Thankfully there is now a trend towards the likes of 5SOS, All Time Low etc - rock/post-punk bands who write their own songs and play all instruments. Taking my daughter to see ATL at Wembley in March and tickets (about 50,000 I think) pretty much sold out on the day of release.
depends, there's a difference between bands manufactured for a TV show and those like the Beatles formed more organically from friends and neighbours. Back in my day... puts on rose-tinted spectacles... there was horror that the Monkees just seemed to have been put together by an entrepreneur putting an ad in the paper. Now that's more like normal, though most of them aren't as good as the Monkees turned out to be.
Zakly, so even within a so called sugary pop boyband there can be quality talent.
Annoys me slightly when people are so quick to laugh off these groups and singers when in fact they do exactly what they say on the tin- make great pop ditties.