NKOTB...

New Kids On The Block, also known by the diminutive NKOTB, is an American group formed in Boston in the mid-1980s and made up of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood. A group that can boast of having sold no less than 80 million records around the world.

The group was born thanks to Maurice Starr, who created a few years earlier what is considered today as the first precursor group of all Boys Bands namely New Edition.

A first eponymous album was released in 1986. An album which was to have some success but which was unable to produce any major hit, failure in part due to the too syrupy sound of the titles contained in the latter. Starr was not discouraged, however, and sent the group in the USA on the club and bar crawls.

A new album "Hangin‘ tough "was released two years later in 1988 and its fate would be very different. A completely revised sound and a change in the look of the members will completely change the situation. A first Single "Please don’t go girl" was released the same year and met with mixed success. So much so that the Columbia Records label is sincerely thinking about ending the band's career prematurely.

But that’s without counting on the providential help of a Florida-based radio station that will continue to broadcast the title on repeat. Suddenly, Columbia Records completely reviewed its plans and decided to boost the promotion of the title throughout the country. A promotional campaign that will allow the title to hit the mark against all odds.

Starr manages to make the group appear in the most popular musical shows of the moment, allowing a rise in notoriety of the most notorious. And it is the music channel MTV which will allow the group to take off in a definitive and dazzling way when it starts to broadcast in a loop the title "You got it (The right stuff)", title which will become the first mega hit of the group at the planetary level.

The following year, the same album will continue to produce mega-hit after mega-hit with the Singles "I'll be loving you (Forever)", "Hangin 'tough" and to a lesser extent "Cover girl". Big year 1989 with the release and the mega success of another Single "Didn’t I (Blow your mind this time)", taken from their first album !

Colossal success rewarded the following year with 2 American Music Awards, the first in the category "Best album of the year" and the second in the category "Best group of the year".

A year 1990 which saw them start the year as one of the biggest phenomena of the moment in the USA. An incredible success confirmed and amplified by the release of their new album "Step by step", album which will be even stronger than its predecessor ! In particular with the Single of the same name and which will remain as the biggest success of all their discography. Followed by little "Tonight" and "Let’s try it again". The album will ultimately sell over 20 million copies. In the process, the group will even begin a crazy tour of more than 200 concerts.

The group is also becoming a real cash machine with the release of an incredible number of products bearing the image of the group such as picnic boxes, T-shirts, dolls, in particular. They will even be entitled to their cartoon !

From 1991, and the icing on the cake, they became the highest paid artists in the United States, ahead of big names such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna and other Bill Cosby ! Year that will see no release of new album, except a compilation of remixed tracks. Remixed titles such as "Games", "Call it what you want" and "Baby, I believe in you", 3 titles which will experience a nice run in the Charts.

But the group’s enormous success arouses more and more jealousy and a certain Gregory McPherson accuses them of exclusively playing back during their stage performances and of not being the real singers. The group will file a defamation complaint and McPherson will ultimately withdraw his allegations.

But the case left its mark. And the band is starting to go out of fashion, especially with the massive influx of Gangsta Rap and Grunge. The release of the new album "Face the music" in 1994 clearly shows the beginning of the erosion that the group is undergoing. And even if the album is a success, this success is out of proportion to that of "Step by step". The album will painfully produce 2 low-profile hits which are "If you go away" and "Dirty dawg".

A failure from which the group will not recover, which will separate shortly after.

Which will not prevent them from returning a little over 10 years later and showing that they have lost none of their talent, especially with the production of the albums "The block" in 2008 and "10" in 2013 ...

To discover or rediscover...

Discography (among others ...) :

80s Decade :

Be my girl 1986
Stop it girl 1986
Please don't go girl 1988
You got it (The right stuff) 1988
I’ll be loving you (Forever) 1989
Hangin’ tough 1989
Cover girl 1989
Didn’t I (Blow your mind) 1989
This one’s for the children 1989
My favorite girl 1989

90s Decade :

Step by step 1990
Valentine girl 1990
Tonight 1990
Let’s try it again 1990
Games 1991
Call it what you want 1991
Baby, I believe in you 1991
If you go away 1991
Dirty dawg 1994
Never let you go 1994

2000s Decade :

Summertime 2008
Single 2008
Dirty dancing 2008
2 in the morning 2009

2010s Decade :

Don't turn out the lights 2011
Remix (I like the) 2013
I need a melody 2014
One more night 2017
Boys in the band (Boy band anthem) 2019
80s baby 2019

2020s Decade :

House party 2020
Bring back the time 2022

Tracks :

1986 ... a first title which goes somewhat unnoticed but which immediately sets the trend : there is talent in this group, it is undeniable. And the rest will prove it in a brilliant way !

1986 ... for the brilliant sequel, we will have to wait a little longer. But this year 1986 will at least have had the merit of making talk of the group. Isn't that the main thing ?

1988 ... two years have passed and the group has grown, matured and evolved in a good way. Well, the baby cadum side is still omnipresent and we will have to wait a little longer to see them enter the Big League ...

1988 ... there was no need to wait long, here comes the first global mega hit. A dazzling takeoff that will quickly make them one of the biggest phenomena of the moment. HU-GE !

1989 ... after a year 1988 which saw them hatch in a spectacular way, the year 1989 will propel them to the top of glory and fame. In particular thanks to this Intimist title which allows them to display a most formidable musical versatility. The competition had better watch out !

1989 ... a decidedly exceptional year 1989 with a plethora of mega planetary hits. The group is on an incredible dynamic which has only just begun !

1989 ... the machine is now perfectly oiled, looks, choreography, nothing is left to chance. The group becomes the PHENOMENON of the moment !

1989 ... they will line up no less than 5 mega hits that year, a real feat. Not to mention that with each performance, the crowd, and especially the girls, become totally hysterical. Have they found the miracle recipe ? It could well be !

1989 ... fifth and last mega hit of the year. Will they manage to maintain such a pace, not sure. But the rest still promises to be once again HUGE ...

1989...in an ocean of top and mega hits, this title will go somewhat unnoticed. Why, how, sometimes you shouldn't try to understand...

1990 ... change of year, change of decade and peak of the group. He is simply signing here one of his most emblematic titles. MAS-TER-FUL !

1990 ... few titles will go 'through' but it will happen to them all the same. And even those who will not know the favors of the public are far from demerit ...

1990 ... 1989 was an exceptional vintage for the group, the 1990 vintage will come close to it. Nothing and no one seems to be able to stop this momentum of incredible success. At least for now ...

1990 ... the year of ballads. Premium level ballads that show one level of inspiration among the best of the moment. All good little guys !

1991 ... the years go by and look the same. For the moment, everything smiles on these 5 little youngsters who collect hits as they collect conquests. When it's going, everything's fine !

1991 ... as much as 1990 was the year of ballads, 1991 will be the year of Dance. A most beneficial alternation that allows the group to stay in the leading pack with disconcerting ease ...

1991 ... the exception that proves the rule. Return to Intimist mode for a song that works perfectly once again. Too strong little guys !

1991 ... all in all, the year will have been split into 2. The first half will have been 100 % Dance, the second 100 % 'get out the handkerchiefs'. You have to please your female audience ...

1994 ... big air hole after 4 years on the top of the world. A rather violent end of reign and typical of what will happen to most of all the Boysband that will follow. A 'shooting star' phenomenon that will become widespread ...

1994 ... the last hit of the decade and almost the last hit at all. The programmed end of an incredible adventure which will have opened a door to a good number of groups who will want to resemble them later and who will not necessarily know such a brilliant fate ...

2008 ... while we thought the group was definitely lost body and soul, here he is reborn from its ashes in this year 2008. An unexpected rebirth and which sees them return to the front of the stage in an unexpected way...

2008 ... of course they will never find again the incredible level of success encountered at the end of the 80s, but they are far from being ridiculous, that's for sure !

2008 ... a year that sees them at their best, it is clear. Who would have believed it, 14 years after putting away the gloves ?

2009 ... an adventure that starts afresh. Since the public is back and taking an interest in them again, the group thinks that everything is possible again ...

2011 ... and here they are proudly entering the 2010 decade. Even if the 2010 decade will be a little more complicated to manage than expected, as they do not yet know, they necessarily continue to believe in it ...

2013 ... the comeback of the late 2000s made them think that everything was now possible again. Which unfortunately will not be the case ...

2014 ... yet the group does everything he can to stick to the latest musical trends of the moment. It starts from a good feeling but will not be enough to keep them afloat ...

2017 ... they in any case take obvious pleasure in continuing the adventure. We do not really know what they are running now but they know it anyway and that's the main thing !

2019 ... a decade in which they will have really struggled at least in the Charts. Because for the rest, the group will have succeeded in producing titles of more than certain quality. It's already that...

2019...what a pleasure to see all these old glories of the 80s in top form almost 30 years later. Who would have thought that possible...

2020...and here they are, starting their 5th decade, incredible but true. Certainly the best years are far behind but you have to know that with them nothing is ever finished. When is the next title...