Word: syncing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...recent afternoon at the O-Town complex, C-Note is huddled inside a sound room harmonizing with a vocal coach, while down the hall, Take Five, a younger-than-'N Sync quintet for pre-preteen fans, is practicing footwork with a choreographer. Pearlman comes in to take a look, and the kids stop to give him hugs and shake his hand. "What's up, Big Poppa?" one of them asks (they actually call him that). "Did you get a haircut, man?" "You look like Tom Cruise," jokes another. Big Poppa beams...
...form, from Kabuki to slasher films, one must follow rules but with a whiff of originality. Pearlman and his staff look at everything--the proportionate size of group members, their height, their weight, their hair color, their personalities onstage and off. Who will be the prankster, like 'N Sync's Chris Patrick? Who will be the lead sex symbol, like Backstreet's Nick Carter? Who can make a credible dangerous guy, the one who dresses more "urban" and maybe even has tattoos...
...while there, kids wanted to be older than they were," says David Zedeck, owner of Renaissance Entertainment in New York City, which books concert tours for both Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. "Now," he says, "kids want to be kids again. It's the effect of Disney and Nickelodeon on the music industry...
...here's the sad part of the story: when Backstreet Boys was starting to break, Pearlman, sensing an even vaster market, formed 'N Sync. Hurt by the sudden competition, Backstreet Boys sued Pearlman as well as their personal managers (who are allied with but independent of Trans Continental). Happily, the group settled out of court with Big Poppa, and members still graciously refer to him in interviews as "the sixth Backstreet...
...music. In interviews, Backstreet and 'N Sync members stress the centrality of "their" music. As Pearlman says, "You have to be able to sing first or it doesn't matter how good-looking you are." The two groups share some of the same songwriters and producers, and both acts owe their most immediate debt to the somewhat more sophisticated R.-and-B. harmonizing of Boyz II Men. The hits are catchy, even compelling, but it's hard, once a girl has grown breasts, to make it through a whole album's worth; then again, to be fair, the same...