Cute and clean and on top of the world

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Nov 23, 2099 Source: The Commercial Appeal, Memphis TN Submitted By: Y By Michael Lollar They've sold the fourth-highest number of tickets since The Pyramid opened in 1991, with almost 20,000 seats selling out in roughly three hours for their concert tonight. They're the top touring act in the world and, in the United States, they draw bigger crowds than the current tours by pop icons Celine Dion, Bette Midler and Cher. If you can't figure out who they are based on that information, you're probably over 40, still enthralled by the exploits of Mick Jagger, or maybe hoping for a new tour by the Doobie Brothers or the Eagles. Of course, we're talking about the Backstreet Boys, the pre-fab pop band in the New Kids On the Block and Menudo mold. They're turning up the decibel level - of audience members - to heights not heard since the Beatles era. And they're turning pop music into a kind of family affair. In Olive Branch, it's debatable who's the biggest Backstreet Boys fan in one household. It could be either 13-year-old Lindsey Shackelford, one of her two sisters or their mother. Lindsey, a seventh-grader at Olive Branch Middle School, echoes the same review heard round the world when it comes to the band: "They're all cute. I like the music, too." But it's her 15-year-old sister who has wall-to-wall Backstreet images in her room, and it's their mother, Deedee, 39, who stood in line for three hours in August for tickets. Deedee and a sister-in-law, who helped finance the expedition, spent $43.50 per ticket (including a $5 service charge). That's $174 just for Shackelford and her daughters. But that's a bargain compared to $125-a-ticket minimum prices quoted Thursday by scalpers. In Bartlett, Sue Leet, 43, says the band reminds her of her own teenage crushes on Donny Osmond and the Partridge Family's David Cassidy. "I like Kevin. That would be my favorite Backstreet Boy," says Leet, attracted by his voice and his "Oscar the Grouch eyebrows." Leet, who works as a candy packer for Dinstuhl's, says that unlike a box of chocolates, you usually know what you're going to get with the Backstreet Boys. "This was something I could finally stand to hear on the radio and understand the words. It's very clean," she says. Her daughter, Jessica, 14, a freshman at Bartlett High, was even excused for exceeding the "thumbtack limit" when she covered almost her entire bedroom wall with Backstreet Boys pictures and posters. "There for a while most of the music was rap or alternative. I think they brought back the good music," says Jessica of the group whose first album debuted in 1997. Like most fans, she disses Backstreet Boys' biggest boy-band rivals, 'N Sync and 98 Degrees. "I just think they're annoying and really can't sing that well, and they can't dance. I think 'N Sync totally copied the Backstreet Boys, so if it wasn't for them (Backstreet), none of the others would have made it," says Jessica. Another mother, Laurie Rieman, 45, of Bartlett says Backstreet Boys music has a close-harmony appeal that may remind older fans of The Lettermen or the Mills Brothers. She first noticed and liked Backstreet when she heard them during a Jazzercise class. Her 14-year-old daughter, Marin, is less choosy when it comes to the boy bands. She is going to tonight's concert, but she doesn't see much difference between Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and 98 Degrees. "They all sound pretty much the same." But reviewers and music industry pundits have been calling Backstreet Boys everything from disposable to flash-in-the-pan stars for two years. And Marin can see it coming. "Bands fade in and out. The radio station I listen to, 107.5 FM, repeats the same songs over and over and over again, and you get kind of tired of listening to them." In fact, she recently put aside her own Backstreet songs to get a jumpstart on the sounds of Christmas. "My favorite song is Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire, one version of it by 'N Sync and one by 98 Degrees." At Pollstar, editor-in-chief Gary Bongiovanni, who tracks concert tours nationwide, says most bands with strictly teen audiences last little more than three years. Still shy of that threshold, Backstreet Boys shows no signs of losing its audience. Bongiovanni says the group has averaged sales of 32,040 tickets in each of 39 cities on its tour, with average gross sales of $1.2 million per concert. That puts them ahead of tours by Celine Dion, Bette Midler and Cher (Nos. 2-4). Hot as Backstreet Boys are, they likely will fade, Bongiovanni says. "The reason a group's appeal is so short is that the audience grows older and the tastes change. We saw it with New Kids On The Block. At their zenith, they were actually playing stadiums. Only a couple of years later they did a club tour and didn't sell out." A collapse of the band would mean redecorating for Jessica Leet and her wall-to-wall Backstreet room in Bartlett. "Hopefully they'll stay together longer than New Kids did. If they do break up, I hope they'll go solo," she says. To reach reporter Michael Lollar, call 529-2793 or E-mail lollar@gomemphis.com Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: buy oem software 33Qxt7 Thanks, useful material I added your blog to my bookmarks!... Comment on this item. Next Item: Talent is Always Ridiculed Prev Item: Add fame to Backstreet Boys' faves