Vintage 1991 New Kids on the Block Dangle Earrings 🥃 NKOTB Pink Logo Charms on Original Button-Up Display Card, Boy Band Fan Jewelry

Do You Remember Which New Kid Was Your Favorite? 🎤

Size: 1" x 1/2"

Jordan or Jonathan? Joey, Donnie or Danny? For a few years that was the most important question in a lot of bedrooms, and the answer got pinned to walls, packed in lunchboxes and hung from earlobes. This is a pair of New Kids on the Block dangle earrings, New Old Stock, still hooked through their original black Button-Up display card, from the years when a group formed in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1984 had turned its name into $400 million in merchandise sales by 1991.

🔍 What You're Looking At

• The charms: two matching pink charms cut in the shape of the band's name, stacked NEW KIDS / ON THE / BLOCK, with the lettering picked out in dark purple and the O in BLOCK drawn as an open oval. Each charm measures 1 inch by 0.5 inch.
• The hardware: silver-tone fishhook ear wires, each with a small coil and bead above the loop that holds the charm.
• The card: glossy black stock with Button•Up in gold script across the top and a pair of punched holes for each earring.
• The back: plain black, with a folded hang tab along the top and the ends of both ear wires pushed through the card.
• Condition: New Old Stock, never taken off the card.

🧷 Button-Up of Troy, Michigan

The gold script name on this card belongs to Button-Up, a novelty maker based in Troy, Michigan, whose name also turns up on pin-back buttons from the same era, among them an "Over the Hill" button dated 1988. The same gold name that sold those novelty buttons is printed across the top of this earring card.

🎶 Maurice Starr's Idea: Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1984

New Kids on the Block began as a producer's plan. Maurice Starr had managed the Boston R&B group New Edition, and after he was fired from New Edition he set out to build a white counterpart act. In 1984, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the first to sign on was 15-year-old Donnie Wahlberg. His younger brother Mark joined too, and left after a few months. Jordan Knight, Danny Wood, Jonathan Knight and Joey McIntyre completed the lineup, and an early member, Jamie Kelly, came and went.

The band was not born with its famous name. It was first called Nynuk. When Columbia Records signed the group, it demanded that Starr change the name, and they settled on New Kids on the Block, the title of a rap song Donnie Wahlberg had written and arranged for their first album.

📈 From a Quiet Debut to NKOTBmania

The debut album came out in 1986, Hangin' Tough followed in 1988 and Step by Step in 1990. The group went on to sell more than 80 million records worldwide and won two American Music Awards in 1990. Their 1990 Magic Summer Tour grossed $74 million and played to 3.2 million people.

The merchandise was bigger still. By 1991 sales of New Kids products had reached $400 million, and the official fan club had more than 200,000 members. That fall of 1990 the band even became Saturday morning television: DIC Entertainment's animated New Kids on the Block ran on ABC from September 8 to December 14, 1990, fifteen episodes opening with "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" and closing with an instrumental "Step by Step." The real band appeared in live-action clips, while other actors voiced their cartoon selves, and reruns moved to the Disney Channel in October 1991.

🏛️ April 24: The Day Massachusetts Gave the Band

The hometown pride went all the way to the State House. On April 24, 1989, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed New Kids on the Block Day, and the five members posed with him and Maurice Starr to mark it. The band and its fans, the Blockheads, turned it into a tradition and still celebrate April 24 every year, and in 2024 the group marked the day's 35th anniversary with a new song.

💫 The Breakup, the Reunion and the Boy Bands That Followed

New Kids on the Block disbanded in 1994. In 2008 they reunited. Along the way they influenced the boy bands that came after them, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC among them.

🎁 Good For

• 🎤 Blockheads — a carded pair from the band's peak, for the fan who still knows every word of "Hangin' Tough."
• 🎟️ Reunion shows — wear them to a concert or on April 24, the band's own day.
• 🖼️ Shadow boxes — the black card and gold script frame well beside a ticket stub or cassette.
• 💍 Pop-culture jewelry collections — carded novelty earrings with the maker's name on the card.
• 🎁 Gifts — for a sister or best friend who can still name all five.

❓ Questions People Ask

Have these earrings been worn?

No. They have never left the Button-Up card they came on.

What are the charms like?

Pink charms shaped like the stacked words NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, lettered in dark purple, on silver-tone fishhook wires with a coil and bead.

How big are they?

Each charm measures 1 x 0.5 inches, not counting the ear wire.

Who was Button-Up?

A novelty maker from Troy, Michigan; its gold script name is on the front of the card, and the same name appears on pin-back buttons of the period.

What was New Kids on the Block's original name?

Nynuk. Columbia Records made them change it, and they took the title of Donnie Wahlberg's rap song "New Kids on the Block."

Does the band really have its own day?

Yes, April 24. Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed it in Massachusetts in 1989, and fans still celebrate it.