What happened to the 11 most successful domestic boy bands from the 1990s: "Tender May", "Hands Up!"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Despite the fact that the term "boy band" is clearly foreign, the phenomenon itself cannot be called purely American, because we also have something to cover - the first boyish groups were created in the Soviet Union and were wildly popular. Their creators acted on intuition and were the founders of this musical movement in Russia and the CIS countries, taking into account the mentality and other features of the culture.

Boy bands are not just a male band. It is unlikely that anyone will decide to call "Lube" or DDT a boy band, because for this it is important to focus on a female audience. This, perhaps, is the main requirement for the group - the love and interest of the female audience, and of a certain age category. Needless to say, under such harsh conditions, a boy band is a temporary phenomenon, because women's interest is a fickle thing, and youth and beauty quickly pass. For some artists, performing in boy groups was a good start for an independent career, other yesterday's female idols have remained forgotten.

Tender May

This group not only became the most popular male group in the history of the USSR, but had a tremendous impact on the entire pop culture of a huge country, forcing us to look at pop songs from a completely different, progressive point of view. And the Soviet listener really liked this. Of course, the popular songs "White Roses" or "Pink Evening" cannot even be compared with modern songs related to pop culture, but at that time it was already a serious step forward in terms of mass audience coverage, especially youth.

In 1986, a production center was created in the boarding school for orphans (as it was already called by contemporaries, based on the tasks performed by him) Andrei Razin. In fact, it was a vocal circle for boys, which Yuri Shatunov also attended. It was Yura's face that became the personification of the formation of boy bands in Russia, but despite the fact that the producer tried in every possible way to emphasize that the project was based not on Shatunov, but on his name, after the first moved to Germany, the group ceased to exist.

Shatunov moved back to Russia and even performs to this day, but it is still clear that as "Tender May" could not be without Yura, so he cannot be without a group. Or maybe those days are just gone.

Na-na

Another boy band, although at that time there simply did not exist such a concept, rather a musical group or a vocal and instrumental ensemble, was created on purpose. Bari Alibasov was looking for talented guys who would not only sing well, but also know how to move, and also looked great.

By the way, Na-na was originally not a male group, since Marina Khlebnikova sang in its first composition, but she did not solo for a long time and literally a few months later she left the group, so Na-na became a boy band. It was this format that came in handy, and the performers were extremely successful. It is unlikely that at that time in the USSR there was at least one girl who did not know the names: Zherebkin, Asimov, Levkin and Politov. By the way, their producer forbade them to create families and advertise relationships with girls, so that the interest of the fans did not disappear.

Nanais together with girls' hearts conquered the pop Olympus, repeatedly becoming the winners of various music competitions. By the way, the group still exists, even if it is not so in demand, and it will not work to call it a "boy band" in the usual format, but for representatives of their era they are still very close.

Ivanushki International

Ivanushki is the first boy band in the Russian format, and they, in fact, differ from their “brothers”, both Russian and Western. And not only because guys of different types - red-haired and funny Andrei Grigoriev-Appolonov, brutal and pumped up Kirill Andreev, cute and romantic Igor Sorin, but also because each of them was singled out as a person and an artist, even the manner of their singing is different. from a friend, which is not typical for bands.

The group, created by Igor Matvienko, fell in love with not only young girls, their hits have become a symbol of the generation and are perceived with a bang even now. The group exists to this day, despite the fact that the composition has changed somewhat. Igor Sorin, who died early, was replaced by a similar type of Oleg Yakovlev, but he too died suddenly. Now, the charismatic Kirill Turichenko acts as the third soloist Ivanushki, who has already acquired his own army of fans, since he also has no interest in charm and talent.

Hands up

There were only two guys in this group, and their types cannot be called very attractive, but in terms of popularity they managed to surpass many boy bands with prettier soloists. Uncomplicated texts and simple rhythms turned out to be so close to a huge audience that they became hits one by one, but what, many of them are still in demand today.

The wild popularity turned out to be a difficult pregnancy for the guys, besides, what to hide, the roles in the group were distributed unevenly, most of the work was done by Sergey Zhukov, who was the most popular. In the 2000s, the group broke up, Alexey Potekhin left it, and Zhukov began performing separately under the Hands Up brand. Sergei Zhukov, by the way, is one of the few artists who grew out of a boy band and is still a sought-after artist, while not significantly changing his creative concept.

Diskoteka Avaria

These guys initially tore all the templates and made it clear that they are not like everyone else and do not at all strive to please everyone without exception. It was this challenge that they threw from the stage, not hesitating to drink beer there, use profanity, and in which case they shouted "you hesitated!" Their songs became an excellent accompaniment to parties, and the composition "New Year" became an integral part of the holiday.

In the early 2000s, their lead singer “fat DJ” Oleg Zhukov perishes, this seriously affects the group's creativity, gangster calls from the stage “drink beer!” No longer sound, the group's music becomes more restrained, but does not lose its original sound. Later, Nikolai Timofeev left the group, and now a girl is playing in the group, so the group can be safely deleted, if not from the accounts, then from the number of boy bands.

Prime Minister

Despite the fact that the group was formed from attractive young guys, it was unlikely that young girls should have become its main listeners. The lyrics are not quite ordinary and simple, the performers also played excellent musical instruments - violins and clarinet.

The guys represented the country at Eurovision and managed to enter the top ten, but this did not bring them serious success. Evgeny Fridlyanda, the producer of the group, eventually terminated the contracts with the soloists, leaving the brand name for himself. After long litigation, the original lineup of the group could not prove their right to the name of the group "Prime Minister", for some time they continued to perform under the name "PM", and the producer recruited a new group of guys, even matching them to the types of previous performers. But such a substitution did not please the fans, the popularity of the group has noticeably decreased.

Roots

The sensational and very popular at that time project "Star Factory", judging by its coverage, really had to select the best of the best, and therefore the group "Roots", which included the finalists of the project, predicted a greater future. In addition, each of the guys was already known to the public and had his own army of fans. But, alas, this did not happen. The first album of the group was grandiose, it contained 20 compositions, many of which, by the time the album was released, were hits. However, the second album was the last. He positioned each member separately, presenting their solo songs. However, the group nominally exists now, although it includes only Kabanov and Berdnikov, who are already pulling the prefix "boys".

Beasts

Roma Bilyk positions himself as a rock performer, however, in his work there was a period when his songs about love and relationships between a guy and a girl really fell on the soul of young quivering creatures. It was at that time that there was a mass hysteria for the "Beasts" group among girls 15-25 years old, which rarely happens with rock bands, in principle.

However, this was the case. And who cares if it was a rock band with a boy band raid or vice versa, but the group still exists. Although now it definitely cannot be called a boy group and it's not even the age of the performers. Now Bilyk's work has become much more difficult and not so cheerful, it is not surprising - a person in his fifties.

Tea for Two

This is the rare case when performers grew out of a boy band (although in this case it was a duo) and continued their solo careers. And it turned out for both. Stas Kostyushkin and Denis Klyaver created the Tea Together group back in 1994. For almost two decades they sang together, it was during this period that they both found their images in the form of brutal macho, which they still successfully support. In 2012, the group broke up, simply having outlived itself. Denis and Stas are both sought-after artists and hit singers.

Smash

The union of "dark" and "light" is a classic technique in boy bands. The two handsome men sang a duet for no less than 6 years, however, the group broke up, despite the fact that it was successful. Sergey Lazarev immediately began a successful solo career, managed to go to Eurovision and become one of the most sought-after artists in the domestic show business.

One of the reasons for the collapse of the group was called the "bad habits" of Vlad Topalov, he safely got rid of them and is now an exemplary family man, occasionally speaks, but he is still far from Lazarev's success. The guys have resumed communication and are friends with families.

Bis

The group, consisting of Bikbaev and Sokolovsky, is often called the successors of Smash, they appeared immediately after their disintegration and clearly carried the same messages as Lazarev and Topalov. However, the group lasted even less - only three years.

Vlad Sokolovsky went into a solo career, however, during this period, he became more famous for his divorce than for creativity. But Bikbaev decided to start producing and try himself in the theater. Not many artists, being at the peak of fame, are ready for the fact that sooner or later it will pass. Not many people manage to stay afloat and continue their creative careers with honor, but truly talented people always find a way not only to prove themselves, but also to make money. The soloists who were at the origin of famous pop groups are still successful people today..