "new boy bands" that are "more likely to resemble Good Charlotte, Simple Plan.^[9] This was shown in boybands such as Busted, McFly, Tokio Hotel, Son of Dork and The Noise Next Door etc.

The Finnish rock band HIM have been described by some, and even suggested by vocalist Ville Valo^[10] to be a boy band, despite their slightly darker imagery. This view became increasingly popular around the time of their international breakthrough album, Razorblade Romance, stemming from the amount of lyrics revolving around romance, as well as the band members' on-stage personas and tendencies to jokingly interact with one another during shows.

In 2001 a new all-male Japanese pop band and dance group boyband hailing from Japan called EXILE, debuted under Avex Group's label Rhythm Zone with 14 members, putting them on par with Super Junior, a South Korean boy band.

In North America the Jonas Brothers had popularity helped from promotion on the Disney Channel enabling them during 2008 to sell over 180,000 copies on albums in a week and hit number one on the American Billboard 200. However apart from the Jonas Brothers boybands haven't seen the commercial boom experienced in the genre from the mid to late nineties in North America.

Moving into the 2010s boybands are still hugely popular especially in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe due to the continued commercial presence and longevity of nineties boybands such as Backstreet Boys, Take That, Boyzone (who enjoyed huge success again before the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 and who are now continuing as a 4-piece) and Westlife. Some sections of the press have referred to these acts, particularly those who have reformed after a previous split, such as Take That and Boyzone, as 'man bands'. These older generation artists chart alongside US5, Lexington Bridge, JLS, The Wanted and One Direction who are examples of new and currently successful boy bands from Europe, the latter two also having success in North America. One Direction are the first British boy band to enter the US album chart at No1.

Boy bands are also still very popular in Eastern Asia, notably so in J-Pop and K-pop, with successful group such as South Korea's TVXQ, BigBang, SS501, Super Junior, Shinhwa, CN Blue, 2PM, U-KISS, SHINee, MBLAQ, B2ST, Infinite and F.T. Island. Japan's Arashi, SMAP, V6, Tokio, KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN, Lead, NEWS, Kanjani 8, and Hey! Say! JUMP top the Oricon charts frequently. Taiwan also has notable boy bands like Fahrenheit and F4. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia also has notable boy bands like SM*SH, XO-IX, DragonBoyz, Treeji, S9B (Super Nine Boys), and Max5.

In America new boy bands include Big Time Rush & Hot Chelle Rae and the British-Irish boy bands One Direction & The Wanted, who have experienced moderate success on the singles and albums charts including top ten placing debut albums on the American Billboard. Another US boyband is Anthem Lights who are a Christian boyband of four members. One Direction, Big Time Rush, Mindless Behavior and The Wanted have recently seen a growth in mainstream coverage and to an extent, have made boy bands relevant once more in North America. ^[11]

Key factors of the concept[link]

Seen as important to a "boy band" group's commercial success is the group's image, carefully controlled by managing all aspects of the group's dress, promotional materials (which are frequently supplied to teen magazines), and music videos. Typically, each member of the group will have some distinguishing feature and be portrayed as having a particular personality stereotype, such as "the baby," "the bad boy," or "the nice boy." While managing the portrayal of popular musicians is as old as popular music, the particular pigeonholing of band members is a defining characteristic of boy and girl bands. Some record labels like YG, or SM control even where their artists live.

In most cases, their music is written, arranged and produced by a producer who works with the band at all times and controls the group's sound - if necessary, to the point of hiring session singers to record guide vocals for each member of the group to sing individually if the members cannot harmonize well together. However, for clarity of each voice, recording each voice individually is most commonly the norm with most modern vocal groups. In recent years auto-tune has become a popular tool for boybands who are unable to sing properly. Boy-bands have come under fire for this issue, of using auto-tune. Some have also come under fire for lip syncing in their performances as well.

A typical boy band performance features elaborately choreographed dancing, with the members taking turns singing and/or rapping. Boy bands generally didn't compose or produce their own material, unless the members lobbied hard enough for creative control. However some bands were created around the talent of a songwriter within the group like Gary Barlow of Take That or Tony Mortimer of East 17. Five were another group who wrote almost all their own songs. It isn't uncommon to find extra songs on the album written by one or more of the band members, however their producers rarely use these as singles.

Since the 21st Century however boybands have been expected to write or at least contribute in some part lyrically to songs. Apart from the groups mentioned above who all had at least one primary songwriter from their beginning, other groups soon caught up. From the late nineties band members saw the lucrative incentive of songwriting through track royalties and members in bands such as Backstreet Boys who had previously used writers like Max Martin or Steve Mac during their early albums now began co writing. Modern groups of the last ten years such as Busted, McFly, JLS and Tokio Hotel etc. have all made a point from early interviews that they write their own songs and hold their own image as this is an important part of marketing. Some bands like The Wanted have even spent time learning the craft of songwriting.^[12]

The key factor of a boy band is being trendy. This means that the band conforms to the most recent fashion and musical trends in the popular music scene. As of 2008, boy bands are more likely to be imitating pop punk acts like Blink 182, as well as the corresponding "emo/pop punk" fashion, as it is the current trend. A good example of this is the band Allstar Weekend, who give off the appearance of being a punk band while still maintaining the elements of a boy band.

Individuals can also go on to achieve greater success as a solo artist coming out of a boyband having used the groups popularity to build on. Usually this signals the end of the group until potential future reunions. Examples of this include Michael Jackson from The Jackson 5, Donny Osmond from The Osmonds, Ricky Martin from Menudo, Justin Timberlake from 'N Sync and Ronan Keating from Boyzone. Sometimes the most successful solo star from a band isn't the member most obvious such as Robbie Williams as opposed to lead singer Gary Barlow from Take That. Some boy band members have gone on to successful careers elsewhere in the media. Michael Dolenz of The Monkees went on to become a successful television producer, working for ITV franchises such as LWT and Television South.

Music genres[link]

Although most boy bands consist of R&B or pop influences, other music genres, most notably country music and folk music, are also represented. South 65 and Marshall Dyllon, for example, were both considered country music boy bands, as was to a lesser extent Rascal Flatts. Il Divo, created by Simon Cowell in 2004, are a band that perform Operatic pop, and in several (mainly Italian) languages. Since then operatic/classical boy bands have become quite popular and common, especially in the UK. Since 2001 there has been some crossover with power pop and pop punk from bands that play live instruments. For example, as of 2008, boy bands are often influenced by pop punk, post-grunge and power pop (a perennial genre). Just recently some boy bands decided to go back to their original doo-wop roots, most notably, The Overtones.

Criticism[link]

Since the 1990s, bands such as Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and LFO have disliked the term "boy band" and have preferred to be known as a "Male Vocal Group". Boy bands have been accused by the music press of emphasizing the appearance and marketing of the group above the quality of music, deliberately trying to appeal to a pre-teen audience and for conforming to trends instead of being original. Such criticisms can become extremely scathing. Boy bands are often seen as being short lived, though some acts such as The Jackson 5, New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Hanson, Human Nature, Westlife and Take That^[13] have sustained lasting careers, and in some cases, successful comebacks.^[14]

See also[link]

• All-female band
• Girl group

References[link]

External links[link]

• Top 10 Boy Bands

Boy in Indonesia

Boy in Spain

Elder boys in Ethiopia

Boys in Germany,
performing a puppet play

A boy is a young male human, usually child or adolescent. When he becomes an adult he's described as a man. The most apparent thing that differentiates a boy from a girl is that a boy typically has a penis while girls do not. However some intersex children with ambiguous genitals, and biologically female transgender children, may also be classified or self-identify as a "boy".

The term "boy" is primarily used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions or both. The latter most commonly applies to adult men, either considered in some way immature or inferior, in a position associated with aspects of boyhood, or even without such boyish connotation as age-indiscriminate synonym. The term can be joined with a variety of other words to form these gender-related labels as compound words.

Etymology[link]

The word "boy" comes from Middle English boi, boye ("boy, servant"), related to other Germanic words for boy, namely East Frisian boi ("boy, young man") and West Frisian boai ("boy"). Though the exact etymology is obscure, the English and Frisian forms probably derive from an earlier Anglo-Frisian *bō-ja ("little brother"), a diminutive of the Germanic root *bō- ("brother, male relation"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhā-, *bhāt- ("father, brother"). The root is also found in Flemish boe ("brother"), Norwegian dialectal boa ("brother"), and, through a reduplicated variant *bō-bō-, in Old Norse bófi, Dutch boef "(criminal) knave, rogue", German Bube ("knave, rogue, boy"). Furthermore, the word may be related to Bōia, an Anglo-Saxon personal name.

Overview[link]

Ongoing debates about the influences of nature versus nurture in shaping the behavior of girls and boys raises questions about whether the roles played by boys are mainly the result of inborn differences or of socialization. Images of boys in art, literature and popular culture often demonstrate assumptions about gender roles.

An adult male human is a man, but when age is not a crucial factor, both terms can be interchangeable, e.g., 'boys and their toys' applies equally to adults and young boys, just as 'Are you mice or men?' can also apply to young boys.

Japanese boys wearing fundoshi at a festival.

The age boundary is not clear cut, rather dependent on the context or even on individual circumstances. A young man who has not assumed (or has been denied) the traditional roles of a man might also be called a boy. It may feel uncomfortable to a young male upon being referred to as a "man" before he believes he has assumed these roles, such as having a career, a partner, a household of his own, fatherhood, etc., though the addition of a jocular modifier such as "young man" or "little man" might lessen the dissonance. Conversely, it may feel uncomfortable to a male to be called a "boy" if he believes he has assumed the traditional roles of a "man". In mother's/mama's boy, the word emphatically implies a male (minor or adult in years) who is too immature to be independent.

In some traditions boyhood is held to be exchanged for adult manhood, or at least approach it significantly, by certain -in se independent- acts assuming a role deemed to be typical for a "normal" man (though there are limits) as marriage, fathering offspring or military service. Various cultural and/or religious rites of passage serve, partially or specifically, to mark the transition to manhood.

Boy siiting in the stair of School in Kasaragod, Kerala, India

There is often a number of traditional differences in attire between boys and adult men, which may even give rise to a metaphoric term such as broekvent in Dutch (i.e., a boy who has not yet "graduated" from shorts to trousers) and in what is socially accepted as appropriate behaviour, e.g., boys may be publicly seen naked in cultures where men are not.

In English, the words youth, teenager and adolescent may refer to either male or female. No gender-specific term exists for an intermediate stage between a boy and a man, except "young man", although the term puberty, for one who reached sexual reproductivity (or the legally assumed age, e.g. 14 for boys, often set lower for girls) without being a legal adult yet, stems from a Latin word for boys only, itself named after the accompanying male body hair, pubes, on face and genital region.

Many occasions occur when an adult male is commonly referred to as a boy. A person's boyfriend or loverboy may be of any age; this even applies to a 'working' call-boy, toyboy (though usually younger than the client as youth is generally considered attractive). Reflecting the general aesthetic preference for youth, one says pretty boy (e.g. in the nickname of Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, who committed his first bank robbery at age 30) or Adonis (name of a mythological youth) even when a male beauty is clearly of riper age. In terms (used pejoratively or neutrally) for homosexuals such as batty boy (alongside "batty man"; from "bottom") or "bum boy", age is not essential, but the connotation of immaturity can strengthen insulting use.

Boy Scouts at summer camp in the United States.

A man's group of male friends etc. engaged in Male bonding are often called "the boys". It is most common to refer to men, irrespective of age or even in an adult age group, as boys in the context of a team (especially all-male), such as old boys for networking of adult men who attended the same school(s) as boys, or as professional colleagues, e.g. "the boys at the office, - police station etc." (often all adults). The members of a student fraternity can be called frat(ernity) boys, technically preferable to the pleonasm frat-bro(ther), and remain so for life as adults, after graduation.

In sports 'the boys' commonly refers to the teammates; e.g., UK football managers quite often refer to their players as "The boy so-and-so" and this usage is by no means restricted to the youngest players, though it is rarely applied to the most senior.

In US urban, particularly African American and Latino slang the term boy is used with a possessive as meaning friend (my boy, his boys), presumably as a reduction of homeboy, originally a male from the same area.

In some cases, the word boy is used merely to designate the age of the (male) person, irrespective of the function, as in altar boy, a minor acting as liturgical acolyte, or in Boy Scouts, an organisation specifically for boys. Thus the compound -man can then be replaced by -boy, as in footboy; or boy is simply added, either as a prefix (e.g., in boy-racer) or as a suffix (e.g., in Teddy Boy).

An adult equivalent (with or without -man) is not to be expected when -boy designates an apprentice (for which some languages use a compound with the equivalent of boy, e.g. leerjongen 'learning boy' in Dutch) or lowest rank implying specific on the job training if promotion is to be obtained, as in kitchen-boy. Similarly schoolboy only applies to minors; the modern near-synonym pupil originally designated a minor in Roman law as being under a specific adult's authority, as in loco parentis.

Expressions such as "boys will be boys" (i.e., a male always retains a tendency for boyish games or mischief) allude to stereotypically ascribed characteristics of boys and men; in the term tomboy, a woman's (according to the counterpart-gender stereotype) uncharacteristically bold nature is even described solely by comparing her to a boy.

The use of boy (like kid) in (fantasy or descriptive) nicknames, also for adult men (e.g. Shark Boy for a wrestler with matching costume), may also connote to the informal or naughty image of boyhood.

In such terms as 'city boy' or 'home boy', the age notion is at most anachronistic, as they indicate any male who grew up (or by extension lived a long time) in a certain environment.

Specific uses and compounds[link]

The following subsections treat some specific contexts where the term boy is frequently used, as such or in compound terms, often 'emancipated' from the age notion as such.

• Master was replaced (not for a slave owner or his overseer etc.) by the late 19th century, as a form of address, especially employed by servants, by Mister (etymologically equal) for the master of the household and other adults, but retained for boys until age 13.

Military[link]

The term 'our boys' is commonly used for a nation's soldiers, often with sympathy. Given the physical demands of battle, recruits are preferably in their physical prime, but adult professionals remain included in the term as long as they remain in service. A case where the term is formally used for (adult) men is sideboy, a member of an even-numbered group of seamen posted in two rows at the Quarterdeck when a visiting dignitary boards or leaves a ship. In the Ottoman empire, the young, mainly Christian military recruits for life (often forcibly enlisted by 'devshirme') were officially called acemi oglanlar ("novice boys").

Thus "-boy" can enter the nickname for a particular nation's soldiers, e.g. the US (infantry) doughboy, or a specific force, e.g. Fly-boy is slang for an airman.

Furthermore, specific terms refer to minors used in the armed forces:

• Drummer boy
• Ship's boy is a minor in naval training; boy seaman refers to specific, low-paid apprentice ranks, notably in the Royal Navy; until the middle of the twentieth century, they were the only Navy staff subject (like their civilian age-peers, at home and in school) to physical punishment, usually spanking, traditionally administered on the bare bottom (as in English public schools; the adults were lashed on the backside above the waist), either formally (ordered in court martial, publicly executed on deck) or, more often but less severely, summary; the same was true of a midshipman, also a minor, but indicated with "-man" rather than "-boy", possibly reflecting their higher status as future naval officers. Sometimes in ex-servicemen's parades, an old man is described as "ship's boy" to say that he served so classed in the Navy as a boy.

However, when a minor in military employ is considered (historically often far less restrictive then nowadays) too young to be a 'normal' warrior (illegal under present UN rules, but without precise enforceable age limits), he's called boy soldier, regardless whether he's used as an armed fighter or only in logistic or similar functions such as bearer.

Domestic, residential and similar 'personal' attendants[link]

• Bellboy was originally a ship's bell-ringer, later a hotel page.
• Busboy is a rank in restaurants etc. below (head) waiter, fitting for trainees but may be held by ripe adults, even under younger (e.g. better qualified) superiors
• Cabana boy
• Cabin boy
• Hall boy
• Hamam oğlanı "bath boy" (also called Tellak) working in a Turkish bath.
• Houseboy, or often "boy" for short, became a common term for domestic staff, notably non-European natives in the Asian and African colonies, adopted as such in other languages, e.g. in Dutch and French (also in the Belgian colonies).
• Kitchen boy, belows the cook(s); in a large household there may be specific functions, such as spitboy
• Linkboy like linkman meant torch- or other light-bearer
• Page, from the Greek παις pais, again in many languages, already in Hellenistic times παίδες βασιλικοί paides basilikoi 'royal (i.e. court) boys'.

Cultural and religious life[link]

• Altar boy (see above)
• Choir boy designates a boy (always a minor) singer in a choir; here applies a specific physiological, artistically relevant criterion: they remain a musical category of their own (boy soprano, also known as a treble) until their voice 'breaks', during puberty, to join one of the adult male voice registers (countertenor (closest to treble), alto, tenor, baritone, or bass); only the castrato may (not guaranteed) remain a soprano as an adult man; historically the term was designed for all-male (mainly church) choirs, with men with already broken voices (often former choir boys), in modern times it also applies to mixed choirs.

Rural life and professions[link]

• Cowboy originally designated a herdsboy employed as cowherd, but lost the age notion, first retaining the connotation of inferior status, later applying to the whole ranch life culture; by contrast "shepherd's boy" (rather herding sheep or goats, representing less capital) remained restricted to minors.

Commercial and other services[link]

Often the term "boy" describes positions of the trainee type, such as stable boy (a junior stable hand).

• Best boy in a film crew denotes the chief assistant, usually of the gaffer or key grip, next in line to be promoted; an example of a use where the term is traditionally unaltered in crediting female incumbents
• Breaker boys were boys between 8 and 12 years old who worked as coal breakers in U.S. coal mines. The job resulted in a high number of fatal and debilitating injuries and the practice of employing children as coal breakers largely ended by 1920 due to the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee.
• Office boy and copy boy refer to a young(est) employee (i.e. lacking experience), in training and/or performing menial services such as carrying typewritten texts between offices of a newspaper.
• Even into the early 20th century, the British empire systematically employed boy clerks, including a specific rank of boy copyist, recruited by examination (despite the name, requiring schooling) and reserved for candidates aged 15–18, not retained in that rank after the age of 20.

Certain jobs need so little training or formal qualifications that they can easily be performed as student jobs, and thus tend to be filled mostly or exclusively by minors, as it would not pay to employ an adult at or above minimum wage. Thus an equivalent word with the compound man (or similar) may be the rarer one, or even inexistent. Examples include delivery boy, errand boy, messenger boy and various specific terms naming the product to deliver, such as paperboy (closest adult counterpart postman), pizza boy (alongside pizzaman), or to serve, such as a potboy (drinks waiter). In other cases the compound mentions a crucial attribute of his task, e.g. ball boy (more recently also girls) in tennis.

In some cases his small, light body makes a boy a better choice, e.g. as jockey where no weight handicap is in force.

• A nipper originally was a boy send out by an adult (often his own father) as pickpocket, later a boy assistant to various professions such as a carter, still later (recorded since 1859) a boys' age term roughly equal to toddler

Race[link]

Historically, in countries such as the U.S. and South Africa, "boy" was not only a 'neutral' term for domestics but also used as a disparaging racist insult towards men of colour (especially of African descent), recalling their subservient status even after the 20th century legal emancipation (from slavery, evolved to race segregation, viz. Apartheid) and alleged infantility, and many still consider it offensive in that context to this day since it denotes that men of colour (especially of African descent) are less than men.

The use of the term "boy" has not always been used as an insult. As an example, Thomas Branch, an early African-American Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Nyassaland (Malawi) referred to the native students as boys:

There is one way by which we judge many of our present boys to be quite different from some of those who were here long ago: those that are married have their wives here with them, and build their own houses, and all are busy making their gardens. I have told all the boys that if they wished to stay here and learn, those that had wives must bring them. This is having a good effect on them. They stay longer, and are more attentive to their work and their studies.^[1]

Non-function specific analogous terms[link]

Boys, in the strict or a wider sense, are often informally referred to by analogous or metaphorical terms. The literal connotations, which may be ironic or downright pejorative, have often been eroded by common use. Some terms are unisex, with or without (at least historical) preponderance of use for boys:

• Cub, pup(py) and whelp compare boys to the young of predatory animals, the slang tadpole even to that of an amphibian;
• Buck, another animal young, usually refers to a sexually adventurous male youngster
• Loon, originally an (idle) lout, has got -mainly in Scotland- unrelated specific meanings, including boy, simpleton and looney person
• Sprout compares to a plant's young shoots
• References to the boy's generally lighter physique than a man include stripling 'slender youth' and -rather insulting- slang like half-pint or small-fry
• More specifically, shaveling (or in slang shaver) refers to boys' lesser hair growth than men's before - and densification around puberty
• Various terms refer to children's, often especially boys', lack of adult manners (e.g. "snot(ty) nose(d) (kid)") or to often mischievous behavior, e.g. "rascal", also by analogy with animals, e.g. "monkey", "urchin" (as 'prickly' as a hedgehog); "(spoiled) brat" refers to such undiscipline for lack of firm upbringing.
• Furthermore, common boys' names have also been used metonymically to stand for boys and/or men in general, as in 'every Dick and Tom'.

Analogous uses and popular etymology[link]

By analogy "boy" can also refer as an anthropomorphic term to a young male (or any male) of another animal, either in general or species-specific; in the last case it may even have a specific term, notably derived from a boy's name, such as "billy goat" for a 'boy' goat, or tomcat (known since 1809, for any male cat; but just Tom, applied to male kittens, is recorded since c.1303)

Again by analogy "boy" can occasionally even refer to a 'male' object.

Some words contain 'boy' in English by mistake (folk etymology), actually referring to a (near) homophone such as French bois = "wood" (e.g. in "low boy", a type of furniture, and in "tallboy", both furniture and a high glass or goblet).

Similar originally youth-related terms[link]

Boys in art[link]

Many mythological boys have frequently been represented in various arts, e.g. Venus' often mischievous son Cupid, himself a young god of love which he 'inflicts' on humans by shooting his arrows; in some style periods even multiplied as naked little boys called putti.

In religious art, generally adults preponderate (except as extras), with certain marked, stereotypical exceptions such as the infant Jesus or angels which may even act as 'Christianized' putti.

In children's books of English folklore, elves are often portrayed as mischievous little boys who are very small with leaf-shaped ears and blond hair.

In portrait art, and generally in commissioned work (including funeral art), the subjects are usually determined by the wishes of the (adult) client, so minors are often in the minority, yet in wealthy families especially heirs are (re)presented as part of their social positioning in view of future marriage and succession, generally either as mini-adults or stereotypical youth, e.g. at play or in cozy home scenes.

Some artists displayed a clear predeliction for scenes with boys, in certain cases (especially if frequently depicting revealing poses) believed to have to do with a homo-erotic taste, as is believed of the highly respected Old Master Caravaggio, or Henry Scott Tuke who kept producing such works even though the market circa 1900 was rather unappreciative.

In music, boys' voices, before they 'break' being of a soprano register (specifically known as treble) unlike adult men (in a choir usually tenor and bass), have been most sought-after, especially where female voices were considered inappropriate as often in church and certain theatrical music - this even led to the practice of physically trying to prevent their 'angelical' voices ever to break by surgically cutting short the hormonal drive to manhood: for centuries, castrato singers, who coupled adult strength and experience with a treble register, starred in contratenor parts, mainly in operatic styles.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a young boy

• 

  Sir Walter Raleigh and his son, 1602

• 

  Die Söhne des Künstlers Christian Leberecht Vogel

• 

  Die Geschwister an der Ostsee, by Ernst Weise, 1915

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boys

• Boy band
• Boy bishop
• Boi (gender)
• Boy Scouts
• Pederasty

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2009)

• Etymology Online - entry for "boy"
• H. H. Malincrodt, Latijn-Nederlands woordenboek (Latin-Dutch dictionary)
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary
• Buck, Carl Darling (1949). A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-07937-6 (1988 reprint). 

External links[link]

Look up boy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Boyhood Studies, website and journal for the study of boys
• Boyhood Studies Forum, discusses news items, new research
• Historical Boys' Clothing

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Look up band in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Band may refer to:

Clothing, jewelry, and accessories[link]

• Bands (neckwear), two pieces of cloth fitted around the neck as part of formal clothing for clergy, academics, and lawyers
• Bandolier or bandoleer, an ammunition belt
• Belt (clothing)
• Wedding ring or wedding band
• Strap, an elongated flap or ribbon, usually of fabric or leather

Science and technology[link]

• Band (radio), a range of frequencies or wavelengths used in radio transmission and radar
• Rubber band, a short length of rubber and latex formed in the shape of a loop
• Möbius strip or Möbius band, an artifact with interesting topological features
• Band (mathematics), an idempotent semigroup
• Spectral bands, part of the optical spectra of polyatomic systems
• Metals and semiconductors
  • Valence band
  • Conduction band
  • Band gap

Medicine and biology[link]

• Bird ringing, or bird banding, placing a numbered bands of metal on birds' legs for identification
• A group of animals, such as gorillas or coyotes
  • Herd
  • Flocking (behavior)
• Band cell, a type of white blood cell
• Protein band, see Coomassie
• Gastric band, a weight-control measure

Organizations[link]

• Bands (Italian Army irregulars), military units once in the service of the Italian Regio Esercito
• Brazilian broadcast television network Rede Bandeirantes, nicknamed Band or Band Network
• The Band (wrestling), the Total Nonstop Wrestling name for the professional wrestling stable New World Order

Society and government[link]

• Band society, a small group of humans in a simple form of society
• The primary unit of Native Americans in the United States
• Band (First Nations Canada), the primary unit of First Nations Government in Canada

People[link]

• Band (surname)

Places[link]

• Band, Mureş in Romania
• Bánd, a village in Hungary

Music[link]

• Band, a company of musicians—see Musical ensemble
  • Rock band
  • Concert band
  • School band, a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together
  • Marching band, a group of performers that consist of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching (and possibly other movements) with their musical performance
• The Band, a Canadian-American rock and roll group
  • The Band (album), its eponymous album released in 1969

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Band"
• All pages with titles containing "Band"
• Banding (disambiguation)
• Drum and bugle corps (disambiguation)
• Stripe (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Midnight Beast, sometimes abbreviated as TMB, is a British comedy music group from London, perhaps most famous for their YouTube cover-parody of the 2009 single TiK ToK by American pop artist Ke$ha.^[1] The group currently consists of its three founding members, Stefan Abingdon, Dru Wakely and Ashley Horne.

Book[link]

The group released a semi-autographical book titled Book at Us Now on 27 October 2011. The book included interviews with the band members, the history of The Midnight Beast, as well as exposition on the groups videos and songs. The group held book signings around the country in a promotion titled the Book at Us Now Tour.^[2]

Sitcom[link]

In 2011, it was announced that the band would star in its own, self-titled, sitcom, The Midnight Beast. The show is currently set to be broadcast in 2012 by E4.^[3] The series will consist of 6 episodes, and follow fictionalized version of the band members as they attempt to become successful musicians.

Reception[link]

The Midnight Beast have over 290,000 subscribers and a combined 40 million views on their YouTube channel alone, as well as over 300,000 Facebook fans as of September 2011. The group's songs often appear on iTunes music charts,^[4] and their accompanying music videos routinely reach over 1 million views on YouTube. On Christmas Day 2009, the "TiK ToK" parody was featured on the front page of MTV.com,^[5] and the group have made videos in collabaration with BBC Comedy and MTV Rocks.

The group has also garnered praise from artists that they have parodied. Both Ke$ha and Jay Sean have tweeted positive reactions to the group's parody of their respective songs, TiK ToK and Down, with Ke$ha stating "holy. shit. this is better than my version",^[6][7] and Jay Sean posting "Hahha brilliant. Someone should mix this with 'pants on the ground.'"^[8]

The group has also attracted minor controversy with its music. In an online post from February 2011, Metro, a British newspaper, raised issue with the lyrics of "Use Ya Head", a sexual education-themed skit made for the Marie Stopes International charity's Have A Larc organization, which promotes safe sex. The paper cited the lines "One up the bum and it’s no harm done" and "One up the bum and you won’t be a mum", stating that it appeared that the group was suggesting anal sex as a birth control method. It also quoted unnamed critics who mentioned that the video failed to point out that anal sex could still lead to the transmission of STDs.^[9]

Discography[link]

EPs[link]

Singles[link]

"—" denotes a release that did not chart or was not released in that country.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Midnight Beast on Facebook

Chris Moyles
Born	Christopher David Moyles[1] (1974-02-22) 22 February 1974 (age 38)[2] Temple Newsam, Leeds, England
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1990–present
Partner	Ana Boulter (1999–2002) Sophie Waite (2002–2010)

Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) ^[2] is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4.

Born in Leeds, he attended Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds and volunteered to work at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service). He has worked at various radio stations including Radio Luxembourg (under the pseudonym Chris Holmes) and Capital FM. Moyles moved to BBC Radio 1 in 1997 and has remained there ever since, presenting the early breakfast show, a Saturday morning show, the drive time show and currently, the breakfast show. On 7 September 2009 he became Radio 1's longest serving breakfast presenter. Moyles has become famous for his irreverent broadcasting style on Radio 1 and has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including homophobic and sexist accusations, due to statements he has made on the air and in the press. Despite that, Moyles' regular audience figures averages 8 million listeners per annum, and remains one of the more popular presenters on BBC Radio 1.

He has achieved various Radio awards, and has helped raise money for charity by taking part in challenges, aired on T.V on behalf of Comic Relief. He has recorded a parody album and written two autobiographies. He frequently appears on television having appeared on Hotel Babylon, a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep, Top Gear, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, The One Show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show. In 2009 he launched his own show, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night for Channel 4 which is currently in its fifth series.

Career[link]

Pre-Radio 1[link]

Chris Moyles was born on 22 February 1974 in Leeds and was educated at the Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds.^[2][3] While at school, he began his broadcasting career at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service), a voluntary staffed hospital radio station in the West Yorkshire city.

He then started out at local station Aire FM as an assistant for DJ Carl Kingston. During this time, he was also a presenter on Radio Top Shop in the Leeds Briggate branch. After hosting his own Saturday Evening Show on Aire FM (and occasionally serving as a stand-in presenter), he was then employed as a presenter at Radio Luxembourg in 1992, until the station closed.

In 1993, he gained a job at The Pulse of West Yorkshire, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm. He remained there until early 1994 when he was dismissed^[4] for comments made about the station's previous programme controller. Moyles subsequently turned up at Signal 1 in Stoke-on-Trent – again presenting The Evening Bit from 7–10 pm. In 1995 Moyles was heard on the Chiltern Radio Network, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm, before taking on the late show from 10 pm–1 am. This show was simulcast on Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio, Severn Sound and Northants 96.

In 1996, Moyles joined London station Capital FM hosting his weekend show 'The Late Bit', which went out on a Friday & Saturday evening, and covering for other DJs. It was at Capital that Moyles fell out with fellow DJ 'Doctor' Neil Fox. After declining the offer of presenting the breakfast show on rival station Kiss 100,^[5] Moyles joined Radio 1 in July 1997.

Radio 1[link]

Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 97 by SKY magazine and presented his first show on Radio 1 on 28 July 1997, hosting the 4–7 am Early Breakfast show – soon called The Early Bit. In May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and he was styling himself as 'The Saviour Of Early Morning Radio'. Within the year Moyles was promoted to a Saturday breakfast, then Saturday mid-morning slot from 10 am–1 pm. At Radio 1, he has presented most of his shows with David "Comedy Dave" Vitty, who worked behind the scenes at the station prior to Moyles' arrival.

After standing in regularly for Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Moyles's next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the drivetime show from 4–5.45 pm. The show was extended to 3–5.45 pm in February 2001. Moyles has co-presented the show from 1998, with his sidekick.

On 5 January 2004, Moyles started presenting Radio 1's flagship programme The Breakfast Show, switching places with Sara Cox. He had been appointed to increase the ratings for the show and did so, putting on an extra 1,000,000 listeners to the audience in the first quarter of 2004. After a successful first year, Moyles was awarded 'DJ of the Year' by readers of The Sun.

By 2005, Moyles and his team had succeeded in hugely increasing the morning audience, with his programme's audience swelling to 6.5 million. This was coupled with an increase in the overall Radio 1 audience share. With 895,000 listeners in London in the third quarter of 2005, he succeeded in overtaking Johnny Vaughan to take the position of the capital's most listened to youth breakfast show. Moyles's audience rating's continued to increase each week and led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show.

With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, Moyles had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million. On 10 May 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06 million, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time with the station having 10.55 million listeners overall. Moyles again increased his audience to 7.72 million as of 1 May 2008 slightly narrowing the gap between him and Terry Wogan, the current highest rated radio show in the UK. The station's overall listener figure is now over 11 million.

Wikinews has related news: Chris Moyles breaks record for longest running breakfast show on BBC Radio 1

On 12 May 2008 The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show won its second Sony radio gold award for 'best breakfast show'. At this time he was given another half hour on his show going from 7 am–10 am to 6.30 am–10 am.^[6]

On 7 September 2009 Moyles became the longest serving breakfast presenter on Radio 1, breaking the record previously set by Tony Blackburn.^[7]

Wikinews has related news: BBC DJ duo break radio record

In March 2011, Moyles and on-air radio personality Dave Vitty beat the record for the longest continuous Radio 1 show, on Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave for Comic Relief. Between 16 and 18 March they beat both Simon Mayo's 1999 record of 37 hours^[8] and the 'Radio DJ Endurance Marathon (Team)' Guinness World Record by broadcasting for 52 hours for Comic Relief^[9] initially raising £2.4 million,^[10][11] and with an audience of 2.84 million, it was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever.^[12] The event raised a final total of £2,821,831.^{[citation needed]}

On 1 July 2011 it was announced that Moyles will remain within the BBC until at least 2014,^[13] ending speculation that he would move to a commercial rival. This would allow the presenter to reach his 10-year anniversary on The Chris Moyles Show. It is estimated that the deal is worth £1 million.^[14]

The Chris Moyles Show[link]

The Chris Moyles Show is the current BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK, and has been since Chris Moyles became the station's breakfast show presenter on 5 January 2004. From 2004 to 2007, the show was broadcast 6:55–10:00 am each weekday, but since 15 October 2007 it has started from 6:30 am. It is the longest running Radio 1 breakfast show in the station's history. On 1 July 2011 it was announced that Moyles had signed a contract to keep him on the show until 2014 making it a decade on the breakfast show.^[15]

The team[link]

Comedy Dave (Dave Vitty) has worked with Moyles longer than any other team member; and currently is the self appointed "Director of Comedy" for the show. The rest of the team include the show's news reader Dominic Byrne, sports reader Tina Daheley, producer Aled Haydn Jones; Day producer Freya Mehta and assistant producer Matt Fincham. Moyles's friends also contribute to the show such as "Longman" (until 2007) and "Rob DJ". Presenters such as Andi Peters, Davina McCall Keith Chegwin and impressionist Jon Culshaw, contribute, albeit infrequently. Roy Walker appears as "Roy" the voice of the daily quiz show "Car Park Catchphrase".

Features[link]

Car Park Catchphrase 

Two listeners in their cars have to guess a catchphrase answer from an anecdote-style clue.

Tedious Link 

This feature was carried forward from Moyles' afternoon show and is a parody of Jo Whiley's now defunct feature Tenuous Link. Comedy Dave plays one song, first explaining how this song is linked to the last show's feature song with a deliberately ramshackle and vague succession of linking 'facts', some real and some ludicrous.

The Golden Hour 

Main article: The Golden Hour (radio feature)

A well-established feature, previously on Radio 1 from 1973 to 2001. For the first half, records are played that all charted in the UK Singles Chart in a certain year and listeners are invited to guess the year. The second half are random songs chosen by each member of the team.

Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz 

The team play a 5-question pub quiz against each other. The questions are taken from a real pub quiz run the previous evening by one of Chris's friends, Rob DJ, in their mutual home town of Leeds. Running totals of each team member's recent scores are kept and analysed. Listeners are able to play along via SMS, Facebook and Twitter. It is played on the tuesday morning show.

Classical Class

In this feature the team talk over classical music. It was designed to be a relaxing wake up in the morning.

Radio 1's longest show ever[link]

On 28 February 2011, it was announced that Moyles and Vitty would attempt to beat the record for the longest continuous Radio 1 show in aid of Comic Relief. The previous record of 37 hours was set by Simon Mayo in 1999.^[16]

Moyles and Vitty began their record attempt on the morning of 16 March 2011. At the beginning of the show, Moyles announced that they would attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "Radio DJ Endurance Marathon (Team)" and attempt to continuously broadcast for 51 hours 30 minutes.^[17] At 19:30 on 17 March they were joined by Simon Mayo who held the previous record and also revealed that they had raised £1,009,033. Moyles and Vitty were presented with a cake by Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt.^[18][19]

On Friday 18 March 2011 at 08:30 Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave broke the Guinness World Record for the 'Longest Marathon Radio DJ (team)' and by the end of the show (at 10:00), they had hit the 51 and a half hour mark. The duo opted to 'round it off' by going to 10:30 and thus set a new record of 52 hours. In doing, so they raised a final total of £2,406,648 for Comic Relief,^[20] which is an average of £46,282 for each hour they were on air. During the attempt the duo were joined by many celebrity guests including The Wanted, Chipmunk, Jimmy Carr, Craig David, Katy Perry and Ricky Gervais.^[21] The grand total has since increased to £2,821,831 and with an audience of 2.84 million, the event was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever.^[22] 3.8 million people watched on the Radio 1 Website.

Work outside radio[link]

Moyles with Gabby Logan during a campaign to promote life in Leeds

BT Red Nose Climb and Speaking Clock[link]

Moyles was one of a team of celebrities who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief reaching the summit on 7 March 2009.^[23] He was joined by his show's producer, Rachel Mallender and BBC Radio 1 controller, Andy Parfitt. Also on the climb were Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Ben Shephard, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Denise Van Outen and Alesha Dixon. He recorded a parody song around this time to promote the climb, mentioning all the names of the people that were also taking part – it was based on Lily Allen's "The Fear", and was called "(A month off of) The Beer".

From 3 February – 23 March 2009, Moyles was joined by Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl Cole, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating and Fearne Cotton to help raise money for charity by reading the time on the Speaking Clock.^[24]

Voice work in film[link]

Moyles has provided his voice and/or likeness to a number of films and games. His face was used in 24: The Game, and his voice can be heard in the films Wimbledon, War of the Worlds and Robots.^[25][26] In some of these films, his voice was only used for the UK version.

Television presenter[link]

Moyles has branched out his work into television. In 2002, his own Five show, Live With Chris Moyles, ran five shows a week for 13 weeks. Chris was replaced by Christian O'Connell, before the programme was shelved altogether.

He and sidekick Dave Vitty had their own TV show, also entitled The Chris Moyles Show like their current Radio 1 show, which was aired from 1998–99 on the now-defunct UK satellite and cable channel UK Play.

Moyles voiced the fourth and final series of Sky One show The Villa and has occasionally presented Top of the Pops. He has also worked for the Comic Relief and Children in Need charities on their telecasts.

Moyles has presented a number of episodes of Big Brother's Big Mouth. Daily Mirror journalist Rob Leigh once said of his Big Brother's Big Mouth presenting that "Chris Moyles may be Marmite for the ears on radio but never quite nails it on TV, even with his relative star power".^[27] He also presented The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 several times between 2000 and 2002.

On 24 October 2011, The Metro announced that Moyles would be presenting a new dating show, The Love Machine, alongside Stacey Solomon for Sky.^[28] Moyles confirmed this on his radio show that morning.

Chris Moyles Quiz Night[link]

Moyles launched a new show on Channel 4, called Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on 22 March 2009. The show consists of Moyles alongside three other celebrities partaking in a traditional pub-style quiz. The original series had the four competing to win an item that belonged to Moyles but this has since developed into a more traditional quiz with the loser singing karaoke-style at the end of the show.

The opening show received poor viewing figures attracting just 6% of total audience for the timeslot.^[29][30] It was continued for a second series between 26 February and 11 April 2010, a third series following between 1 November and 22 December 2010 and fourth between 15 July and 2 September 2011.^[31] The show is currently in its fifth series.

Other television appearances[link]

Moyles appeared on the ITV show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars and had minor success. He was voted out of the show on 4 June 2006 in the semi-final. Following this appearance, stories in the New Statesman and The Sun both reported that Moyles was looking to relaunch his television career; rumours suggested that he had been offered his own show by ITV. Moyles has spoken of a desire to transfer the format of his radio show to the T.V, but otherwise has thus far stayed clear of a conventional TV format.

Moyles played himself in an episode of the drama Hotel Babylon which aired on 15 February 2007 and appeared on a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep that broadcast on the same day. He has appeared as a guest on numerous British television shows, including the ninth series of Top Gear, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show.

In 2008, Moyles appeared on the Brit Awards to present the award for the best live act, and appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain. He has appeared on Channel 4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack TV programme as well as an appearance as a team captain on the Channel 4 show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong and on 18 July 2008 he appeared on Jimmy Carr's show on Channel 4, 8 out of 10 Cats.

On 23 February 2009, Chris was the guest on BBC One's The One Show to promote the BT Red Nose climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. He appeared again on the show on 26 February 2010 to talk about and promote the second series of Chris Moyles' Quiz Night. In July 2009, he featured in an episode of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC One where he explored his Irish ancestry. He visited Ireland and Belgium, where his great grandfather fought and died in World War One. On the programme Moyles discovered that his last name means bald servant from the Irish "Ó Maolmanach".^[32][33] He also co-presented Children in Need Rocks Manchester in November 2011. Moyles appeared on the quiz show The Million Pound Drop along with Andi Peters in February 2012, they won £25,000 to divide between their chosen charities

Autobiography[link]

Moyles' autobiography, The Gospel according to Chris Moyles: The Story of One Man and His Mouth was released by Ebury Press on 5 October 2006.

On 4 October 2007 a follow-up book Chris Moyles: The Difficult Second Book, published by Ebury Press, was officially released. The Difficult Second Book was released in paperback on 1 May 2008. Stewart Lee, on his own programme Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, commented that the title of the book suggests "a degree of irony and self-awareness largely absent from the text itself" and then went on to deconstruct and mock the book's contents.^[34]

Stage Work[link]

On 16 May 2012 it was announced that Chris Moyles had been cast to play the part of King Herod in an upcoming arena tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar.^[35]

Presenting style[link]

Moyles relies on his team members and audience participation for his show's games and quizzes and for other sources of comedy. He is renowned for his sharp manner, quick temper and put-downs.^[36] It is this approach which most commonly leads to criticism of Moyles. It has also caused him to become involved in numerous controversies related to perceived offensive statements. However, Moyles generally accepts counter-attacks in the same manner and routinely derides himself for being overweight and so forth, often in the lyrics of jingles. Due to his fascination with radio,^[37] Moyles regularly discusses the process of making the show, often spoofing clichéd radio practices. Many of his show's features are homages to or exaggerations of other radio features.

Parody songs[link]

In December 2000, he parodied the Eminem song "Stan" that was No.1 in the charts at the time, with a seasonal Christmas themed variation called "Stanta", instead. It became one of the most popular requested parodies, and was often played more than once during the course of a show.

In October 2004, Moyles and The Chris Moyles Show team replaced U2's "Vertigo" at number one in the UK Official Download Chart with their download-only charity song "Dogz Don't Kill People (Wabbitz Do)", under the name 'Mouldie Lookin' Stain'. The song was a spoof of Goldie Lookin' Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" (itself a spoof rap song) and proceeds went to Comic Relief. At the time of its release, it was the fastest selling download on UK charts.

Moyles has parodied several Kaiser Chiefs songs under the name "The Kaiser Chefs". These include "I Predict A Diet" (Parody of I Predict a Riot) and "Donny" (Parody of Ruby). Chris and Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs (both Leeds United fans) said they had accidentally given Doncaster Rovers fans an unofficial anthem with "Donny" after Doncaster Rovers beat Leeds United 1–0 in the 2008 League One Play Off Final.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Chris organised a parody of England World Cup songs, to ridicule the number of songs there were out at the time. Listener favourite "Jose – The Special One" a parody of "Rosé" by The Feeling, was written on team manager José Mourinho's departure from Chelsea and was banned after Chelsea FC complained to the BBC (although subsequently played repeatedly on his show and on Radio 5 Live). He made a parody of "We Have Got to Zero Baby", a take on Enrique Iglesias's "Hero", which describes how his football team, Leeds United, managed to claw back a 15-point deficit in League One in only 5 games. In November 2007, he used Hoosiers – "Goodbye Mr A" for "Goodbye Mr. M" where he sings about the Ex-England football manager Steve McClaren being sacked.

Often Moyles will pick a track because of the silliness of its lyrics, for instance "Smile" by Lily Allen was parodied by Moyles's invention "Silly Allen", in a song called "Piles" and Natasha Bedingfield's "I Wanna Have Your Babies" written by Comedy Dave and performed in May 2007. In the same month, he performed a parody of Hellogoodbye's hit "Here (In Your Arms)" called "Beer In My Arms" in which he describes how much he really dislikes the song, calling it 'daft'. Moyles also covered Puretone "Addicted to Bass" with "Addicted to Plaice", which covers the subject of being addicted to fish. In September 2007, he performed "Suicidal" a parody of the UK number one Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", in which he talks about how the song makes him feel suicidal and wonders why it reached number one.

Although of 2008, UK's chart no.1 Basshunter was renamed "Chuffhunter" in which he mocks the song and those that would buy it, Kylie Minogue's "Bow Wow Wow" and a re-write of the Estelle song "American Boy", named "Somerset Boy". In the past, he has parodied include Billie Piper's "Honey to the Bee" as "Guinness For Me", All Seeing Eye's "Walk Like a Panther", Will Smith's "Gettin Jiggy Wit It", and McFly's "All About You" as "He Don't Use Shampoo". Moyles has also written Baked Beans, a parody of Same Jeans by The View, and "Lunch in this Pub", originally the Usher single "Love in this Club". One of his recent parodies, "No Hair" – sung by "follicly-challenged" newscaster Dominic Byrne – is a cover of Jordin Sparks's "No Air (ft Chris Brown)".

Another two of Moyles' recent parodies are "Lorry Driver" which is a cover of Britney Spears' song "Womanizer" and "The Boy Does Plenty" by "Adrian Dixon", originally a song by Alesha Dixon, both of which are written by 'Comedy Dave' Vitty.

In March 2009 Moyles released a parody song called "Dreaming of Debbie McGee". The song was about a man who has recurring dreams of the assistant on The Paul Daniels Magic Show. Comedy Dave wrote the song, and Paul Daniels asked for it to be made into an MP3 file after hearing it on air. It was a parody of the Kings of Leon song "Revelry". In April 2009, McGee recorded a reply which was played on air and was a parody of the same song called Dreaming of Moylesy.

Moyles released "Waterproof" in July 2009, a parody of the La Roux song "Bulletproof". This song has an approved record deal to be used on a parody album, should Chris wish to do so.^[38]

Moyles has released an album entitled The Parody Album. Recording began in September 2009,^[39] and the album was released on 23 November^[40]

The official Moyles Parody Album game^[41] entitled Parody Island was released to help promote the album and allow players to hear snippets from his new album

The Chris Moyles Show was credited with the debut of the unofficial England World Cup Song, written and performed by Chico Slimani a parody of his hit single "It's Chico Time" and originally named "It's England Time. Slimani recorded the single after having a 'vision' that England won the 2010 World Cup and that in the celebrations, commentators made reference to his song. The single debuted, Monday 8 February 2010.

Controversies[link]

Moyles has come into conflict with the Broadcasting Standards Commission and Ofcom. These have occurred during his time at both Capital FM and Radio 1. For example, these regulatory bodies upheld complaints when Moyles threatened Dr Fox in October 2002 with the claim that "I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck";^[42] and also in early 2002, when he said "he would take the virginity of Charlotte Church", when she reached sixteen.^[43]

When he first arrived at Radio 1, John Peel took an instant dislike to Moyles and accused him of being a "DLT-in-waiting". Moyles retorted that Peel was a "Kenny Everett-in-waiting, because Kenny Everett’s dead and it’s only a matter of time before John pops his clogs".^[44]

In September 2008, Moyles, along with other British radio presenters, was criticised for on-air promotion of drinking to excess.^[45]

Sexism[link]

In February 2006, Moyles apologised, along with the BBC, after swearing when speaking to a caller live on air. He made the outburst while teasing a mother-of-three from Newcastle during an on-air feature which her children had interrupted. "You've got three kids from some fuckin'..." he blurted out, before apologising profusely for his mistake.^[46]

The BBC issued six apologies, adding that such mistakes could occur during live broadcasts such as Moyles' show. The BBC was later cleared by broadcasting regulator Ofcom over the incident.

In July 2006, communications watchdog Ofcom found Moyles in Breach of rule 1.5 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code Rules for an incident in which he referred to female listeners as "dirty whores". A listener objected to an item in which the presenter discussed people who urinated in the shower. He considered that the presenter’s reference to women who did this as “dirty whores” was unacceptable at this time of the morning.^[47][48]

On 5 June 2008, when former Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown was on the programme,^[49] much to his enjoyment, she consensually let him fondle^[50] both of her breasts live on air, to which he gave a running commentary of the precise topography of each. It arose from his enquiry into whether her breasts had been surgically enhanced.

Pay[link]

Alongside a number of other Radio 1 and Radio 2 presenters, Moyles crossed a strike picketline in 2005. BBC staff were striking over recently announced job cuts.^[51] A report by the BBC Trust on 2 June 2008 revealed that Moyles was paid £630,000 in 2007.^[52] However, Moyles revealed in September 2009 that he took a 20% pay cut three months earlier, quoting the reason "I want to work at the BBC, which is trying to save some of its gazillions".^[53] On 22 September 2010 Moyles spoke out on air about not being paid by the BBC in two months.^[54]

Homophobia[link]

Moyles was accused of homophobia in May 2006, when he rejected a ringtone by saying "I don't want that one, it's gay", live on air. This led to a number of complaints to the BBC. They argued that the use of the word gay in this context was homophobic. The BBC governors said that Moyles was simply keeping up with developments in English usage.

The programme complaints committee said that, "The word 'gay', in addition to being used to mean 'homosexual' or 'carefree', was often now used to mean 'lame' or 'rubbish'. In describing a ringtone as gay, the DJ was conveying that he thought it was 'rubbish' rather than 'homosexual'. Moyles was not being homophobic." The panel acknowledged, however, that this use of the word 'gay' in a derogatory sense could cause offence to some listeners and counselled caution on its use.

Subsequently in June, LGBT charity Stonewall marched with placards demanding the dismissal of Moyles during Europride in London. According to Stonewall, “Chris Moyles is not helping young LGBT people struggling to come out through his comments.”^[55] Stonewall gave Moyles the award of "Bully of the Year" at their annual Stonewall Awards that same year.^[56][57]

Those defending Moyles have noted that Aled Haydn Jones, his show's producer who has worked with Moyles since 2001, is openly gay.^[36] He was quoted in The Guardian by Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill as saying "Yeah, I'm homophobic, I don't like the gays. Sorry, it just does my head in. We have a token gay on the show!"^[58] In his book The Difficult Second Book, Moyles says that he was responding to another article with sarcasm, and was subsequently quoted out of context.

Moyles was censured by Ofcom following eight complaints made after a broadcast on 20 January 2009 in which he told listeners it was the birthday of Will Young and then went on to sing "Evergreen" and "Leave Right Now!" in a high pitched and effeminate voice, changing the lyrics to references to Young's sexuality. Ofcom stated that the language used could have been "interpreted by listeners as promoting and condoning certain negative stereotypes based on sexual orientation" and whilst acknowledging the intention was to be humorous in their opinion it could have been perceived as hostile and pejorative. The media regulator also said in their view that because of the show's breakfast time slot that attracts a young audience it had the potential to encourage children to discriminate against others based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation and ran the risk of being imitated on the playground causing "unnecessary distress".^[59]

Auschwitz[link]

On 20 January 2009, Moyles made comments on his radio show regarding the family history programme Who Do You Think You Are? and the Holocaust. Referring to his trips while filming the programme, Moyles said "I went off to Ireland and other places to film and unlike a lot of the Who Do You Think You Are? shows I didn't go to Auschwitz. Pretty much everyone goes there whether or not they're Jewish. They just seem to pass through there on their way to Florida".^[60] Celebrities featured on Who Do You Think You Are? including Stephen Fry,^[61] Jerry Springer and Natasha Kaplinsky, have traced their family histories back to Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War.^[62] The BBC released a statement: “Anyone who listens to the Chris Moyles Show will know he has an irreverent style. However, we regret that on this occasion his comments were misjudged and we are speaking to Chris and his team about them.”^[63]

N-Dubz behaviour[link]

On 12 January 2010, hip-hop trio N-Dubz appeared on the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1. The show received a text message from a female listener saying that band member Dappy was "vile" and "a little boy with a silly hat" and that N-Dubz were "losers". Dappy secretly copied her phone number from the studio console and sent abusive and threatening text messages to the woman the following day including one telling her she was "gonna die!".^[64] Moyles said of the resulting criticism: "I feel let down by him, I've supported them and said, 'Do you know what, N-Dubz aren't just a bunch of dippy chavs, they're really good.' So for him to go and do something like that is a bit rubbish."^[65]

Personal life[link]

Moyles dated former children's TV presenter Ana Boulter for three years, but the couple split in 2002. The same year he met Sophie Waite, and the couple dated for eight years. The relationship ended in September 2010.^[66]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• The Parody Album (2009) UK Chart #17

Awards and tributes[link]

Moyles has won several Sony Radio Awards: Silver in 1998; Gold in 2006; nominated in 2007: Gold in 2008; Bronze in 2009; Silver in 2010; Bronze in 2011

He was voted "Best DJ" by readers of The Sun newspaper and readers of Loaded magazine.

In 2007 the rugby league team Featherstone Rovers named their ground after him. Traditionally known as Post Office Road, it was renamed via a sponsorship deal as the Chris Moyles Stadium.^[67][68] On 7 July 2007 Moyles appeared as a presenter at the UK leg of Live Earth in Wembley Stadium in London.

In March 2011, Chris Moyles and David Vitty broke the Guinness World Records for Worldwide Longest Marathon Radio DJ (Team). They totalled 52 consecutive hours on air and raised £2,622,421 for Comic Relief

Bibliography[link]

• Moyles, Chris (5 October 2006). The Gospel According to Chris Moyles. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-191417-2. 
• Moyles, Chris (4 October 2007). The Difficult Second Book. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-192242-9. 

References[link]