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O-Town was an American 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 late 1990's and early 2000s, the group disbanded in 2003. Some of their songs remain popular as cover tunes by other groups, and one of the members, Ashley Angel, has gone on to a successful solo career on Broadway.
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 were broadcast on MTV, instead of the original network, ABC.
Despite the popularity of the television show, O-Town as a band enjoyed only temporary success. Their first album, the self-titled O-Town, boosted by the publicity of the television series, sold more than two million copies. Their 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.
The band also recorded the theme ("Comin' to the Rescue") for the Pikachu's Rescue Adventure that was tagged onto Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and the song "One Heart" for the movie soundtrack.
However, the novelty of the band soon wore off, and they 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 onto the scene when boy bands and other types of bubblegum 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, and the members attempted to move on to solo careers. The most successful of the group has been Ashley Angel, who signed on to Universal's Blackground Records, and was also given his own reality show with MTV, There and Back. Ashley's debut solo album was released in 2006 to much publicity, but unfortunately, did not achieve solid sales numbers. In January 2007, he started playing the lead character, Link, in a Broadway production of Hairspray. Trevor Penick, now professionally known as "Tre Scott", has been signed to Trilogy Productions, working with such industry top producers as Eddie Galan and Drew Lane. The other band members have had minimal success with their own indie projects.
Covers
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' single for the song "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. The American punk band Fake ID also covered "All or Nothing" in an upbeat, pop-punk fashion for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop.
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