By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Nov. 15, 1999
Boy band casting call
Beginning at 9 a.m. today
Hard Rock Cafe, 63 W. Ontario
(312) 943-2252
(Requirements: you must be male, at least 18 years old;
a high school graduate (or have a GED);
able to legally work in the U.S.;
and be willing to relocate to Orlando, Fla.
For more info, check www.cybervenue.com)
For as long as Justin Roman can remember, he has wanted to be a singer.
Even as an all conference pitcher at Roselle’s Lake Park High School, he deejayed in his spare time, and thrilled to the music of his idol, Michael Jackson.
Today, the 22-year-old Elmhurst College senior will join hundreds of other young men hoping to begin their own climb up pop music’s hierarchy. At 9 a.m. they will line up at the Hard Rock Cafe to audition for a new boy band spearheaded by Lou Pearlman–the man who launched the careers of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync.
Boy bands. You know them. You may have even loved them back in the day when they had names such as the Penguins, the Temptations, the Jackson Five, the New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men. Comprised of young men who can sing like angels and dance like the devil, boy bands have filled a niche for young girls who dream of romance delivered in tidy, 3-minute pop songs.
Boy band members are older and better looking than their fans’ awkward, pimply classmates, but they are generally non-threatening to parents who partially subsidize this fixation.
With 18 million albums sold in the United States alone, the Backstreet Boys are the undisputed kings of today’s boy bands. Last week the group reportedly signed a new deal with its label, Jive Records, valued at about $60 million. The contract puts the Boys in the same financial realm as artists such as Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones.
Coming in second is ‘N Sync, which racked up 9 million album sales. Newer groups such as 98 Degrees and LFO (another Pearlman project) are already making their marks on the charts.
This overflow of boy bands is causing even fans to admit that the lineups can get confusing. As Backstreet Boys fan Jane Arico concedes, “They’re pretty much all the same.”
The 17-year-old senior at Naperville North High School adds, “Each of these groups has a blond guy, one that’s older with dark hair and light eyes … At least two are always really cute and the others are just sort of there. [Boy bands] are a girl thing. It’s fun to get together with your girlfriends and just schmooze over them.”
Judging by his good looks, Roman–who is of Mexican and Swedish heritage–has what it takes to rival a couple of other Justins: ‘N Sync’s Timberlake and 98 Degree’s Jeffre. He’s tall (6-foot-3) and slender. And, not incidentally, Roman can sing (he’s in the school choir), dance and play an instrument (the piano)–requirements that Pearlman seeks in all the contenders.
“I’ve been hooked on performing since I was in the 8th grade,” Roman says. “All the girls started screaming and clapping. It was so much fun. It was always on my mind that I would be doing something in the music business … hopefully as a recording artist. This is the time to really go for it.”
The irony here is that Roman is a musician who has already spent some time in the recording studio. But if he makes the cut today, he won’t be encouraged to showcased his piano skills–because boy bands rarely play their own instruments in the studio. And onstage they may take a dilettante stab during a song or two before handing over the guitars to the faceless backup band.
“In the past, we’ve had [bands] play instruments more during their shows,” Pearlman explains. “But the fans don’t like it as much. The fans feel that when the band sings, dances, hangs around in front of them and runs around the stage, they feel closer to the group than if they’re behind the instruments.”
But at a time when even the youngsters in Hanson are penning their own material and playing live on stage, some of these boy bands–which are comprised primarily of men in their 20’s–come off as silly, executing perfectly choreographed thrusts in unison.
Flashback to Motown’s heyday: The Supremes, Miracles and Temptations were all dressed to the 9’s and every move was choreographed right down to the last shimmy. Diana Ross sang other people’s songs. And no one hassled her for it.
But times change. And so does the public’s perception of what constitutes a proper band. If you don’t write your own music or play the guitar, you will be perceived as “less than.”
Pearlman says, “Motown had a great way of developing their artists and we try to do that with our artists, too. What we’ve been doing all along has been taking our artists’ God-given capabilities and cultivating them. And we match them with a stable or really good songwriters. I don’t think it should matter who wrote it as long as it sounds great when it’s done. The fans certainly don’t care.”
Each boy band’s album contains a song or two that was written by a band member. But compare the Backstreet Boys’ sweet but bland “The Perfect Fan”–which was written by the Boys’ Brian Littrell–to the singles cranked out by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin (who also has written hits for ‘N Sync and Britney Spears) and it’s easy to understand why outside help is brought in.
Kevin Holm-Hudson, who teaches a course on the history of rock music at Northwestern University, sees more of a similarity between today’s boy bands and the doo wop groups of the ’50s than anything Motown had to offer.
“Groups like the Moonglows and the Penguins specialized in the kind of romantic ballads that the Backstreet Boys and 98* are famous for,” Holm-Hudson says. “But in terms of marketing, it’s a different matter. Doo wop groups were anonymous–the more anonymous the better. With boy bands, each one is marketed on a first-name basis.”
Though the Beatles weren’t a boy band, the group’s members were among the first to be marketed as individuals. John was the poet, Paul the cute one, George the shy baby of the group and Ringo the lovable goof.
This marketing strategy is still in use today. In the beginning when they’re trying to attract an audience, the members tend to have the same non-threatening, homogenous look.
But along with fame comes experimentation–lookswise, anyhow. So you have formerly clean-cut members growing goatees (‘N Sync’s Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick; the Backstreet Boys’ Kevin Richardson, A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough) and changing hair colors and styles (Kirkpatrick, McLean) with regularity.
You’ll know when 98 Degrees hits the stratosphere of popularity that the Boys are enjoying because that’s when at least one member of the muscle-bound group will stop shaving.
“People keep talking about the end of boy bands,” says Matthew Rettenmund, editor-in-chief of the teen magazine Popstar!. “But just when you think there’s no room for any more, a group like LFO breaks. The key is coming up with bands that are similar enough to what fans already like, but to also make them different enough.”
At this point, one would think that Pearlman would be wary of creating more bands that competed against each other for a share of the same teen babysitting fund. But he good-naturedly says, “Look at General Motors. They have Chevy, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and so on. If it’s controlled properly, I think that it works.”
Of course, boy bands eventually grow up, wise up and get lawyers. Once the novelty of singing to fainting girls, traveling around the world and staying in five-star hotels begins to fade, they take an interest in finance.
The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync grossed more than $130 million last year in combined record sales. And though the chart rivals reportedly dislike each other immensely, it’s Pearlman they sued.
The Backstreet Boys accused Pearlman and his company, Trans Continental Records, of keeping $10 million dollars in revenues, leaving them just $300,000 to split between the five members. Meanwhile, ‘N Sync has charged Trans Continental of paying them only a third of their considerable record sales profits.
Pearlman pooh-poohs the lawsuits.
“When you have lawyers involved, everything sometimes gets blown out of proportion,” Pearlman says. “But spiritually, I love the guys. We’re still tight and we all want to get through this and sell records. I am still the sixth Backstreet Boy.”
A publicist for the Boys said that they have nothing to do with Pearlman.
“With ‘N Sync, they’ve been paid millions of dollars already,” Pearlman continues. “We just want to keep them happy and want to help them with their renegotiation and stay tight with them.”
Pausing, he adds, “We own their name and so on. But that’s not the main issue.”
The timing is obviously right for Pearlman to create a newer, younger, less litigious version of the bands that have made him a very rich man. And he’s got a new twist this time. He’s holding auditions in eight cities (Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, New York City, Orlando, Fla.). Five will be hand picked to move to Orlando and morph into a band. A latter day Monkees, if you will.
Roman has an edge over today’s other contenders. He already sent in a resume, photo and a videotape that was favorably reviewed by Pearlman’s staff. But his industrious planning only ensures him an early spot at today’s auditions–nothing more.
The whole process of auditioning, selecting and then recording the band is being turned into a two-hour ABC television special that could air as early as March. Producers Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jon Murray–the creators of MTV’s “The Real World”–are enthusiastic about what they’ve filmed so far.
“It’s a wonderful, colorful subject that has built-in drama as these kids are chosen,” says Bunim. “They have the opportunity to become instant celebrities.”
Or tomorrow’s Bay City Rollers.
