Five

Five, sometimes stylised as 5ive, are an English boy band formed in London in 1997, put together by the same management team behind the Spice Girls to compete in the crowded late-1990s pop market. The classic lineup — Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson, Jason Brown and Abz Love — stood apart from softer boy bands through a rougher, more aggressive image built on hip-hop and rock inflected pop, gym-honed choreography and a defiantly laddish attitude.

Their sound blended Europop production with rap verses, guitar riffs and R&B vocal runs, giving them a harder edge than most of their contemporaries. Breakthrough singles such as «Slam Dunk (Da Funk)» and «Everybody Get Up» established this style, while «When the Lights Go Out» and a cover of Queens «We Will Rock You» pushed them into the American market and international charts.

Across the late 1990s and early 2000s Five racked up multiple UK top ten hits and sold tens of millions of records before splitting in 2001. They have reunited in various configurations since, including for televised nostalgia projects, remaining a fixture of the British boy band revival circuit and a reference point for the era's pop-rap crossover sound.