A Love Letter to Big Time Rush, The Best Boy Band in History (Seriously)
And no, I’m not kidding — even better than the Beatles. The voice of our grandparents’ generation may have been the first but who else but Big Time Rush can say that they made the boy band cool again? That they paved the way for One Direction, The Wanted, 5 Seconds of Summer, and BTS? That they trended on every social media platform and news site after announcing their 2021 reunion shows eight years after breaking up?
Sure, maybe I’m biased. The long history of the boy band — foreshadowed in the 40s with doo-wop music, officially beginning in the 50s with The Beatles, gaining new momentum in the 90s with Boyz II Men and Backstreet Boys — predates me by six decades, so what would I know?
Yet every time the boy band trends, the thing I’ve always found most interesting is that the label has never carried a positive connotation, mostly because its basic concept is baked in artificiality and control. Image and conforming to the trends of their time is everything, sometimes more than the music itself, which is written and arranged by an outside producer. The boys don’t play their own instruments, don’t come from backgrounds of musical expertise, and all they sing about is love to appeal to their mostly teen girl fanbase (which, of course, makes the band look cheap and tacky because nobody can stand women enjoying things).
When Big Time Rush came onto the scene in 2009, they seemed to check all these boxes, besides the fact the Kendall and James played guitar and piano, respectively. They donned the latest fashion trends of Abercrombie tees, vests, and, for some reason, fedoras to channel the sweet, nice boy look, the kind you’d want to take home to your parents; half sported Justin Bieber haircuts; and together, sang R&B ballads and pop-rock songs that made my nine-year-old self swoon.
And with the Nickelodeon show that mimicked The Monkees from the 60s, their success was practically made. Their origin story, not too dissimilar from the real version of events, was carefully crafted to mark their humble beginnings and inspire everyday people as four hockey players from Middle-of-Nowhere, Minnesota. The episodes were engineered for kids just so, complete with wacky situations, odd but somehow fitting sound effects, and, at the end of the day, just four guys being best friends and following their dreams.
And boy, did it work. To this day, they’re one of the longest-running live-action series in Nickelodeon’s forty four-year history alongside iCarly. The band was able to star in their own full-length film, parodying and covering music from The Beatles in Big Time Movie (2012), and two of their three albums appeared on multiple Billboard lists.
Of course, at nine years old, I didn’t care about all that. I’d just sit in front of the TV every week to watch the newest episode, and when it featured new music, I illegally downloaded the single using YouTube to MP3 software. In school, I claimed myself a “Kendall Girl” and tore their full-size perforated posters for my wall out of the middle of Tiger Beat. Overnight, Big Time Rush had become the stereotypical boy band sensation.
But here’s the thing — following the disbandment of Boyzone and *NSYNC in the late 90s and early 2000s, boy bands had been out of style for almost a decade. You could argue that The Jonas Brothers did it first in 2008 but without BTR, there wouldn’t have been the subsequent boy band explosion — The Wanted in 2009, One Direction in 2010, 5SOS in 2011, or BTS in 2013. Music analysts both then and now agree: Big Time Rush singlehandedly brought boy bands back into the mainstream.
When their music is genuinely good, it’s a distinction that they’ve long since earned. Sure, it may not be all that groundbreaking but I wouldn’t be the person I am today without “Boyfriend” or “Any Kind of Guy” or “Count on You (ft. Jordin Sparks).” Every song, especially on their first two albums, is catchy, danceable, and, frankly, a bop. From the time of their inception, Big Time Rush created a timeless pop and R&B discography that, eight years later, still goes viral on Twitter and TikTok to make original fans nostalgic and reach new listeners.
Even their show managed to be funny, heartwarming, and entertaining at the same time. Whereas Disney’s Jonas ultimately failed — due in part to the fact that none of the brothers actually wanted to do it — Big Time Rush drew in millions of viewers, exploring still-relevant issues of identity, love, and pressure under growing fame, even demystifying the concept of a boy band as a whole. Some aspects may be outdated now, especially what they were dressed in, but when all four seasons dropped on Netflix this past March, that didn’t stop the show from trending on the streaming service’s Top 10 and every social media platform.
Still, success or not, I’ll never be embarrassed to name Big Time Rush as one of my favorite boy bands, even after all these years.
After they disbanded in 2013, it was one of my biggest regrets that I was never able to see the band live in concert. I never got to dress in the outfit that would attract Kendall’s attention (a.k.a. a tie-dye shirt, plaid shorts, and matching slip-on Vans, probably) or make a sign declaring my love for all the members. But this December, even though I may be too old now to see teen idols from my childhood performing live, I hope you find me at their concert in the front row (though my bank account may think differently).