Typically, each member of the group will have some distinguishing feature and be portrayed as having a particular personality stereotype - such as "the baby", "the bad boy", "the nice boy", but this device is not limited to boy bands.
I would argue that the specific practice (picking members and marketing them to a personality sterotype so as to attract the broadest possible audience of preteen girls) *is*, whilst maybe not limited to boy bands, is far more identifiably used with these groups (and girl bands) than with any other type of pop groups. Who is the bad boy in, say Radiohead?? --Robert Merkel
I was guilty of making the same snide remarks in the original article - I know sniping at boy bands is fun and an easy target, but it's not NPOV. --Robert Merkel
By the way, has anybody got a link for Just 5, the polish boy band mentioned in the main article? It sparked my curiosity now :) --Robert Merkel