Do you remember them, they sold millions records in the 90's...
The last biggest and successfull Motown band...
Their first album was 9x platinum, their second reached to 12x millions albums...


They have many #1 hits...

Today nobody cares of them...

They fell off hard...

Because everything they did sounded the same, and when the style passed out of favor, so did they.

VoicesCarry said:

EXACTLY.

after the 1st (big-selling) album, BIIM must have figured "hey, we'll ride this horse til it dies!"..
& they did.

the SAME formulatic ballads.. from what I've heard, 90% of their songs are ballads.. & among those, they all basically sound like "I'll make love to you"-
with or without that 1 guy (Michael?) who does his deep-voiced "hey baby, I love you" rap or his "hey baby, I'm really sorry" rap.


it's 1 thing to do a certain type of song well
(& to know you do it well)
but it's another thing to WEAR THAT STYLE OUT,
to the point where you pigeonhole yourself in that style & people only see you as being able to do that type of song.

The public caught on to the fact that Boyz II Men followed up "End Of The Road" with "End Of The Road", "End Of The Road", "End Of The Road", and "End Of The Road" -- albeit retitled.

VoicesCarry said:

Exactly! Boyz II Men were not good at reinventing themselves at all.

Sad but true.

Wanya had one of, if not the single most annoying singing manner. Watching him convulse in their videos as he poured his "soul" into his singing was kinda painful.

RipHer2Shreds said:

"Ay-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye....."

VoicesCarry said:

The bouncing convulsion head singing motion had got played out. Darn, its a shame that we don't have any imagery.
[Edited 5/28/05 16:27pm]

Shame they decided on mainly ballads after their first album. But u know why that is don't ya? (uptempo died as newjack did in 1993)

"under pressure" "motownphilly" "sympin" are new jack stompers, thanx to dallis austin. Get there first.


"motownphilly back again, doing a lil' east coast swing".....
[Edited 5/28/05 16:46pm]

Actually, the TRUE killer of B2M was the BAD BOY image was coming into vogue and the females were into THUGS & GANGSTAS all of a sudden after the onslaught of Gangsta Rap. There were groups still doing ballads like B2M, it's just that they had their shirts off, tattooed-up, and had sagging pants (See Jagged Edge, Jodeci, etc.) and that was where R&B was headed. So, true to the adage: Nice guys DO finish last.

NeoSoulScribe said:

In addition to the Thug Male Groups, you had groups like Silk which really put them and whole lot others to shame. The market was over saturated with Male Groups.

NeoSoulScribe said:

I don't think that's altogether true. Jodeci started taking off around 1991, and II, Boyz II Mean's biggest album, came out in 1994.

RipHer2Shreds said:

But by the mid 90s, Gangsta was in full effect and that was when B2M started to go down. Jodeci, seeing this trend, got rougher and tougher with their image around the mid 90s.

NeoSoulScribe said:

But it didn't do them any good. Forever My Lady, their 1991 album, was certified platinum three times. Diary of a Mad Band, released in 1994, was twice platinum. I just think BIIM's production and vocal approach got really stale. Oh, and walking canes were oh so 1992.


I don't doubt that the popularity of "gangsta rap" had something to do with it, but people will always fall for a crap sappy ballad. They're just picky about whose crap sappy ballad they'll fall for, and the shelf life for that kinda syrup isn't too long.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Exactly. So since the Thug movement was on the rise, females wanted to hear that sappy love song from the tattooed thug over the nice guy. The bad boy image sells.

Good call on the Jodeci trend.. part of Jodeci's marketing was to be the anti-Boyz II Men image.

NeoSoulScribe said:

While that could be true, what I'm saying is this; it wasn't the case with Jodeci and Boyz II Men. They both came out around the same time, but BIIM's sales increased between their first and second album, and Jodeci's decreased. Their level of popularity never eclipsed that of BIIM.

CinisterCee said:

Yup!

RipHer2Shreds said:

Right, and all I'm saying is Jodeci set the trend for the bad boy groups which eventually took hold of the R&B world, thus forcing B2M to fade out of popularity.

i actually liked the "full cirlce" cd. it came out in 2002. it's hard to come back when the masses consider you as someone that has fallen off.

RipHer2Shreds said:

i agree! jessica simpson goes into convulsions at times too.

k7i2m3 said:

Lawd, that non-singing broad needs to sit her horse looking self down.
[Edited 5/29/05 20:55pm]

RipHer2Shreds said:

Actually, Michael McCrary had a good reason for walking with a cane; he has a congenital spinal condition which made it hard for him to walk. The whole thug with a cane image came a lot later with Snoop Dogg and his Don Juan pimpin' playa stance.

I remember when 112 first came out. Their initial image was very much in the Boyz II Men mold, but when the gangsta music blew up, their image (and music) followed suit.

728huey said:

True.

You know a group is the hottest around when theres a big collab with a great rapper on a hot joint. Boyz II Men's version was Hey Luver with LL Cool J. LL's hot record to show that he still had it, and Boyz II Men on it cause they were the hottest group out. I look at the video to that song and think, dam, its a shame that cats dont stay on top 4 ever.
[Edited 5/30/05 6:11am]

threat said:

Yeah, the Hey Lover was the shit though. I must say.