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{{More citations needed|date=September 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox album
| name = The Boy Bands Have Won
| type = studio
| artist = [[Chumbawamba]]
| cover = TheBoyBandsHaveWon.jpg
| alt =
| released = 3 March 2008
| recorded = 2007
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = [[Folk music|Folk]]
| length = 49:32
| label = [[No Masters]], [[Westpark Music|Westpark]]
| producer =
| prev_title = [[Get on with It]]
| prev_year = 2006
| next_title = [[ABCDEFG (album)|ABCDEFG]]
| next_year = 2010
}}
{{Music ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r1341019|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic review]</ref>
}}

'''''The Boy Bands Have Won'''''{{efn|Full title: '''''The Boy Bands Have Won, and All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether from Lack of Ideas or from Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to 'Guard' Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won'''''.}} is the thirteenth studio album by British music group [[Chumbawamba]], released in 2008.<ref>[http://www.chumba.com/news.html Chumbwamba's Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013060748/http://www.chumba.com/news.html |date=13 October 2008 }}</ref> Its full title contains 156 words (865 characters), and holds the [[Guinness World Record]] for the longest album title, beating Soulwax's ''[[Most of the Remixes]]''{{'}} 552-character-long title {{as of|lc=1|2021|September}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/74213-longest-title-of-a-music-album/|title=Longest title of a music album|website=Guinness World Records|date=3 March 2008 |language=en-GB|access-date=2021-02-15}}</ref>

==Background==
The album continues the band's move into politically and socially aware folk music. Themes addressed on this album include suicide bombers, [[Philip Larkin]], social networking websites, surviving a firing squad, evolution, and the pains of the workplace.

The album was recorded by the five-piece line-up of [[Jude Abbott]], [[Lou Watts]], [[Boff Whalley]], Neil Ferguson, and Phil "Ron" Moody and features guest appearances by several other artists.

The album's full title (decapitalized) reads:{{bq|The boy bands have won, and all the copyists and the tribute bands and the TV talent show producers have won, if we allow our culture to be shaped by mimicry, whether from lack of ideas or from exaggerated respect. You should never try to freeze culture. What you can do is recycle that culture. Take your older brother's hand-me-down jacket and re-style it, re-fashion it to the point where it becomes your own. But don't just regurgitate creative history, or hold art and music and literature as fixed, untouchable and kept under glass. The people who try to 'guard' any particular form of music are, like the copyists and manufactured bands, doing it the worst disservice, because the only thing that you can do to music that will damage it is not change it, not make it your own. Because then it dies, then it's over, then it's done, and the boy bands have won.}}

==Track listing==
All tracks written, arranged, and produced by [[Chumbawamba]] except where noted.
{{Track listing
| extra_column = Notes
| total_length = 48:41
| title1 = When an Old Man Dies
| extra1 =
| length1 = 0:54
| title2 = Add Me
| extra2 = Featuring the Charlie Cake Marching Band
| length2 = 3:27
| title3 = Words Can Save Us
| extra3 =
| length3 = 1:52
| title4 = Hull or Hell
| extra4 = With vocals by [[Oysterband]]
| length4 = 3:31
| title5 = [[El Fusilado]]
| extra5 = With vocals by Ray Hearne and [[Coope Boyes and Simpson]]
| length5 = 2:32
| title6 = Unpindownable
| extra6 =
| length6 = 1:22
| title7 = I Wish That They'd Sack Me
| extra7 = Traditional; arrangement and lyrics by Chumbawamba
| length7 = 4:10
| title8 = Word Bomber
| extra8 = With vocals by [[Roy Bailey (folk singer)|Roy Bailey]]
| length8 = 2:13
| title9 = All Fur Coat & No Knickers
| extra9 =
| length9 = 2:12
| title10 = Fine Line
| extra10 =
| length10 = 0:39
| title11 = Lord Bateman's Motorbike
| extra11 =
| length11 = 3:34
| title12 = A Fine Career
| extra12 = With vocals by [[Robb Johnson]]
| length12 = 0:47
| title13 = To a Little Radio
| extra13 = Music by [[Hanns Eisler]], lyrics by [[Bertolt Brecht]] translated by Chumbawamba
| length13 = 1:08
| title14 = (Words Flew) Right Around the World
| extra14 = Featuring the Charlie Cake Marching Band
| length14 = 2:15
| title15 = Sing About Love
| extra15 =
| length15 = 1:39
| title16 = Bury Me Deep
| extra16 =
| length16 = 1:37
| title17 = You Watched Me Dance
| extra17 =
| length17 = 0:58
| title18 = Compliments of Your Waitress
| extra18 =
| length18 = 2:43
| title19 = R.I.P. RP
| extra19 =
| length19 = 1:26
| title20 = Charlie
| extra20 = Traditional; arrangement and lyrics by Chumbawamba
| length20 = 2:12
| title21 = The Ogre
| extra21 =
| length21 = 0:53
| title22 = Refugee
| extra22 =
| length22 = 2:42
| title23 = Same Old Same Old
| extra23 =
| length23 = 0:59
| title24 = Waiting for the Bus
| extra24 =
| length24 = 2:44
| title25 = What We Want
| extra25 =
| length25 = 0:47
}}

==Samples from previous albums==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Song
! Sample from
|-
|"When an Old Man Dies"
|"Rubens Has Been Shot!" from ''[[Slap!]]''
|-
|"All Fur Coat & No Knickers"
|"Social Dogma" from ''[[WYSIWYG (album)|WYSIWYG]]''
|-
|"Fine Line"
|"Rappoport's Testament: I Never Gave Up" from ''[[Slap!]]''
|-
|"Lord Bateman's Motorbike"
|"Happiness is Just a Chant Away" from ''[[Shhh (Chumbawamba album)|Shhh]]''
|-
|"You Watched Me Dance"
|"I'm Coming Out" and "Dumbing Down (Piano Version)" from ''[[WYSIWYG (album)|WYSIWYG]]''
|-
|"Charlie"
|"Chase PC's Flee Attack by Own Dog" from ''[[Slap!]]''
|-
|"The Ogre"
|"[[Diggers' Song|Digger's Song]]" from ''[[English Rebel Songs 1381–1984]]''
|-
|"Refugee"
|"Fade Away (I Don't Want to)" from ''[[A Singsong and a Scrap]]''
|}

==Personnel==
* Lou Watts – vocals
* [[Boff Whalley]] – vocals, ukulele
* Neil Ferguson – vocals, guitars
* Jude Abbott – vocals, trumpet
* Phil "Ron" Moody – vocals, accordion

'''Additional musicians'''
* [[Oysterband]], [[Roy Bailey (folk singer)|Roy Bailey]], [[Robb Johnson]], Ray Hearne, [[Coope Boyes and Simpson|Barry Coope & Jim Boyes]] – vocals
* Charlie Cake Marching Band – brass
* David P. Crickmore – banjo on 7, 22; square-necked dobro on 18, 22
* [[Jo Freya]] – sax on 2
* Harry Hamer – [[cajon]] on 9, 11; [[tabla]]s on 16
* The Pudsey Players – strings on 6, 11, 18

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c1HOsmpoxE&list=PL1T0hHFDjgDGi6sHsKh27HXQ0szoKmukB ''The Boy Bands Have Won''] at [[YouTube]] (streamed copy where licensed)

{{Chumbawamba}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy Bands Have Won, The}}
[[Category:Chumbawamba albums|Chumbawamba albums]]
[[Category:2008 albums]]
[[Category:No Masters albums]]
[[Category:Westpark Music albums]]

The Boy Bands Have Won - Revision history

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wiki>Ugggsw: Lowercase letters