Newer Kids On The Block
Labels bet on boys bands in the wake of Hanson's success
When the Backstreet Boys were signed to Mercury Records in 1993, the pubescent pin-up group stood out like Vanilla Ice in a forest of Screaming Trees. At a time when Nirvana was selling like teen spirits and Eddie Vedder's picture was plastered on the cover of Time, an album by an angst-free pop combo seemed more likely to end up in the bargain bins than on the Billboard charts. Less than a year after signing the boys, Mercury dropped them before they could record a single song.

Four years and one Generation X later, the five preening preppies debuted at No. 29 on the U.S. sales chart with "Backstreet Boys," an album that has already sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. And they're not alone. The success of Hanson has paved the way for a hoard of newer kids on the block who have got it (the right stuff) and will soon flaunt it in pre-teen lockers across America. Call them Boy Bop: The Next Generation.

"Pop is making a resurgence," says Jeff Kapugi, program director of the Tampa Fla., Top 10 station, WFLZ. "When people see the success of Hanson and the Spice Girls, every labels boy and girl bands will release albums to capitalize on the trend."

Record company A&R executives are already raiding America's high schools with the same fervor they once brought to Seattle. Labels are also shipping in bands from overseas: G-Quad have dubbed themselves "Quebec's answer to the Backstreet Boys;" the debut from Michael Jackson's nephews in 3T has been certified gold in England, and the readers of the English magazine Smash Hits voted 911 the year's second-best newcomers (after the Spice Girls, or course)

Through America's last boy bop era ended with the New Kids' swan song, "Step By Step." singing studs have been all the rage in Europe for years. When America all but ignored the Backstreet Boys' debut single for Jive (which picked up the group after Mercury dropped it), the Orlando, Fla., natives successfully promoted the rocord in England, where the similary adorable Take That were already kings of the hill. When the boys beat out Oasis and the Spice Girls to win MTV Europe's Viewer Choice award in 1996, they knew they had scaled Big Ben.

Now they're ready for the Empire State Building.

"Pop was a dirty word a few years ago," says Atlantic Records A&R executive Jim Welch, who recently brought a new boy band to the label. "Nirvana era people were so scared of the word 'pop,' but it has always been around... "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the best pop song of it's time, in the same way that Hanson's "MmmBop" is the best pop song in years."

America came out of the pop closet about nine months ago, when three squeezably soft brothers from Oklahoma struck a chord with the candy-coated chorus of "MmmBop." Since then, Michael Jackson's label, MJJ, has signed the underage No Authority, which will release it's pop debut, "Keep On," on October, 7.

Mercury Records is preparing to unveil one of it's newest - and cutest - successors to Hanson. And European superstars Boyzone (who appeared in Tiger Beat for the first time last month), 2B3 and 911 are totally psyched to invade America.

Believing the U.S. was finally ready for the Backstreet beat this summer, Jive Records whipped out the big guns: they packaged tens of thousands of sampler cassettes with Bantam publishing's "Love Stories" and "Sweet Valley High" teeny bopper soap series and Kaboodles makeup kits, and distrubuted them at cheerleading summer camps.

"Obviously I knew that girls would be interested in these guys when I signed them," says David McPhearson, the executive responsible for bringing Backstreet Boys to Mercury and then to Jive. "At face value they may look like New Kids On The Block, but they can really sing."

The Backstreet Boys' singing abilities bacame irrelevant when they posed half-naked under a poetic spray of raindrops in the video for "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" the single that broke the band at home. And though the bands management insists that A.J., Howie, Brian, Nick and Kevin are not NKOTB II, the merchandise advertised inside their album jacket suggests an uncanny resemblance. If the autographed throw pillow and forthcoming comic book don't prove that the Boys are "Hangin' Tough," the fact that their manager is the former tour manager for the New Kids' should at least inspire a chuckle.

And though Danny, Donnie, Jordan, Joe and Jon seem like holdovers from a more lightweight era, their pleasurable pop may be just what America is looking for.

"People don't want candy-coated popcorn all the time but they don't want all negativity either," McPhearson says. "The Backstreet Boys just want to make people happy."

- Anni Layne, Rolling Stones

August 26, 1997

backstreetgal@writeme.com
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