JLS have grabbed the music headlines this week by announcing that this will be their final year together, but something about the split seems more than a little fishy to me.
While groups split up all the time, the timing of this declaration has got me thinking that this could be one of the most cynical and pre-planned separations in recent memory. It’s not unusual to announce that you’re going to be closing up shop in the next couple of months, but telling the world your plans nearly half a year before you actually are looking to put them into action just smacks a little sour to me.
While we all knew that this year’s ten anniversary tour was going to be Girls Aloud’s last, at least they didn’t officially announce the breakup of the band until the backend of the tour. Heck, even announcing it a month or two before the tour would have been OK, but doing it this far in advance just makes it all seem a little contrived.
That they handily enough have also detailed a greatest hits album called ‘Goodbye’ to announce at the same time just rubs me up the wrong way once more. Sure, tell us about your sentimentally titled album at another date, but giving us details on the very same day you announce your split seems a little false to me.
While it might end up being true that the guys just didn’t want to keep the news secret from their fans for any longer and threw the label’s plans into disarray, I can’t help but feel this was a decision not made with the purest of intentions in mind.
After comparatively weak sales for their most recent singles and album (although 99% of all musicians would bite your hand off for a top three LP) this might be just another evil marketing scheme to make sure the tickets fly off the shelves.
Of course there will be a reunion tour in another five years to mark a decade of JLS. That much is a certainty following the massive success of other reunion tours that have taken place recently. Girls Aloud’s series of shows was a sell out and that smaller groups like Steps have also had a sell-out tour shows that the market is there for the taking.
What do you think about the JLS split news? Let us know in the comments section.
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