Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men (pronounced boys to men) is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanyá Morris (no relation) and Shawn Stockman since 2003. During the 1990s, Boyz II Men was a quartet with bass singer, Michael McCary, who left the group in 2003 due to health issues that were diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.[2]
For the album by Maskinen, see Boys II Men (album). For other uses, see Boys to Men (disambiguation).
Boyz II Men
The group first saw commercial success in 1991 with the release of their singles "Motownphilly" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," both of which peaked within the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. Their 1992 single, "End of the Road"[3] peaked atop the chart and set a then-record for spending 13 weeks at the position. Boyz II Men later broke this record twice more with the singles "I'll Make Love to You" and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey) which, at 14 and 16 weeks respectively, set records for most weeks at number one. When "On Bended Knee" took the number one spot away from "I'll Make Love to You," Boyz II Men became the third musical act, after the Beatles and Elvis Presley, to replace themselves atop the Billboard Hot 100.[4] These achievements gave Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard magazine's biggest boy band from 1987 to 2012.[5]
Boyz II Men continued to perform as a trio despite McCary's departure. Their latest studio album, Under the Streetlight, was released in 2017.[6] Boyz II Men have received four Grammy Awards.
Style and influence[edit]
Boyz II Men is among the biggest names in a cappella and R&B. With what was called "crossover appeal", Boyz II Men found themselves at the vanguard of the 1990s movement to take R&B back into the mainstream, where it had been back in the 1970s. Their use of hip-hop beats in combination with R&B was not unique, but it was Boyz II Men's enormous success with mainstream audiences in "putting harmony over the hip-hop tracks" that helped usher in the near-total dominance of the R&B genre on the pop charts in the 2000s and 2010s.[36] On January 5, 2012, Boyz II Men were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[37] They were featured on the first episode of the 2021 Netflix series This Is Pop, called "The Boyz II Men Effect", about their impact on the boy band scene in the 1990s.[38]
