Brockhampton: The Hardest Working Boyband in the Industry
On the 5th of December 2019, Spotify released Spotify Wrapped which tells you who were your artists of the year and what songs were your songs of the year. However, this year, Spotify included your artist of the decade. For me, it was Brockhampton, which is funny considering the fact that Brockhampton has not even been active for a decade yet.
The boyband Brockhampton was formed in 2015 in San Marcos, Texas, after the group’s leader, Kevin Abstract (also known as Ian Simpson), made a post to the “KanyeToThe” fan forum saying “Anyone wanna make a band?” They write, produce, sing, and release all of their own music and make all of their own music videos. The boyband was originally fourteen members including vocalists, producers, graphic designers, and others. However, in 2018, band member Ameer Vann, who was the face of the albums for their Saturation Trilogy, was kicked out of the band for allegations of sexual misconduct. Therefore, the band now has thirteen members. There are now six singers: Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, Joba, bearface, Dom, and Merlyn Woods. The creative team is also part of the band, and consists of: HK, Ashlan Grey, and Robert Ontenient. The production team is made up of Romil Hemnani, Jabari Manwa, and Kiko Merely. The final member of Brockhampton is Jon Nunes, the band’s manager.
Brockhampton released their debut mixtape titled All American Trash in 2016, which introduced the band to the music industry. The following year, 2017, would end up being the busiest year for the boyband where they would write, produce, and release three studio length albums. In January 2017, Brockhampton announced that they would be the subject of the new series on Viceland called American Boyband which first aired on June 8 The day after the shows premiere, they released their album Saturation, which would be the first album of what would be known as the Saturation Trilogy. Then, Brockhampton released Saturation II on August 25, followed by the release of Saturation III on December 15. In between the release of Saturation II and III, Brockhampton was invited by Tyler the Creator to perform at his music festival Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival which can be seen as a major stepping stone for the band's career.
Although the three albums were released in the same year, it is clear that the band put a lot of thought into how they would structure each album of the trilogy. They all commence with a high energy track and conclude with a ballad sung by only bearface. In addition, all of the song titles are written in all caps. Saturation I contains 17 tracks and all of them are composed of four-letter words, except for the last song which has five letters. Saturation II contains 16 tracks and all of them are composed of five-letter words, except for the last song which has six letters. Finally, Saturation III has 15 songs, all of them composed of six-letter words, except for the last song which has four letters. The last song on Saturation III, “TEAM” not only connects the trilogy in the song title length, but the music sample at the end of the song leads back into “HEAT” the opening track on Saturation. The fluid transition from the end of “TEAM” into “HEAT” is consistent throughout. Each track of every single Brockhampton album seamlessly transitions into the next track.
However, the band’s quick rise to fame didn’t come without its issues with Ameer Vann’s allegations. After this scandal, Brockhampton took a brief hiatus but that didn’t last all that long. The band then performed at Coachella in 2018 as well as had their late-night television debut appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Between those two appearances, on March 30, 2018, Brockhampton had announced that they had signed a record deal with RCA Records. Over the month of July band released three singles “1999 Wildfire”, “1998 Truman”, and “1997 Diana” followed by a full-length album title iridescence which they released on September 21 that they recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England. The band has continued to make enormous strides in their career by receiving their first award nomination ever for the “Best International Group” at the BRIT Awards in January 2019. Then, on August 23, Brockhampton released their latest album GINGER, which was immediately followed by their new tour announcement for the “Heaven Belongs to You Tour” . This was my first time finally being able to see the band live. In addition, they made their first appearance on The Ellen Show and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on September 6. They also made their second appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
While the world has seen other boybands like One Direction, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC, there is not a single boyband in the industry like Brockhampton. Brockhampton is successfully redefining the term of what it means to be a boyband in today’s society through their music that decussates a variety of social issues such as misogyny, rape culture, mental health, and being a gay black man in America. If you haven’t heard of Brockhampton, I highly suggest you give them a listen.
