Well, there goes my street cred. Hey, are you still here? Then welcome to this random post about 5ive (or Five), who were formed in 1997 at the height of the trend for manufactured pop groups known as ‘boy bands’ and ‘girl bands’. They were aimed at the youngest music fans, who could see their favourites on children’s TV and use their pocket money to buy the latest singles on cassette or CD. The choreography and the carefully-matched looks were just as important as the singing.
By the time I was interested in current music targeted at my age group, the boy bands of the early 90s were already old hat and it wasn’t cool to like Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Take That or East 17. The newest ones on the scene were A1, Another Level, *NSYNC, Westlife and of course 5ive. There was some kind of rivalry between the latter two, like Heaven vs Hell. In white suits, posed on stools, looking angelic, crooning their uplifting ballads, Westlife didn’t appeal to me at all. 5ive, in contrast, dressed in dark baggy clothes, were bursting with energy, shouted about everybody getting up (or was it down?) and projected a bad-boy image. They looked like they were having fun and not taking themselves too seriously. When we first got the internet at home, I remember waiting what seemed like a hundred years for a video – it may have been ‘Slam Dunk (Da Funk)’ – to buffer on the 5ive website. I just watched that one on YouTube and sure, the music and looks are not particularly original, the lyrics aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but it’s a feel-good tune which suggests youthful fun and high-jinks.
5ive released three albums. I had the first and third ones on CD; the second one is on cassette – yes, I still have it. Invincible is a very good album, at least when measured against other 90s boy band fare. The tracks are all different, there are samples, mellow guitars, strings, a couple of ballads, even a cover of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ (the album version is better than the one they released as a single). The best song is ‘Keep On Moving’, which is insanely catchy but also motivational. It was the band’s first number 1 single in the UK, and well deserved I say. The only songs which get the thumbs-down from me are the sinister ‘Don’t Wanna Let You Go’ and the bizarre ‘Mr Z’.
You may suggest that I’m looking at 5ive with my nostalgia glasses on. That’s probably true, as with any music that was the soundtrack to one’s more carefree days. But for some reason, I was thinking about them and decided that they really were superior to the other manufactured bands I remembered. If you don’t agree, I’ll fight you on it.
As with any group, you have to pick a favourite. Ritchie was the prettiest, with bright blue eyes and floppy hair. Sean was quiet and modest. Abs was cheeky and naughty-looking. Scott had the spikiest hair and reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog. My favourite was J, the oldest and the leader of the group. He looked least like a boy and more like a man. He also had an eyebrow ring and a challenging stare. I wouldn’t have admitted to friends that he was my favourite, however, because it was conventional to like the ‘cutest’ boy (usually considered to be either Scott or Ritchie) and not the scariest, most macho-looking one.
5ive split up in 2001 and have reformed a couple of times since then. It seems they are still around but there are only 3 of them in the group.
Readers who haven’t unsubscribed in disgust at my music taste: did you have a favourite ‘boy band’? Were you more into ‘girl bands’? Do you secretly still like some of the music of your pre-teen years?
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