For boy-band lovers who lived through the ’90s, we can’t help but chuckle and roll our eyes at the so-called boy bands around today—either branded by Disney or somehow arbitrarily associated with Simon Cowell. Let’s be honest: The ’90s was the decade of the boy band.

But even before the days of *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Hanson, there was a group of kids from Boston who truly initiated the Boy Band movement. In the late ’80s, New Kids on the Block was the biggest group of heartthrobs around, topping major artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson, and selling out arenas across the country and overseas.

In Nikki Van Noy’s new authorized biography, New Kids on the Block: Five Brothers and a Million Sisters, Jordan and Jon Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Joe McIntyre, and Danny Wood confess that, in spite of their international success, they have been and always will be loyal to their hometown.

Here are five reasons why NKOTB will be forever Boston’s boy band (excerpts from Five Brothers and a Million Sisters):

1. The guys were local celebrities way before they were international popstars.

Jon remembers, “We were Boston quasi-celebrities because we were always doing talent shows, and everyone knew Maurice [Starr].” There were moments when the guys started to feel as though they were making progress. Danny says, “When you see the crowd reaction, and it’s an all-black crowd, and there’s five white boys up there, you start to think, ‘Maybe we got something.’”

Maurice Starr is a Boston-based music producer who assembled the boy band and wrote some of the band’s best hits—“Step by Step,” “Hangin’ Tough,” and “Cover Girl.” Starr was named Billboard’s Songwriter of The Year in 1989. Not bad for a guy who started producing in a studio out of his house in Roxbury, eh?

Read full article on BostonMagazine.com.