Fatoned

Whenever I'm putting together a birthday post is search back to my previous posts for  birthdays on that date.  Partly, it's to decide who to feature and to see what images I have used.  Although I settled on featuring model Diego Barrueco for my birthday post for January 28th, it was also Joey Fatone's 42nd birthday and when looking back, I came upon the image below of NSYNC.

I had such a crush on Justin Timberlake in the late 90's when NYSNC was on the rise and loved any shot of the boy band with any hint of Timberlake skin, especially his lickalicious stomach in view.   It was clear as time went on, the group, or their management, were not as comfortable with the guys showing skin in their promotional images, and most of the shirtless shots were from their first few years together.

Thankfully, when NYSYC ended, Timerblake again chose to show a fair amount of skin in the early days of launching his solo career.  It had me thinking that in America, we still like to pretend boy bands, and especially their imagery, is geared towards prepubescent teen age girls.  Although young girls certainly make up the bulk of the boy band fans, in other parts of the world, the bands and their management seem more open about aiming to a more expansive fan base.

Take That was one of the fist groups I remember discovering, not initially from their music, but the skin they showed in their videos and promotional images.  I never became a huge fan of the group, but the images did lead me to check out and sample their music.

Take That

When I first got the net in the late 90's, it was the uncensored version of Do What You Like that had me lusting over 2 (well, maybe 3) members of the UK based boy band.  The unedited video had their butts on full display for their fans, and would be fans like myself.

When it comes to selling sex and skin, even with boy bands with members in their early to mid-teens, sex and skin are apart of the package.  Many groups, for the most part, UK or European based bands, give more than a flash of stomach ala Timberlake in NSYNC, but use nudity, well... implied nudity, to increase their fans and sales.

Emblem3

Flashing a bit of skin almost always gets a band a flash of attention, an image in a magazine, or a spot on the news.  It isn't however, an indicator of success.  If you check out the images below, some of the bands you may have heard of, but not all had the talent to rise to the level of interest in the skin they flashed to promote it. 

Shinhwa

Lawson

Billiam

Blue

A1

Mcfly

Boyzone

Fatoned!