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Date: Jun 04, 2099 By Elysa Gardner, Special for USA TODAY It seems like only yesterday that Ricky Martin was the hottest guy in the music business. But for the past two weeks, fans and industry insiders have been singing a different tune: The Boys Are Back in Town. That would be the Backstreet Boys. Their album Millennium - the eagerly awaited follow-up to their self-titled 1997 debut, which has sold 10 million copies in the USA alone - hit stores like a meteor May 18. Millennium topped the Billboard album chart this week - forcing Ricky Martin, the ex-Menudo member's English-language debut, to No. 2. Next week those positions will hold steady. But the real story isn't a battle between commercial behemoths. According to radio executives and other folks in the know, it's that artists who have traditionally appealed to the teenybopper crowd - that is, photogenic young singers pumping out slick, hook-ridden tunes (most of them crafted by, or with help from, older pros) - are being embraced by adults as well, particularly women. The Backstreet Boys, with their staggering commercial success - Millennium broke a SoundScan record by selling 1,134,000 copies in its first week - are clearly the poster boys for this trend. But they hardly have a lock on the market. Boy groups such as 'N Sync, whose self-titled 1998 debut album has sold 6 million copies, also have emerged as contenders, not to mention post-Spice girl groups such as B*Witched and baby divas such as Britney Spears, Brandy and Monica. "A lot of these records sound like they could have been made at any time in the past 30 years," says Sean Ross, editor of the radio publication Airplay Monitor. "The difference is now, for the first time, mothers and daughters agree (on music) - although there may be big sisters in the middle who don't agree with them. "I think Ricky (Martin) is an unusual case. Ricky's made a rock record that just happens to be by a Hispanic artist who just happens to have teen appeal. The record goes across all boundaries. If you look at where the Backstreet Boys are being played, it's not the rock stations that appeal to 18- to 24-year-old listeners. They're being played by the Top 40 stations and the light-rock and soft adult-contemporary stations." Jim Ryan, operations manager for New York-area adult-contemporary station WLTW ("Lite FM"), confirms Ross' theory. "We do extensive music research, and the Backstreet Boys' songs test extremely well with our core female listeners, women between the ages of 25 and 54. Same thing with Britney Spears. Good pop songs transcend age boundaries." But Ryan acknowledges that music isn't the only factor in these wholesome young artists' crossover appeal. "When I was a kid, I heard, 'Oh, go to your room and listen to The Beatles and leave me alone.' I think parents today want to bond a little more with their kids, especially when you see some of the trouble that's going on in the world. If Mom is carpooling the kids to school and hears them listening to the Backstreet Boys on (New York Top 40 station) Z-100, she feels comfortable hearing the Backstreet Boys on Lite FM. And I think parents feel better about letting their kids go to a Backstreet Boys concert than to some of the harder rap concerts." The kids attending Backstreet Boys concerts belong to the biggest generation of adolescents since the baby boomers - and as a group, they spend a lot more money than the flower children did. That may help explain why teen-focused music, like teen-focused movies and television shows, is becoming a higher priority for the entertainment industry and thus reaching more fans in the post-Clearasil crowd. Of course, those who operate the star-making machinery behind the Boys insist that the young men's maturing talents are central to their increasingly wide appeal. Barry Weiss, the president of the group's label, Jive Records, whose roster includes Spears, points out that the Boys - Brian Littrell, 23; Kevin Richardson, 27; Howie Dorough, 25; A.J. McLean, 21; and Nick Carter, 19 - were more involved creatively on their sophomore effort. "Kevin wrote a large portion of Back to Your Heart with Gary Baker, who wrote (the All-4-One hit) I Swear," Weiss says. Another outside writer, Wayne Perry, also contributed . "Brian wrote the majority of The Perfect Fan and was also involved in The One. And they were involved with a team of some of the most talented music producers in the world." A key player on that team was I Want It Like That co-writer/producer Max Martin, the Swedish pop savant known for previous hits by the Backstreet Boys, Spears and Scandinavian singer Robyn. Was there a conscious strategy at Jive to put together an album and campaign that would reflect the Boys' growth and thus attract even more fans? "I would hate to say that we're that contrived," Weiss says. "We're not sitting around briefing the creative forces, saying, 'Let's appeal to this demographic and that demographic.' Great records span demographics." Weiss won't get an argument from Michael Green, co-founder of The Firm, the Boys' management company. "It's all about the music," Green says. "That's what we encourage the guys to focus on. We're not worrying about demographics - if you sell 27 million records worldwide, it's pretty safe to say you run the gamut. If they continue to make great music, there'll be a market for it." But there is some concern in the industry that the sheer glut of teen-oriented groups now duking it out on the charts may eventually cause a backlash. "There are so many of these boy bands now - every record company has one," says John Peake, program director of KRBE-FM, a Top 40 station in Houston. "I think we're going to reach a point where it's going to be, 'Enough already.' We've seen early indications in our market research that the audience is beginning to not accept these records. The Backstreet Boys seem to be staying above it. We have, however, seen it affect a group like 'N Sync." Scott Shannon, program director of New York adult Top 40 station WPLJ-FM, adds that teen idols haven't traditionally enjoyed longevity. "Normally, the same thing happens," Shannon says. "They hop the rocket for the quick ride, and then as soon as their constituency ages a bit, they have trouble getting airplay. The Backstreet Boys are talented, and they have a tremendous machine behind them, but let's face it: History has not been kind to these groups." Guy Zapoleon, the president of radio consulting firm Zapoleon Strategies, figures that the cyclical nature of pop music can help make and break groups like the Backstreet Boys. "We're getting very close to the part of the cycle when everybody gets tired of pop because everything in music becomes pop," Zapoleon says." There's too much Backstreet Boys, just like there was too much New Kids on the Block." Still, Zapoleon isn't advising his clients to chuck their teen-pop records just yet - or any time in the foreseeable future. "As much as you don't want a saturation of what I call 'pure pop' - the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears - that's the glue that holds Top 40 (radio) together. My advice to people is 'You gotta play the hits.' " And the hits keep on coming. RCA Records plans to release 'N Sync's second album in October. Vincent DeGiorgio, director of international artists and repertoire for the label, says the project will feature "a variety of songs that (represent) an extension of their first record - but it takes the ballads to a bit more of a serious plateau." DeGiorgio claims not to be worried about competition from the Backstreet Boys or boy-band overkill in general. "I think there's room for more than one artist in this genre," he says. "During the Motown era, there was the Four Tops and there was the Temptations."
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