ABSTRACT
For the teenage girl, the major attraction was the boy group, Take That. Formed in September 1990, the group – Howard Donaldson, Robbie Williams, Jason Orange, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen – released their first number one single, 'Pray', in July 1993 and achieved eight no.1 singles over their five-year career. Their performance style, especially in their early videos, was characterised by dance routines, staged in specifically constructed studio spaces with an emphasis on choreographed unison timing. In their first video Do What You Like (dir. Ro Newton and Angie Smith),
the boys dance in leather jackets and lycra cycling shorts. At intervals, they also appear naked, as they lie on the studio floor while having their butts wiped by a female model with a mop. Although the scene set by the video has sexual connotations ... the smiling and jumping of the boys during the dancing produces an overall feeling of good clean fun which is more innocently playful than seriously sexual.2
