When the Texan group Brockhampton first made an impact on public consciousness in 2016 with the mixtape All-American Trash, their decision to describe themselves as a boyband caused widespread confusion. Here was an edgy, multiracial rap collective who were releasing polemical songs about inequality, gender rights, homosexuality and social alienation, electing to share a categorisation of music with… well, at the most cringe-making end of the spectrum, hapless supper-club crooners Westlife. Seriously?

As a descriptive term, boyband has rarely been used in a complimentary way. For one thing, it implies a degree of manufacture and manipulation. Pop history is littered with examples of teenage males being brought together by gimlet-eyed managers and labels, given a makeover and an often entirely fictitious backstory, and thrown in at the deep end. Most of them duly sink, never to be heard from again.

For those that stay afloat, however, the rewards can be stupendous. All five members of One Direction were multimillionaires by the time the band went on hiatus, while the fines arising from dodgy tax dealings by several members of Take That barely dented their vast fortunes. Bros, Busted, JLS, Backstreet Boys, New Kids On The Block, Boyz II Men, NSYNC, The Wanted, Westlife and, further back, New Edition, the Bay City Rollers and The Monkees – in each case, mass adulation and bulging bank balances compensated for the whiff of naffness that arguably hangs around boybands more noxiously than it does any other pop genre.

Ah, I hear you say, but The Beatles were a boyband, weren’t they? No, and yes. They wrote their own material, and slipped – personally and artistically – the leash their manager Mr Brian Epstein initially restrained them with, while their one encounter with true naffness was when, by now a solo artist, Sir Paul McCartney wrote “We All Stand Together” (aka The Frog Chorus). Yet the extent to which merchandise drove their success, especially in North America and the Far East, was remarkably prophetic. As was the stark delineation between, and canny promotion of, their four distinct personalities. Consider how difficult it is now to break a guitar band now. In the age of social media, personality (and therefore, marketability) is king. How many members of Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, The 1975 and Razorlight can you actually name?

That’s not a question fans of the K-pop boyband BTS would stumble over. When looking for a key reason why boybands are currently enjoying a resurgence, the role of social media is pivotal. It allows the boybands to project their personalities, habits, foibles, fears and dreams in an often real-time, hit-refresh online diary, which fans interact with, swoon over and gossip about. The music is secondary. Clicks are as important as hits.

This month, the people who pull the strings behind BTS are teasing the line-up of a new boyband TXT. The management team that looks after Little Mix and Mr Olly Murs is in the process of auditioning for a new venture it hopes will equal the success enjoyed by another of its acts, the boyband 5 Seconds Of Summer. Mr Simon Cowell is promoting his young five-piece Pretty Much. Why Don’t We’s debut album was a Top 10 hit in America last year.

As The X Factor fades, major labels have ignored the questionable track record of the show’s winners, and concentrated instead on its extraordinary success with groups. They want a part of the action, and boybands are currently where that action is at. Meanwhile, old war horses such as Take That, Bros, Backstreet Boys, Busted and – hello again – Westlife continue to tour and/or release new music. Naff? Unquestionably, in many cases. Ubiquitous? It would seem so. Unstoppable? Given that, in 2019, the term boyband no longer serves as an insult, the answer would appear to be yes.

The men featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown