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O-Town was a boy band formed from the first series of the MTV-produced reality television series Making The Band, in 2000. The members of the band were Jacob Underwood, Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick, and Dan Miller. After releasing two albums near the end of boy band fad of the early 2000s, O-Town has no future plans to perform concerts or release further albums.

History

In 1999, Lou Pearlman, the man responsible for the formation of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, embarked on a nationwide talent search, cutting 1,800 auditions in eight cities down to 25 young men, and eventually eight finalists. These eight young men would, as the premise for a new ABC reality show, compete for five spots in Pearlman's newest boy band creation, to be signed to his record label, Transcontinental Records. Midway through the first season, five of the eight were chosen. These five were Underwood, Angel, Estrada, Penick, and a young man by the name of Ikaika Kahoano. Several episodes later, however, Kahoano was forced to choose between the band and his family: he chose his family. Selecting from the group of 25 semi-finalists, the remaining four members of the band chose Miller to be Kahoano's replacement. With the final five members of O-Town in place, Making the Band tracked the development and struggles of the new band.

Brief existence

The ratings of Making the Band were strong enough to warrant second and third seasons, which made O-Town the first cast of a reality TV show to remain the same on a second (and third) season. The additional seasons saw the return of O-Town and continued to track their development as a pop group, following tours, performances, and other seminal events in the band's history. Such events included the development of their second CD, O2, their transition to a new record label, Clive Davis' J Records, and an ongoing struggle to "prove themselves" as legitimate artists. The second and third seasons of Making the Band was broadcast on MTV, instead of its original network, ABC.

As a band, O-Town enjoyed only mild success. Their first album, the self-titled O-Town, boosted by the publicity of the television series, sold more than two million copies. They also recorded the theme for the Pikachu's Rescue Adventure that was tagged onto Pokémon 2000. The novelty of the band soon wore off, however, and the band never really found the market acceptance they sought; the boy band niche was already largely filled by competitors *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. Making matters even more difficult was the fact that O-Town burst on to the scene when boy bands and other types of bubble gum pop were beginning to decline and lose their influence. Sales of O-Town's second album, O2, were below expectations, and J Records dropped the band from the label.

Dissolution

O-Town understood that gaining a foothold in the music industry would be a challenge, considering the transparent nature of the band's formation. Making the Band had the unfortunate effect of emphasizing the extent to which bands like O-Town were packaged and corporately controlled, facets of the music industry that listeners were not attracted to. At the same time, however, the television show also illustrated the humanity of the band members, showing their struggle for market acceptance and group identity. Though the group released several songs, O-Town was never able to reach the popularity attained by other boy bands of the time. (Ironically, the Backstreet Boys' shift to a more rock'n'roll based sound on their 2005 comeback album Never Gone closely mimics the transition from pop to rock music on O-Town's unsuccessful O2 album.)

Though fans tried to organize campaigns to get O-Town signed to a new label, these efforts were met with little success. As a result, the group disbanded late in 2003. Since their disbandment, each member of the group has gone on to work on their own solo careers. Most notably, Ashley Angel was signed to Universal's Blackground Records and given his own reality show with MTV. Ashley's debut solo album was released to much hoopla, but unfortunately, did not achieve solid sales numbers. Trevor Penick, now professionally known as "Tre Scott", has been signed to Trilogy Productions, working with such industry top producers as Eddie Galan and Andrew Lane. Erik-Michael Estrada has recently begun working on his solo career, while Jacob Underwood and Dan Miller have had minimal success the past 2 years on their indie projects.

International recognition

Nearly three years after O-Town ceased to exist, Japanese group w-inds. covered O-Town's "All or Nothing", calling it "Kazauta" or "Wind Poem". "Kazauta" was released on May 25, 2006 on w-inds.'s single TRIAL. While the melody was retained, the lyrics were completely reworked by Takamitsu Shimazaki, and are predominantly in Japanese with a less repetitive chorus. In 2006, Irish boyband Westlife, also covered the song "All or Nothing" on their eighth studio album "The Love Album"

Discography

Albums

• O-Town (2001) #5 US, #7 UK (Double Platinum) {3 Million worldwide}
• O2 (2002) #28 US (Gold in U.S.) {2.5 Million worldwide}

Singles

Trivia

• O-Town's first single, "Liquid Dreams," was the first single to reach #1 on the Billboard singles sales chart without making the Airplay chart. The single managed to peak at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

See also

• List of bands named after places

External links

• Ashley-Angel.DE (GERMAN Fansite)
• O-Town official website (no longer updated)
• Inside O-Town (fansite, still updated)
• O-Town Web (fansite, still updated)
• Sony-BMG Sony BMG official website
• J Records
• Transcontinental Records

• Boy bands
• Participants in American reality television series