A Short History Of Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls is a pop rock band formed in 2005 in Massachusetts, United States. Within such a very short span of time, the band has gained popularity seldom reached so quickly. Their self-titled debut album was released just a year after the band was formed.

The band members include Martin Bennett Johnson, Paul Charles DiGiovanni, Bryan Francis Donahue, and John Joseph Keefe.

In 2005, Martin Johnson wrote some songs that he planned to record. He went out to recruit some new band members. He first recruited John Keefe who plays the drums and Bryan Donahue for bass guitar. It was John Keefe who recruited Paul DiGiovanni to play lead guitar for the new band. It was then that they decided to call themselves Boys Like Girls. The band merch of the group started to pop out of retail stores as their popularity grew.

The band released their self-titled album which resulted to the following hit singles: “Hero/Heroine”, “The Great Escape”, and “Thunder”. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) not long after has certified it as a gold record album. The band then got their first taste of series of concerts across the country through the assistance of Matt Galle and Matt Squire, booking agent and producer respectively.

Of the two Boys Like Girls albums, Love Drunk is notable because the songs were recorded in two different locations: Vancouver and New York City. Each location has its own group of producers and technicians resulting to two different musical arrangements and styles of the selection. The song, “Two Is Better Than One” was a collaboration with Taylor Swift. Other songs from the album are “Love Drunk”, “She’s Got a Boyfriend Now”, and “Heart Heart Heartbreak”.

The Love Drunk album is said to be a mixture of pop rock with slightly heavy use of electronic sound. It was heavily promoted online with several leaks of the song spread around the web. The band had used social networking sites to promote the then new album and also leaked a 30-minute long preview of the songs in the album on YouTube.

Boys Like Girls’ Music Style

The band members themselves claim that their musical style is a combination of many influences. Some of these are pop rock, funk, contemporary, and alternative rock. The mixture of which surely gives the exciting sound of their music.

Just by listening to their drum and guitar works one can truly get their punk rock influence. But when it comes to the voice, it can be quite a different matter. Their lead vocalist, Martin Johnson can be considered to have a tenor quality of a voice which he also use to change into falsettos based on some of the songs of the band. These actually result to the band being said to be not just a punk rock or pop rock band.

It has only been a few years since the band was formed and they have already released a couple of albums. While they have yet to release a third album, Boys Like Girls is doing more of touring and promotion in the United States and the United Kingdom. Boys Like Girls merch demand is also on the rise, testament to the band’s popularity.