Worship the Backstreet Boys?

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Feb 26, 2000 Source: Wall Street Journal Submitted By: B R Worship the Backstreet Boys? Think they're lame? Courting both camps By Erin White, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal THE BACKSTREET Boys, with their screaming teenage fans, have helped MTV soar to its highest ratings ever. So how is the music video network thanking the teen pop act? With a full-length TV movie lampooning boy bands like the Backstreet Boys. It's all part of the VIACOM Inc. unit's carefully two-faced programming strategy: stand out as the biggest booster of whatever music is the latest hot genre, while simultaneously serving as the music's loudest mocker. The theory is that while overpromoting hot acts may provide the most profit for MTV in the short term, too much exposture will endanger its cachet with kids in the long term-death for a network whose survival depends on being perceived as cool. Thus, MTV is riding the current tidal wave of popularity for the Backstreet Boys, giving adoring teenage girls as much of the lovable boy crooners as they want. But in order to appeal to the growing legions of anti-Backstreet music fans that make up a sizable part of its audience, MTV also delivers the subtler message that at heart, it thinks boy bands are dumb. MTV is thus demonstrating its mastery the great pop culture game of our day: having your cake and eating it too, by simultaneously treating subjects with affection and sarcastic disdain. It's the attitude that pervades the latenight talk show of the smirking David Letterman , the wry comedy of Jerry Seinfeld and the tongue-in-cheek hoopla of professional wrestling. "We're in the Backstreet Boys business. We also get the joke," says Brian Graden, MTV's top programming executive. Actually, the 19-year-old network is replete with schizoid programming. Take the "Return of the Rock," an all-rock show billed explicitly as fare for people sick of teen pop. It airs just hours before "Total Request Live," a video countdown show where acts like the Backstreet Boys are daily favorites. But Carson Daly, the ultracool host of "TRL," also sneaks in subtle jabs at the teen groups he's introducing. Now comes probably the best example of MTV's two-pronged strategy: its new movie, which has its premiere Monday. The comedy follows a fictional boy band named "2Gether" from recruitment to stardom, hitting nearly every aspect of the boy-band craze along the way. The story features cute boy singers who make it big, with a little drama (lead singer leaves band!), romance (to reunite with his girlfriend!) and a happy ending (boy returns with girl at band's first big concert!). Peppering the mix area villanious record executive and a rival boy band whose lip-synching the girlfriend triumphantly exposes at the end. (Their fate: singing radio call-sign jingles in Tulsa as the true heartthrobs rise to fame.) Young fans, MTV programmers believe, can laugh at some of the goofy humor without being offended that MTV is mocking their music heroes when, for example, the uncoordinated band recruits try to learn a dance routing from their equally graceless overweight manager. Or when one band member bends over and reveals too much to a camera filming him from behind. There are plenty of slightly naughty jokes. After a grueling rehearsal, one band member snickers: "Being locked up in that room was totally cool. But I wish there were girls in there. And that there weren't enough sleeping bags. So me and a girl would have to share one." But the movie also has moments aimed at an older audience. Not too many adolescents would understand, say, the band manager reminding his boys he's in charge by saying: "There's only one captain on this ship. No Tennilee." "MTV's sort of in a tough position, because half its audience is girls who love the boy bands and love Limp Bizkit," says Mark Gunn, who co-wrote the "2-Gether" script with his cousin Brian. The two initially pitched the movie as a scathing parody of boy bands, but MTV executives persuaded them to it lighten up to "sit on bothe sides of the fence at the same time," says Brian Gunn. Now, MTV's Mr. Graden says, the movie works on both levels. "It's the perfect commentary on what's going on right now" in the music industry, "but it also works on the level that if you just want to fall in love with five guys, you can." MTV aired a video by the fictional band on "TRL" a couple of weeks ago, and the spot is now playing in MTV's regular rotation. It also teamed up with the record label TVT Records Inc. , NY, to put out the soundtrack. No merchandise or future albums are planned, but if the group takes off, "who knows?" Mr. Graden says. Fans like Nicole Lozyniak in Westport Conn., can't wait. A 14-year-old who treasures the sweaty towel she caught a Backstreet Boys concert in the fall, she says she has talked with friends about watching the movie. She also plans to buy the movie's soundtrack. The Backstreet Boys have already fueled her interest in MTV, which she watches about five hours a day. Does she care if the movie mocks the Boys? "I was thinking maybe they were making fun of them," she says, "but still, it's like just being about boy bands and the whole music of today is cool." Plus, "the guys seem like they could be hot." [The article features pictures of the "everybody (backstreet's back)single cd and the 2Ge+her album.] Comment on this item. Next Item: Boys want to seen as men, not just boys Prev Item: Assessment: Boy Bands and Girl Vixens