‘Making The Band’ Stream It Or Skip It?

AJ McLean is your host for Building the Band on Netflix, where aspiring singers will compete across 10 episodes to form groups on the power of their voices alone. No celeb coaches in big spinning chairs here – contestants are secluded from one another, and sing for each other entirely sight unseen. Building the Band will eventually bring in pros like Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland as mentors, once the groups are formed. But to begin with, we’ve got 48 boxes on the board, each wired for sound and containing one young person with big boy band, girl group, or mixed harmony dreams. Their singing voices will prove it. The chemistry – or lack thereof – will come later. “Until they form their bands,” McLean says, “they won’t be able to see each other. Anything can happen.”

Opening Shot: But let’s get an unexpected tragedy out of the way first. AJ McLean speaks to the camera. “When we came together to film Building the Band, we never imagined we’d soon be saying goodbye to our friend Liam Payne.” Payne, the former One Direction singer who died last year in a fall, was also part of BTB as a mentor. “This series is dedicated to Liam and his family.”

The Gist: It looks weirdly like a dystopian Hollywood Squares set turned on its side. Each box booth is fitted out with bland Ikea furniture, a set of Beats by Dre-style headphones, a big button, and a contestant, who are all in their 20s and mostly from the US. In AJ’s control room, he’s looking at monitors on those 48 box booths. But he keeps saying there are 50 singers. So you know two of these kids aren’t making it to Episode 2. On Building the Band, once you sing your song, you need at least 5 people to smash that like button, or you get the boot.

First up is Donzell, a 24-year-old from Arkansas. And once he’s let out of his box to sing “Jealous” by Labrinth, the comments start rolling in. “Chills!” says one listener. “Sing, my guy!” And we’re not sure if it’s for the purposes of the show or not, but the singers all react with a mixture of surprise and playing it cool when AJ patches into their booths with the results. Donzell, who ends up getting 20 likes, just calls the host “Backstreet.”

Obviously they all want to win. But going into this, some of the singers have established concepts. Nori, 23, is saving all her likes. Yes, she’s saving all her likes for the girls. (“Finding a sisterhood is important to me.”) And BTB forces them to choose wisely – each contestant only has 10 likes to give. Landon, 20, says he wants to form a boy band. “A unit of guys on the same page, who work hard, and wear baggy jeans.” Specific!

After an initial round of singers do their thing – a Harry Styles cosplayer, a young woman with a powerful take on Sia, another with a pretty solid version of the Jojo classic “Too Little Too Late” – AJ unlocks a chat feature. But this too is blind. Everybody wants to chat with Aaliyah, 22, after her take on Reneé Rapp jam blew up the spot. But big performances also threaten some of those preconceived concepts. A chat that ends with “I’m 100 percent picking you!” feels awkward later when the same singer 100 percent decides to pick someone else. “Only six bands will make it out of the booths,” AJ tells the contestants. “Which means that finding chemistry is key.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Masked Singer? More like the Walled Singer. And while coaches on The Voice keep their chairs to the audience, and chime in when they want a particular performer, on Building the Band, those likes and the blind draw are in the hands of the contestants themselves. Watching BTB, we also had a flash to show from a former reality singing era. Remember Rock Star: INXS? Or **shudder** P. Diddy’s Making The Band?

Our Take: Well, for one thing, we really like AJ McLean on Building the Band. He’s good at that generalized encouragement thing reality hosts are tasked with, but it also feels like he’s genuinely engaged with the competition. It’ll be interesting to see how his role evolves as the boxes open further, bands form up, and the professional mentors arrive on the scene. And since BTB is working with over 40 contestants to begin with, it’s not possible to learn about all of their backgrounds. But from a few cutaway interviews where contestants describe boy bands or other groups they were in, we get the sense these people aren’t starting from scratch. They’re all super young, but seem to share an ease with the technical nature of performance. Lots of American Idol judge-ish comments during the songs, like “that’s a hard song to sing” (expectant), “not what I’m looking for” (dismissive), and “her high register is crazy” (OK, Randy Jackson.) How will that commentary change once they’re all in bands together?

For that matter, how will that confidence and commentary change once they all see each other? We’re looking forward to how the dynamic shifts when the blind quality of Building the Band comes out into the light.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: “I’m terrified to talk to (spoiler),” one contestant says. Those chats were all fun and games until the visual bill comes due on audio promises kept.

Sleeper Star: Alison, 24, rocks a high pony like Ariana and sings the hell out of “Dangerous Woman,” her favorite song. She also has takes on takes on takes, which could court some reality show villainy. Take it away, Alison! 

“I am in the winning band. Pretty positive about it. I mean, there’s just really no way that that’s not the case?”

Also Alison: “Obviously for me, it is helpful, knowing there are less people in this competition.”

And ALSO Alison: “99% of the time, I always have an opinion.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “My whole life, I’ve dealt with people misgendering me, or you know, thinking that I’m something I’m not. I truly give off, like, an androgynous vibe. Especially in my voice. That’s the beauty in this process. You don’t know who they are. So maybe it’ll be a nice shock.” 

Our Call: Stream It! With its vocals only, visuals denied structure, Building the Band could be a novel concept in a crowded field of reality-style singing competitions. Who knows if any of the bands these singers form will coalesce. But we’re looking forward to what feels like a new kind of reveal. Ya heard!  

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.