Boy Band Slash

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Synonyms: boyband slash, BBS
See also: Popslash, Bandslash, Music RPF
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On its face, Boy Band Slash aka BBS is slash fanfic written about a boy band, any boy band. However, the term was more commonly used in the early 2000s to describe what became known as Popslash, an umbrella fandom that included the two most popular American boy bands at the time (NSYNC and Backstreet Boys) and associated acts. For example, see the boy band slash page at Citizens Against Bad Slash. To be fair, the terms were not exact equivalents as Popslash included acts that weren't boybands, and "boy band slash" technically included any boyband active at that point, just that NSYNC and BSB were the ones everyone was interested in.

The Fanfiction Glossary (2002) entry for BBS:[1]

Boy Band Slash, ie. NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, etc. Yes, it exists, and there's a lot of it. See also slash and RPS.

The term appears to be less common in online fandom in the 2010s. On the AO3, which entered open beta in late 2009, there are no tags for boyband slash, and usage of "bbs" is slang for "babies". The only reference to "boyband slash" is in a Beatles story backdated to 2003.[2] Similarly, on Tumblr there are very few uses of "boyband slash", and apart from the account name boyband-slash-fanfictions, most are references to the late 90s/early 00s fandom. Japanese and Korean boybands have their own terms (Jpop and Kpop respectively), and more recent English-speaking boybands with major fanfic activity appear to have little crossover interest with other boybands--for example, One Direction and Jonas Brothers are each associated with non-boyband musical acts and television and/or radio fandoms.

References

  1. ^ www.subreality.com/glossary/terms.htm (Wayback Machine 2002 copy)
  2. ^ Boyband by jmtorres