A new crush of boy bands

By Gerrick D. Kennedy

March 25, 2012 12 AM PT

Hundreds of glow sticks luminesced over the sold-out crowd at Gibson Amphitheatre on a recent Friday night. Prepubescent girls snapped cellphone pictures and out-screamed one another as younger kids were hoisted onto parents’ shoulders for better views.

The cheers morphed into hysteria as Big Time Rush emerged.

The scene onstage is familiar: five seemingly interchangeable young guys linked by one band name and an ability to dance with military precision, deliver harmonies and exude boy-next-door charm.

Big Time Rush is at the crest of a new boy band wave, yet the L.A.-made group hearkens to an era when Backstreet Boys, ‘NSync and 98 Degrees ruled the charts.

Judging from the recent sold-out L.A. shows for other young groups such as multicultural British heartthrobs the Wanted and R&B; teen sensations Mindless Behavior, as well as the buzz surrounding reality show magnate Simon Cowell’s creation One Direction, the reemergence of the boy band has only just begun.

In what seems to be as predictably cyclical as the stock market, bubble gum bands are back and trying to fill a void left by the maturation of Justin Bieber and other precursors. And as always, they’re working extra hard in competing with one another to stand out.

Mindless Behavior’s Jacob “Princeton” Perez, who’s from L.A., said he’s aware their popularity could fade as fast as it arrived. “In this camp, they really believe in working hard. Our manager always told us to never get comfortable because it can all go away really fast,” he said. “A lot of people think it came out of nowhere, but we’ve been at it for three years.”

Though Mindless Behavior is geared more for the urban market, their music -- like that of their dreamy boy peers -- is loaded with enough sugary pop, dance and R&B; melodies to charm tweens across America until at least the end of summer break.

Since Big Time Rush was assembled for the Nickelodeon show of the same name in 2009 the band’s TV series has become a hit and it’s now behind two albums, blockbuster tours and a slew of made-for-TV films, including the Beatles-themed “Big Time Movie,” which attracted 13 million total viewers when it aired this month, according to Nielsen. After dates on the group’s current tour sold out in minutes, it announced an extensive summer trek.

Big Time Rush follows a mold, once perfected by the Monkees, in which a fictional artist-based sitcom extends to profitable tours, music and merchandise. Its current album, “Elevate,” has debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, it has sold more than 3 million digital tracks, and its self-titled TV show, now in its second season, averages a respectable 3.6 million viewers.

The Wanted, managed by the man behind Justin Bieber, Scott “Scooter” Braun, hit No. 1 on the iTunes pop chart with its U.S. single, “Glad You Came.” The song (on the Def Jam label, just like Bieber) was bolstered in part when the cast of “Glee” covered it. It’s now sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S. since its release in January.

BTR member Kendall Schmidt says its latest success proves it’s more than a novelty. “We’d all be lying if we said the first thing we planned to do was sing in a boy band. We all knew we were signing up for an opportunity of a lifetime,” said Schmidt, 21, who’s based in L.A. “We are trying our best to make it our band and not something we signed up for.”

Not all the up-and-coming boy bands are Svengalied, but the majority are the product of industry masterminds looking to capitalize on the budding hormones of juveniles.

Mindless Behavior’s co-manager, Keisha Gamble of Conjunction Entertainment, and the company’s chief executive, Walter W. Millsap III, saw a void in the R&B; market after B2K (a disciple of the 1980s sensation New Edition) fell out of fashion more than a decade ago. So along with Streamline Records head Vincent Herbert, they auditioned teens for the new group. “It had been 10 years since there had been a boy band that catered to the urban community,” said Gamble. “Little girls want something to latch on to. There’s only been Justin Bieber, so it was perfect timing for something like this to come along.” Mindless Behavior, whose debut came out in September, is the only band of the bunch whose members are all African American.

Herbert said the goal was to calculate a “bulletproof” strategy for the band of 15-year-olds. Since he has a joint venture with Interscope and clout from signing Lady Gaga, he was able to fast-track them into a deal and secured plum opening slots on tours with the Backstreet Boys, Justin Bieber and Janet Jackson. The band’s debut, “#1 Girl,” bowed at No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B;/Hip-Hop albums last fall .

Late last year the boys quickly amassed more than $100,000 in merchandise sales on Interscope’s online store and were second behind Gaga in terms of sales. “We took our time thinking about the marketing,” said Herbert. “I don’t believe in losing. You look at their album and every song is about girls. Girls at 14 and 15 years old are excited about boys.”

Not everyone is buying in. Carson Daly, who was host of MTV’s “Total Request Live” during the boom of boy bands in the late 1990s, is skeptical that this new wave of cute groups will rise to the heights of their predecessors. “We moved further away from the produced pop bands. The Spice Girls, ‘NSyncs and Backstreet Boys -- that was an era that I think is over.”

“How many pop groups are you hearing on the radio?” asked Daly, who hosts “The Voice” and co-anchors a morning show on KAMP-FM (97.1). “I play Top 40 every day. You just don’t see these young boy bands or girl groups. It’s not the thing that’s working right now.”

Unless, of course, you’re a fan who posts about these band members’ every move on blogs like Oh No They Didn’t, where a blogger recently referred to One Direction as “flawfree angels.” The group, like the Wanted and Mindless Behavior, include all the requisite boy band archetypes needed to attract starry-eyed fans (i.e. the rebellious one, the sensitive one, the shy one, and so on.)

As a result, the Wanted was forced to make an 11th-hour venue swap from the Roxy to El Rey to accommodate the demand for tickets, and this is before its stateside album release date of April 24.

“We got put in a house together to write music and see if we could form as a band. In a way, we didn’t really know what we were jumping into,” the Wanted’s Max George recalls. “We could all play instruments and we got to write our own music, which a lot [of boy bands] don’t normally do.”

The quintet One Direction (ages 18 to 20) was pieced together by Cowell and former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger after its members auditioned as solo singers on the U.K. edition of “X Factor” in 2010 and then collectively placed third.

The group recently wrapped an opening slot for Big Time Rush -- often receiving better reviews than the headliner. It is set to perform at the upcoming Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and “Saturday Night Live.”

To add to the hype, it just announced its first U.S. headlining tour, and there is buzz that Nickelodeon is in talks to have the group anchor a show similar to Big Time Rush’s.

“We all know how hard it is to crack America,” member Liam Payne, 18, said before its U.S. debut “Up All Night” interrupted Adele’s chart-topping run by knocking her out of the No. 1 spot (it is only the second disc of 2012 to do so and the first time a British group has debuted at No. 1 in the U.S.). “When you come over here, you’re one of four or five New Kids on the Block out there.”

George is certain his band will ultimately come out on top. “I see [One Direction] as more a Jonas Brothers, they are very young, very TV-based sort of thing. With us people are buying into our music, more than they buy into us,” he said. “People just like our music, which is what we want. We’re much more into selling our music than we are posters.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Who’s the fairest of them all?

There’s a new wave of boy bands vying for chart dominance and the hearts

of teenage girls. Here’s a handy guide to the top four ensembles.

The Wanted

These British heartthrobs have chiseled good looks, a bad-boy edge and multicultural appeal. They are aiming for the same type of chart and pop culture domination as labelmate Justin Bieber. No surprise, considering they share a manager.

Fun fact: Member Max George was previously a member of Avenue, which was disqualified from U.K.’s “The X Factor” after it was revealed the boy band was engineered for the show.

Big Time Rush

Created to anchor a Nickelodeon series, Big Time Rush has won over dedicated “Rushers” with two hit albums, blockbuster tours and made-for-TV films, including the Beatles-themed “Big Time Movie,” which attracted 13 million total viewers when it aired this month.

Fun fact: Before their self-titled show, members of the quartet had acting credits on series such as “iCarly,” “Friday Night Lights,” “ER” and “Gilmore Girls.”

Mindless Behavior

A void in the R&B; boy band market led to the creation of teen act Mindless Behavior. The 15-year-olds went through a rigorous two-year training period before it released its debut record, “#1 Girl,” which bowed at No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B;/Hip-Hop album chart.

Fun fact: It was handpicked by Janet Jackson to be the sole opener for dates on the North American leg of her “Number Ones: Up Close and Personal” tour.

One Direction

Pieced together by reality show magnate Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger after auditioning as solo acts on the U.K. edition of “The X Factor” in 2010, One Direction are wooing girls with their British charm, poster boy faces and syrupy sweet pop lyrics about teenage love.

Fun fact: Kelly Clarkson helped pen the track “Tell Me a Lie” off of its debut, “Up All Night.”

Gerrick D. Kennedy