Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for Turning Red.
Meilin “Mei” Lee and her friends — Miriam, Priya, and Abby — are obsessed with Turning Red boy band 4*Town. Here’s who they are and what real-life boy bands they were influenced by for the film. In Domee Shi’s Turning Red, the Pixar animation Shi co-wrote with Julia Cho, the focus is on Mei’s transition into adolescence. As a young teen, what unites Mei and her friends is their deep love of 4*Town, the five-member group who sings and dances their way into the hearts of thousands.
4*Town — voiced by Jordan Fisher, Finneas O'Connell, Josh Levi, Grayson Villanueva, and Topher Ngo — plays a crucial role in Turning Red’s coming-of-age story. The boy band is also representative of the early aughts, which featured a plethora of musical acts with pop hits that dominated the radio. While there were still a number of boy bands that became a staple of pop culture in the 2010s and beyond — including the Jonas Brothers, One Direction, and BTS — Turning Red’s 4*Town were an homage to the big boy band era in which the film is set. With five members in the group, 4*Town draws its influence from big-name boy bands like Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, both of which were incredibly popular and at the height of their boy band careers in the early 2000s.
Backstreet Boys and N’Sync had a couple of lead singers like 4*Town. They also had a selection of pop hits like “Bye, Bye, Bye” and “I Want it That Way,” which are akin to the Pixar film’s central song in the original soundtrack, “Nobody Like U,” a popular song that Mei and her friends know by heart and sing quite often. Each member of 4*Town has a particular character trait that makes them memorable, which is reflected in the real-life treatment of boy bands that focused on the group as a whole while singling out individual members for their physical features or personality traits. It’s in the vein of how the Spice Girls were each named after how people perceived them: Baby Spice, Posh Spice, etc.
But Backstreet Boys and N’Sync aren’t the only boy bands to inspire Turning Red’s 4*Town. The latter draws inspiration from other musical acts like 98 Degrees and O-Town, which is likely where the “Town” portion of 4*Town came from. And since Turning Red is set in Toronto, another major boy band influence was likely b4-4 (or Before Four), the Toronto-based group that was active from 1999-2004 and had the hit single “Get Down.” It’s possible the “4” in 4*Town is a reference to b4-4. Domee Shi also confirmed that 4*Town member Tae Young is a specific homage to K-pop boy bands that she was into during her time in college. It’s also why fans believe Tae is based on BTS member Jimin.
4*Town doesn’t just make an appearance, but they are integral to the bonds of friendship Mei has forged and to the plot as a whole. Turning Red even includes 4*Town in youthful magazine staples — the film’s “Tween Beat” is obviously a reference to Teen Beat and Tiger Beat. While they are certainly an homage to the boy bands of the 2000s, the film also ensures they have a modern vibe as well, with lyrics like “ride or die” featured in the central song. Suffice it to say there was no shortage of boy bands in the early aughts and Turning Red gets to the heart and spirit of what made their tunes so catchy and why young teens were especially infatuated with them.