were the eagles a boy band?

[chaim]

I was in a sarcastic mood when I wrote that. Not serious.

[buffyfan145]

LOL That's the problem with the internet you can never tell.

[chaim]

LOL That's the problem with the internet you can never tell.

So true. I should have put a "" smiley in there. It's different if people know that side of me well, but I have never been sarcastic here so of course people are going to take me seriously!

[UndertheWire]

It's always funny when people try to apply labels retrospectively. There are quite a few low-budget british "documentaries" covering subjects like "boy bands", "The Single", "The Album" and some of the groups who were successful in the 60s, like Gerry and the Pacemakers (bigger than The Beatles, at one point), Herman's Hermits and The Hollies.

One thing I learned that in the early sixties, it was normal practice for the producer to choose the song, and have the track laid down my session musicians and only bring in the group to add vocals, even when the group played their instruments for live shows. The target audience was teenage girls because they bought the singles and it helped if the boys were cute. The Beatles started in that kind of environment (though possibly they always played their instruments for the recordings) but soon evolved and moved away from making singles for teenage girls. However, for a few years, they were the cute boys, with matching outfits and haircuts, with personalities being marketed to young girls just as much as any of the newer boy bands. Even if The Beatles weren't a boy band, they influenced later boy bands.

The Monkees were put together as a fictional Beatle-like band and yet they are listed as a "boy band". I'd put them in a category along with The Partridge Family and S-Club 7 rather than with Take That and One Direction.

The Eagles, though inspired by The Beatles, never went for that "Beatles" marketing. Maybe it was considered, but by the early 70s, album sales were more important and the market was slightly older and more male than for singles. Certainly, as JCL pointed out, their lifestyles, looks and lyrics didn't fit the safe, family-friendly model. Leave that to Donny Osmond and David Cassidy who were marketed relentlessly to young teenage girls.

No, the Eagles were not a boy band, though it amuses me to think of them as one. Based on his story of seeing The Beatles, and his nickname of "Teen King", my guess is that Glenn would have quite liked the idea at one point but the restrictions would have chaffed. Can you imagine a boy band singing "Chug All Night"?

[Freypower]

I don't agree that the Eagles were 'teen idols' either.

[UndertheWire]

There's Glenn's famous quote - "Everybody had to look good, sing good, play good and write good" - that suggests that they may have started out with the intention of being teen idols but they didn't follow through. Cameron Crowe put it as "They craved the spotlight, saw it coming, got scared, ran from it, all that stuff."

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I have to agree with UTW's post. The target audience for the Eagles was not just teenage girls, although they certainly weren't excluded. The Eagles certainly did not have the wholesome image of a boy band. It was their rebellious looks and attitude in their music that appealed to a much wider audience. To me, it mostly boils down to the songs. I don't consider hardly any of the songs in the Eagles' 70s catalog as 'love' songs - even songs like Peaceful Easy Feeling, The Best of My Love, and I Can't Tell You Why all have a very jaded view of love and/or sex. I mean I can't think of any 70s Eagles song that a couple would choose as 'their' song to be played at their wedding. Also, I don't think hardly any boy bands wrote their own songs like the Eagles. As UTW pointed out, most boy bands had their songs pre-selected for them.

So, to me, these are the things that distinguish the Eagles from what we commonly consider a boy band. My guess is that Glenn and Don would not have considered it a compliment for anyone to bestow that labels upon them at any point during the band's existence.

[Brooke]

Have to agree with you, Dreamer. Glenn and Don would not have been amused with the 'boy band' title!

ETA: And I never considered them one either!

[OntheBorder74]

It reminds me of what Gram made of the eagles after the first album, he called them 'bubblegum'. but while there's some upbeat nature to PEF and TIE there has always been dark songs like Witchy Woman, Bitter Creek etc

I never really considered them a boy band in any shape or form. They also didnt do the image thing that the beatles did and obviously even early 60s beatles werent a boy band.

I once thought there was a comparison in that all members sang evenly in the band, at least on the debut record the same way each member of a boy band is spotlighted with their own individual lead vocals as well as group harmonies. To me when all band members sing in a band that's possibly the closest to a boy band format, but it would have to be all singers singin a line or two in the same song ala 'I Want it That Way' by Backstreet Boys. Also the Eagles weren't that clean cut to be boy band members as they rarely did interviews or magazine layouts.


PS
I wonder do the rock band Kiss with their costumes, choreography, larger than life personas count as a boy band, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss didnt always play on some of the later songs due to being 'out of action' shall we say. Just a funny thought particularly due to the heavy merchandising and they have pretty young fans due to the spectacle of the show and the characters

[Freypower]

It reminds me of what Gram made of the eagles after the first album, he called them 'bubblegum'. but while there's some upbeat nature to PEF and TIE there has always been dark songs like Witchy Woman, Bitter Creek etc

I never really considered them a boy band in any shape or form. They also didnt do the image thing that the beatles did and obviously even early 60s beatles werent a boy band.

I once thought there was a comparison in that all members sang evenly in the band, at least on the debut record the same way each member of a boy band is spotlighted with their own individual lead vocals as well as group harmonies. To me when all band members sing in a band that's possibly the closest to a boy band format, but it would have to be all singers singin a line or two in the same song ala 'I Want it That Way' by Backstreet Boys. Also the Eagles weren't that clean cut to be boy band members as they rarely did interviews or magazine layouts.


PS
I wonder do the rock band Kiss with their costumes, choreography, larger than life personas count as a boy band, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss didnt always play on some of the later songs due to being 'out of action' shall we say. Just a funny thought particularly due to the heavy merchandising and they have pretty young fans due to the spectacle of the show and the characters

Boy bands have very clean cut images. Kiss do not.