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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.