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| Nick Carter Ocean
Campaign" All Backstreet Boys fans must know about Nick's love of the ocean and all creatures that live in it. Now Nick has started his own charity. Right now the funding and management for Nick's Campaign is handled by Kevin's staff at the Just Within Reach Foundation. JWR works for all areas of the environment (water, soil, air, human health, etc.) Make
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| The man behind
the keyboard behind the boys... Date: July 25, 2001 Tommy Smith avoids the spotlight's harsh glare Bruce Deachman The Ottawa Citizen Ahh, the life of a rock star! Imagine what it must be like to play packed arenas every night, with tens of thousands of adoring fans, mostly young girls, who have come to scream their appreciation, to profess their love. Afterwards, you know, a battalion of them will be waiting outside, praying for autographs or just a faint touch, a glimpse, a word, a wink. And, always, the screaming. Imagine that all that is true, except that in spite of giving your all for close to two hours onstage, you can still walk through the army unmolested, unscathed, as though you weren't even there at all. Few know the thin line between fame and obscurity as well as Tommy Smith. As keyboardist for the pop group sensation O-Town, which comes to the National Arts Centre for a sold out show tomorrow evening, and a former member of The Backstreet Boys band, Smith has enjoyed a front-seat trip to the top, while not suffering the burn of the glare from the spotlights. "Personally I prefer it," he says. "We get the excitement of being up on stage, but we don't have to go to lawyer's meetings and radio interviews and promotional tours." Nor, he adds, do they appear in music videos. "They hire good-looking people for that. We're a bunch of old, fat guys." Neither does the absence of any critical acclaim, or otherwise, bother him. "We sometimes get mentioned (in the press)," he says, "especially by rock critics who don't like pop music. They kind of zoom in on the band: Are we capable? Did it sound like the record?" "If they say anything, usually it's a one- or two-line quip, but we get pretty good reviews." But then, now in his late-30s ("We don't have to mention my age, do we?" he asked. "After all, I don't want to frighten the teenagers."), Smith has so far enjoyed a lengthy and varied career on the keyboards. After touring up and down the eastern seaboard in cover bands ("I was pretty much a road dog," he says. "I played Holiday Inns with every bad band, and then some."), and doing the Vegas-Atlantic City gigs with showbands, he settled down in Orlando, Fla., and played studio and live work, and was a member of a rap band, Snap. Along the road, he played with the likes of Gregg Allman and Cab Calloway, and co-wrote a song with jazz singer Benita Hill, which was recorded by Garth Brooks. "It doesn't really matter what style of music I play," he says. "I'm trained to take whatever genre of music I'm supposed to play. Point me in a direction and I'll play that music. "I'm a professional musician," he adds, "not a rock star. If I had to play polka music, I would do the best polka job I could possibly do." Self-taught on the piano -- inspired by an Elton John concert his sister took him to when he was eight -- one of his biggest inspirations while growing up was the rock band Rush. In fact, his original skepticism of the boy-band genre had him originally turning down requests to join the Backstreet Boys band. According to Smith, the five-piece singing group had released its first album -- in Europe and Canada -- and their manager Johnny Wright, who was also Snap's tour manager, asked him to join. "(Wright) described it as a New Kids On The Block thing," recalls Smith, "and I thought, with Pearl Jam and Nirvana all over the radio, that there was no way." So Smith declined. But in Oct. 1996, he agreed to an emergency fill-in role for a six-week European tour. "So I went, and I fell in love with the kids and the job, and I was there for the next 3 1/2 years." That job ended last fall and, although Smith won't comment, it is rumoured that his departure was sparked by the Backstreet Boys' management's refusal to credit Smith for songs he co-wrote on their last album, Black And Blue. The matter is presently being settled in the industry's legal corridors. The departure, which Smith describes as unfortunate, landed him a job with O-Town, the reality television-born band many regard as the heir-apparent to the boy-band crown, once held by the Backstreet Boys and currently the property of N'Sync. And while many view this wave with a broad brush, Smith sees O-Town (two of whom, incidentally, actually do play instruments) in a different light. "Coming from where I did," he says, "I thought that BSB were the best. I'd heard them sing for 4 1/2 years, and I thought that nobody sings like them. I thought that (O-Town) were the same as BSB, but not at that level. "But when I got here I realized that it's not quite the same as BSB. They're taking another direction, these kids." Smith uses the O-Town song, Love Should Be A Crime, as an example. "It's not a boy-band song at all," he says. "It's an unbelievable song, and you would never hear it and think, 'Yeah, that's a boy-band song.' "These guys don't have the mould to fit into that Backstreet did," he adds. "When Backstreet puts a song on an album, it has to sound like a Backstreet song. O-Town isn't quite there yet, so they have a little bit of manoeuvering space." Regardless of what critics think of the genre, however, Smith makes no apologies for what he's doing. "It's definitely not cringing," he says, "and it's not boring, especially for a keyboard player." Pop music, he says, is very keyboard-driven, "and there are a lot of interesting niches that I can crawl into." These days, he's involved more in song-writing with O-Town, and is currently negotiating a song-writing contract with Dreamworks Films. As for the dire predictions that the genre is likely to come tumbling down any day now, Smith says he doesn't see that happening soon. "You have to remember your musical history," he says. "Before the Backstreet Boys came on the scene, the record companies were crying 'We don't have any profits! Album sales are down!' "But what they had done was forgotten the huge teenage demographic out there. "Elvis was a boy-band type of thing. The Beatles were a boy-band. This has been going on since the Frank Sinatra days. The record companies just took five years or so after New Kids On The Block and were afraid to do anything with that market." And while Smith concedes that the genre probably won't continue at the same record-setting pace of the last few years, he believes that teenaged girls, which he claims is the largest record-buying demographic, will ensure its health for a long time yet. "How long will this last?" Smith asks. "I think it should last as long as there are teenagers out there who think that the boys on TV look cuter than their boyfriends." |
| Maker of Boy-Bands
Faces Departures
Date: July
23, 2001 By MIKE SCHNEIDER AP Business Writer ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - When it comes to riding the boy-band wave in pop music, nobody has done it better than Lou Pearlman. The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and O-Town are just a few of the groups the Orlando-based impresario and his company, Trans Continental Entertainment, have launched on the road to hormone-fueled success. But in the past few months, Pearlman has hit some sour notes. About 15 key executives and staffers, including company vice presidents, the chief operating officer, a tour manager, accountants and publicists, have left or been laid off. O-Town, Pearlman's latest breakout success, recently left for a management firm run by former Trans Continental executives, although Pearlman will still earn money from them under a production agreement. Trans Continental also had trouble finding a distributor for a movie it made for $15 million and shopped around Hollywood. Only one artist now managed by Trans Continental, 16-year-old Richard Lugo, has a U.S. record label, although Pearlman recently took under his wing B4-4, which has a label in Canada. Two of the acts Pearlman developed - the girl group Innosense and the boy group Take 5 - recently tried to get out of their contracts. Take 5, which has lost its lead singer, succeeded, and Innosense's release is being negotiated. Innosense manager Dennis Steinmetz said he didn't feel Trans Continental was behind the act anymore. Music industry watchers and former employees aren't about to write Pearlman off, however, saying he may just be on a downward slope in a business that has regular peaks and valleys. "From what it seems to the public eye, they may have reached a low, but I think it's premature to say that they're through or the company is going downhill," said Jil Shingledecker, a former Trans Continental marketing and public relations coordinator, who was laid off in October. Pearlman has dismissed any problems, characterizing the layoffs as people leaving whose projects were finished. He said the executives who departed did so on amicable terms and just wanted to branch out on their own. As for the artists who have left, Pearlman said it was part of a strategy to separate his management and production operations. "You can't be both, to avoid any conflict of interest," Pearlman said. "It's a matter of us amicably dividing church and state where management and production have to be separated." He added, "We're making more money this year than we did last year." Trans Continental has recently tried to transform itself from a management and production company to a full-service record company, said Scott Bennett, vice president of Trans Continental Records. The company is putting particular focus on a new act, Natural, which is touring with the Monkees. Natural was the subject of a lawsuit earlier this year filed by another manager who accused Pearlman of stealing the group away from him. The lawsuit is currently being settled. "The company is very healthy," Bennett said. Billboard magazine senior editor Chuck Taylor, for one, was impressed with Natural. The boy-band phenomenon is going to be around for some time, he said, as evidenced by the hype over 'N Sync's latest album, and despite the recent misfortunes of Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean, who checked into rehab. "Lou Pearlman is the Madonna of the business side of music. I think he reinvents himself with the trends that go on in music," Taylor said. "I think he's going to be around longer than most of the bands that he creates." Pearlman was hurt by the defection and subsequent lawsuits, eventually settled, filed by his biggest successes, the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, in the late 1990s. Both groups sued to be released from their deals, accusing Pearlman of deception and cheating them out of money. Recent changes in the industry have also worked against Pearlman, some say. The pop market is harder for groups to break into now than it was just a few years ago because there are so many acts taking up radio time, said Alan Siegel, Trans Continental's former executive vice president for records. Siegel, who left the company three months ago to form his own business with another ex-Trans Continental vice president, said it's common for singers to change managers, and noted that companies nationwide are going through downsizing. "There have been changes in the entertainment industry as a whole," Siegel said. "I don't think Trans Con should be singled out." Pearlman may have lost some traction by investing millions in the movie, known at different stages as "Longshot" and "Jack of All Trades." Described variously as a vanity project or home movie of his pop acts, it stars soap-opera actress Hunter Tylo and Trans Continental vice president Tony DeCamillis; features actor Paul Sorvino and comedian Gilbert Gottfried; and has cameos by Britney Spears and 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake. Pearlman said last week that it has found an international distributor and will be released in Europe in September. |
| BSB in M
Magazine August 2001 Date: July 23, 2001 Title: BSB (page 9) The Backstreet Boys are the ultimate hitmakers. With almost 10 years of songs, there’s a lot to say! "We’ve Got It Goin’ On" This is the official BSB anthem. "I Want It That Way" The fans love this song, and so do the guys. It’s one of their most requested ballads off MILLENNIUM. "The Perfect Fan" Brian wrote this sentimental tune about his mother. "It’s great to have fans singing all the lyrics to all the songs. But when they’re singing something that came from your heart, that’s different," he says. MILLENNIUM: The CD made them megastars. "We were trying to make good music that not only we love to sing and perform, but that our fans would like," Kevin says. BLACK AND BLUE: The BOYS headed to the Bahamas to write this follow-up. "It was a great vibe," Kevin says. "When you have writer’s block, you can walk right out on the beach and get the tape recorder or pen and pad and let it come out." Title: Truth or Rumor? (Page 12) Question: Is Krystal Kevin’s younger cousin? Answer: Even though Kevin overlooks Krystal’s rising musical career, he isn’t her younger cousin. (I think that is supposed to say she is not his younger cousin. Guess the editor of the magazine missed that. :P) Here’s how they met. A couple years ago, Kevin’s producer pal Jonathon "Mook" Morant discovered Krystal in her home state of Indiana. Mook told Kevin about her immense talent, and he was intrigued. Before she knew it, Krystal became the first artist on the BSB’s new label. And they even chose her to be their opening act on their tour. Even though she’s not related to the guys, Krystal says their like her big brothers. "It’s like a family on tour, I’m their little sis," she says. What a lucky girl! Title: Star Puppy Power With Brian (Page 25) Brian just loves his pet Chihuahuas, Tyk Thomas and Litty Leigh! Tyk Thomas even co-stars in the flick OLIVE JUICE, a romantic comedy about a pet store. How cool is that? Word has it that Brian likes to put in a long-distance call to his pooches when he is on tour. Awww! Title: BSB, What Do Their Faces Reveal? (Page 31) Get to know your crush by reading his face! Does a guy’s smile make you melt? His eyes? Guy’s personalities are written all over their faces! We used BSB as example. Check it out! AJ~ Ears: See how AJ’s ears stick out? That’s means he’s sorta possessive. (Yikes!) But he’s got a lot of positive qualities. Nose: His wide nostrils are a symbol of independence. Eyes: His big, round eyes show he’s full of energy. If you’re an energizer bunny yourself, look for a guy with these features. Kevin~ Eyebrows: Kevin’s trademark thick eyebrows show a few qualities about his personality. He gets jealous easily but likes to have fun! Lips: His thin, upper lip means he’s picky. Jaw: His sizzlin’ square jaw shows he’s rebellious. Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you if the boy your crushing looks like Kevin! Brian~ Eyes: Brian’s small eye’s symbolize shyness. If your crush has these peepers, you may have to make the first move. Cheeks: See his glorious and chiseled cheek bones? They belong to a guy who loves adventure. If your crush owns them, get your hiking boots and snowboard ready for some fun! Howie~ Nose: It’s a good thing if your crush has an upturned nose like Howie’s. That shape means he’s a generous guy. Chin: His round chin shows he likes to spend his nights relaxing. Forehead: His high forehead is a symbol that this guy is smart. Mix all these features together and you’ve got yourself a winner! Nick~ Eyes: Nick’s almond shaped, wide-set eyes tells you he’s secretive, so you can always trust him with your gossip. Forehead: His square-shaped forehead shows he won’t hold back his emotions. You’ll never have to worry about him playing head games- he’ll tell you straight-up how feels. Title: Your Faves (Page 72) *Top Song: MORE THAN THAT (Number One) *Top Guy Artist: NICK (Number Three) *Top Guy Group: BSB (Number Two) Title: One More Thing (Page 74) ~AJ says, "Our fans our very generous." |
| Brian
Surprised Leighanne: july 22 2001 Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell surprising his wife, local model/actress Leighanne, with a 31st birthday dinner with friends at South City Kitchen in Midtown. South City pastry chef Gary Scarborough dazzled the birthday girl with a huge chocolate birthday cake. . . . (don't u think that they have made a mistake?is Leighanne 31?! |
So That Bad Boy Stuff Was Real? Date: July 20, 2001 A nation of young girls went to Mommy and Daddy last week and said, "Tell me why-ee?" A.J. McLean, Backstreet Boys, checked himself into a rehab center to receive treatment for depression, anxiety and excessive consumption of alcohol. His four partners in Backstreet made the announcement to fans on MTV's Total Request Live. "He was becoming a vampire," said Kevin Richardson of McLean's late-night habits, which frequently caused him to miss morning rehersals. "After a while, it was disrespectful to us," said Howie Dorough. "If you have a cancer, a weak link, you have to fix the problem." McLean is expected to return to Backstreet in 30 days, at which point the group will resume their North American tour. McLean, with his naughty head wraps and tattoos, has always been Backstreet's bad boy, but he may have been pushed to an even darker place - at least by boy-band standards - by the recent death of his grandmother. Behind the Music has dispatched a crew. |
| Poll: Backstreet Boys
Right To Come Clean Date: July 20, 2001 The Backstreet Boys' decision to go public about the depression and alcohol abuse problems group member AJ McLean is battling was the right one to make, according to a recently completed Billboard.com poll. An overwhelming 79% of 6,019 respondents agreed with and appreciated the band's candor when postponing a month's worth of tour dates while McLean seeks treatment. 44% saw the move to be honest with fans as refreshing for a group that serves as role models for many young people. Another 35% felt that it was better to hear the news directly from the band, rather than to have it dug up later by prying media outlets. A contingent of 14% disagreed, saying that the group gets its fair share of publicity as it is, while another 7% contended that such personal battles should be handled privately. |
Will boy bands drop off pop's top pedestal? Date: July 20, 2001 It's hard to live up to so much past success. Now, some critics are saying 'N Sync and the rest are played out. By Elysa Gardner USA TODAY NEW YORK -- When 'N Sync's new CD, Celebrity, arrives in stores Tuesday, the country's pre-eminent boy band will face a formidable competitor. And if the guys want to confront this nemesis face-to-face, they need only stare in the mirror. After all, it was 'N Sync's previous album, No Strings Attached, released in March 2000, that set the impossible commercial standard against which Celebrity will inevitably be judged. After intense anticipation and an exhaustive promotional campaign, Strings sold more than a million copies on its first day of release alone, and set a new SoundScan record for first-week sales: 2.41 million copies, more than twice the amount that previous champs -- and rival teen-pop group -- the Backstreet Boys sold the first week their 1999 album Millennium was available. But that was 16 months ago -- an eternity in the mercilessly fickle world of pop music. The life span of a teen idol in particular is seldom a long one; and having formed in the mid-'90s and released two hugely successful albums, 'N Sync -- whose eldest member, Chris Kirkpatrick, is now pushing 30 -- has already survived and thrived longer than many had expected it would. ''There's definitely pressure on us now,'' Kirkpatrick says. ''But it all comes from critics and the media. You know, we could sell 15 million copies of our new album, which is more than our last one sold, and it would still be considered a failure if we sell only, say, 1.5 million copies the first week -- because we won't have broken our own record.'' In fact, despite the 11-times-platinum status of Strings, some industry insiders and observers have already begun sounding the death knell for the genre and generation of music that 'N Sync represents. Five years after the Backstreet Boys' first album launched the latest bubblegum-pop conquest of radio and MTV, a number of teen-'zine-friendly acts are having a more difficult time either cultivating a mass audience or following up promising debuts. A CD released by 98 Degrees was one of last year's biggest commercial disappointments; in recent weeks, heavily promoted albums by the rising young group LFO and Mandy Moore, a blond baby diva who has been likened to Britney Spears, entered the Billboard chart at No. 87 and No. 35, respectively. And Backstreet is suffering some grown-up trauma of its own, with member A.J. McLean currently in rehab for depression and alcohol abuse. ''I think we're in a phase right now where there's no question that the bloom is off the teen-pop rose,'' says Alan Light, editor in chief of Spin. ''Superstars like 'N Sync and Backstreet and Britney and Christina (Aguilera) can still sell records, but they'll face a challenge even if their sales start to dip a little -- if there's any sense that they've peaked.'' Backstreet member Howie Dorough acknowledges that he has begun to sense ''a little backlash'' since the release of his group's most recent CD, Black & Blue. ''In the past year, I'd say, radio has become too saturated with this pop sound -- especially the Max Martin sound,'' he says, referring to the Swedish songwriter responsible for numerous bouncy, ear-candy hits for top teen acts, including Spears and 'N Sync. ''We originated that sound, and then all the record companies wanted to mass-produce it. Now we've found that radio stations don't want too much of that sound anymore.'' Indeed, many have speculated that 'N Sync's relative staying power can be attributed in part to the group's use of different musical styles, many of them drawn from modern R&B, hip-hop and dance music. While Backstreet's latest single, More Than That, is a midtempo ballad that has fared best on adult-contemporary radio formats, 'N Sync's new album -- for which the band members did much of the writing -- embraces even more of the urban-influenced rhythms and textures that informed Strings. Artistic growing pains ''It seems like where you go from teen pop is either into adult-contemporary ballads or into more explicit hip-hop territory,'' says Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield. ''The Backstreet Boys took the first route and 'N Sync took the second -- and the second was the smarter one to take.'' Sheffield describes 'N Sync's first single from Celebrity, Pop -- which was certified the most-added song to pop radio in early June -- as ''Fisher-Price hip-hop. But 'N Sync is doing a lot right now to expose preteen suburban girls to hip-hop, much as New Kids on the Block exposed that audience to hip-hop 10 or 11 years ago. That's the niche they've created for themselves.'' Kirkpatrick, predictably, feels that 'N Sync's latest effort shows more sophistication and daring than Sheffield suggests. ''One of the biggest compliments I've gotten from people who have heard our new album is that at first they say things like, 'They've blown it -- this is the end of their career. They've changed their style too much.' But later, the same people say, 'I'd like to learn how to do tracks like that.' '' Adds Kirkpatrick bandmate Justin Timberlake: ''We're trying to grow as artists, and that can be hard to do when there's so much speculation about you. When this album comes out, critics could say, 'What were they thinking, trying to write their own music?' But we want to do that now, and to learn how to produce and master records. These are things we've wanted to do all along.'' Airplay Monitor editor Sean Ross says there are ''some program directors who don't think that 'N Sync's new record will have the same legs as Bye Bye Bye,'' the first single from Strings. ''Some people probably wish the group sounded more like it used to. But the cycle of pop music is such that what worked a couple of years ago isn't necessarily going to work in 2001, regardless of genre. And 'N Sync clearly tried to address that by not coming back with Bye Bye Bye, Part II. They made a record that sounds more like the times.'' Dave McKay, program director of top 40 station WPST in Trenton, N.J., shares with Ross, Sheffield, Light and most other insiders the belief that 'N Sync is ''definitely the most popular boy band now. If any act is going to be hurt a bit less by a trend away from that kind of pop, it's going to be them.'' But McKay questions to what extent that trend exists. ''Part of me thinks things are slowing down for these artists, but another part thinks the industry is saying they ought to slow down, and we're making them slow down. We all start talking about it in trade (publications) and at conventions, that this cycle has to end, and we're the ones who can make it happen.'' Wishful media thinking Sheffield muses, ''The decline of teen pop has been predicted for so long, and it's mostly wishful thinking on the part of the media.'' Certainly, retailers are more bullish on 'N Sync's new project. Tower Records has launched a marketing campaign for Celebrity that entitles all who pre-order the CD to a free CD-ROM featuring the Pop video, behind-the-scenes footage and MTV preview clips. Tower's chief marketing officer, Ron Nugent, reports that as of three weeks before the album's release, it had already become the chain's most successful pre-order program in two years. ''There is such a high demand for this type of consumer,'' Nugent notes of 'N Sync's audience. ''I don't know if this album will eclipse last year's, but it will definitely be one of the strongest releases this year.'' TransContinental Entertainment president and CEO Lou Pearlman, the boy-band guru who oversaw the rise of Backstreet, 'N Sync and LFO -- and is now working with rising group O-Town -- believes that the reign of teen idols in pop music will only end ''when God stops making little girls.'' But Pearlman adds that ''music styles will change . . . and if you don't change with the flow, you'll end up with a limited timeline. You can be a teen band for no more than five years on average -- after that, it's all about music and longevity.'' Jon Zellner, operations manager for Kansas City top 40 station KMXV and adult-contemporary station KSRC, agrees. ''With their last album, 'N Sync reinvented themselves and made themselves cool again to a teen audience,'' Zellner allows. ''But making the transition from a teen star to someone who can bridge the generation gap between moms and their kids is a whole different thing. I can't think of one teen group, other than The Beatles, that has done that.'' But the members of 'N Sync, who cite The Beatles as big influence -- along with another former teen star named Michael Jackson -- refuse to believe that the odds are against their cultivating a diverse and loyal audience. ''We see our audience evolving, but we don't want to leave anyone behind,'' Kirkpatrick says. ''We won't say, 'We're done being a kids' act now,' so that we can get more respect. Our music is high-energy and fun, and little kids pick up on that. And older kids can say, 'You know what? The music's still great. I'm not into the whole teenybopper thing anymore -- I won't buy T-shirts with ('N Sync) on it -- but I still love their music.' '' |