TeenStar: Backstreet Boys need to reach out to all ages-The Kansas City Star Newspaper
By AMIT PAREKH TeenStar Correspondent
Date: 02/05/98 22:15
"Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)." This popular song by the Backstreet Boys could be describing the aftereffects of attending their concert last weekend.
Any hope of having a good time at the concert with a couple of
friends was lost to a headache caused by 2,500 junior high-age girls screaming their lungs out every time the words "Backstreet Boys" were mentioned.
With a name like Backstreet Boys, the group must have been hoping
for a harder image, but their success has occurred because of their softer music. Most of their fans, like fans of Hanson, are junior high girls who listen to anyone they think is good looking. (If you take a look at these guys, however, you realize beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.)
It isn't that the band is bad. That is far from the truth. In fact, they are all good dancers and singers, which is a must combination in today's music world.
If they had marketed themselves differently, however, and not tried so hard to be hard-core, perhaps their future would differ from that of New Kids on the Block, who broke up.
Now it seems most of the group's true fans are junior high girls. But as soon as those girls become freshmen in high school, they will grow up and see that there is more to a group than looks.
The Backstreet Boys are a talented group, with potential to hit it big. For a group to stay intact, like Boyz II Men, it must reach out to all ages. Without that, the future of the Backstreet Boys is limited.