In 2002, boy band Busted predicted in their hit “Year 3000” that the music scene would be taken over by boy bands by the turn of the fourth millennium. At the rate that boy bands are evolving now, they may be right.

These bands were first brought to the world in 1959 when anti-rock-and-roll forces tried to tame the rockstars encouraging rebellion. The music industry introduced new innocent public figures as a way to appease the people.

“This was a period of time that was called ‘teen heartthrob,’” media teacher Mike Zito said. “All the same looking guys were adored by girls in middle school who would put these boys’ pictures in their lockers.” Many of these boys were from bands like the Beatles and the Monkees, and these bands took the world by storm.

Not much has changed since then.

Gym teacher Nicole Ross said that in her middle school days the girls were just as crazy about bands like *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. She and her friends would thumb through the pages of music magazines searching for the posters of their favorite boy band crushes and then hang them on the walls of their bedrooms.

English teacher Mary Katherine Hinman also considered herself a complete boy band fanatic. When she was seven years-old, she and her cousin were obsessed with boy band Hanson and went to see them live in concert. “We still feel bad for dragging our dads into a sea of screaming elementary school girls,” Hinman said.

The boy band fad now has even more traction as time goes on. Since fans are now able to watch their bands’ every move over social media and have their songs at the tip of their fingers, there’s more of a fan-member connection than ever before.

Despite their ages, many Staples students, such as Kaela O’Kelly ’15, still consider themselves to be fanatics. O’Kelly, who is an avid One Direction fan, attended their concert this past summer, followed them on every social media platform and waited hours in the heat just to get a selfie with lead singer Harry Styles. She considered this day to be “the best day of her life.”

A former One Direction fan, Maialie Fitzpatrick ’16, has moved on from her fan-girl days but claims that girls fall in love with boy bands because of their appeal. “Girls think they’re older, cuter and funnier than any other guy in middle school or high school,” Fitzpatrick said.

The next big boy band is already on a non-stop train to stardom. Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer are adored by many, including Elaine Wehmhoff ’16.

“Their personality and expression on stage out-did anyone I have ever seen in concert before,” Wehmhoff said after seeing them live this summer. “They were able to bounce ideas off of one another like no other single artist can do.”

For over sixty years now, boy bands have been dominating the charts and stealing hearts. While many find their music to be sappy or clichè, others live for the experience.

There’s a reason they still exist today and why they will never disappear. “They sell records, they sell shirts and they sell everything,” Zito said. “There’s a place for them in the world: they belong in the hearts of teenage girls.”