6/4/01
I just finished reading an article in Entertainment Weekly and now I am extremely pissed off. I'm not going to post the article, so if you are that interested in the shit they call reporting, then you can go out and buy the most recent issue that has some of the popular "teen" acts on the cover including BSB, Slutney, and Sarah Michelle Geller. The article discusses how the "bubble gum pop era" is coming to an end and that most of the teenage acts won't survive the transition into "adult pop." No, that's not what made me angry. I believe that is partially true, but I also believe the Backstreet Boys already successfully made the transition long ago. However, several other things about the article pissed me off.
On page twenty-nine of the article, the first week record sales for the Backstreet Boys "Black and Blue" album (1.6 million) are compared to 'Nsync's "No Strings Attached" album (2.4 million.) The article mentions that BSB sold nearly a million fewer copies than 'Nsync in the first week. After that they indicated that this most likely signals the "end of the Backstreet Boys era." As I read on, I noticed on page thirty the reporter states that the Backstreet Boys previous album "Millennium" sold 1.13 million it's first week. I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that BSB's first week record sales improved by .5 million. I don't understand how this improvement could possibly signal the "end of the Backstreet Boys era."
Another thing that confused me about this article was how it contradicted itself. It explained that the only way for these artists to make the transition into "adult pop" was to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. In a different paragraph it said that when these pop artists start appealing to the different generations it signals the end, because teenagers supposedly don't want their parents listening to the same music as they do. Besides the obvious contradictions of the two statements, something else bothered me about the second sentence. I know I was never really the average teenager, but I honestly don't think I would have minded my parents listening to the same music as me when I was younger. And I certainly don't mind now. Most of the music I listen to, my parents can't stand and would never listen to themselves, which is fine with me. But they do enjoy pop music, and they like the BSB almost as much as I do. That doesn't bother me at all...in fact I like it. I know Chicken Girl #1 feels the same way. She and I recently bought tickets for our moms to attend the next BSB concert. I also know that her mom has a cassette tape of BSB that she takes out with her when she walks. What really surprised me was what my dad said to me a few days ago. I was recently out of town when the Backstreet Boys CBS special aired so I asked my parents to tape it for me while I was gone. When I got back and was about to watch it, I thanked my dad for taping it. He shocked me when he said "It was no problem at all. In fact, I really enjoyed it. Those guys put on a helluva show." I couldn't believe my dad said that. I sat there watching it and grinning like an idiot for the first five minutes because I couldn't believe my dad liked it. I think it's cool when my parents are grooving to BSB and I like that they take a genuine interest in my life and something that I'm interested in...like I said, I was never the typical teenager. =)
So back to what bothered me about the article. That's right, there's more. The article mentions that all the girls who liked New Kids on the Block moved on to grunge rock bands such as Guns N' Roses. They predict that most of the younger teenagers and tweens will be moving onto bands such as Papa Roach and Linkin Park. This statement is what threw me over the edge and is pretty much my whole reason for complaining about this entire article. It drives me crazy that there are so many people out there, mostly in this demographic they're discussing, that feel that can only like one type of music. Maybe I don't fall into that exact demographic, but I listen to a huge variety of things in almost all genres of music. I enjoy almost everything including hard rock, punk, ska, pop, hip-hop, country, and anything else I get thrown at me. I try out everything, and I listen to whatever I'm in the mood for. If I had to choose one type of music to listen to for the rest of my life, there's no way I could pick. I could not imagine just "moving on" to something else. The only bands I've ever stopped liking were Sugar Ray, Everclear, and Third Eye Blind. If you go back and listen to their old CD's, they've completely changed their style of music. Sugar Ray's "Floored" is one of my favorite albums and is still in my normal circulation of CD's....but their new stuff is shit....same thing with Everclear and Third Eye Blind. They've all gone soft-rock. The top two things that piss me off about musicians and usually turn me off of their music for good are when they change the type of music they play, or when make fun of artists who don't play music similar or the same genre as their own. But back to the original statement of this article that pissed me off....do you know what my three favorite groups/bands are right now? Backstreet Boys, Papa Roach, and Linkin Park. That's right. I already love the two bands that this article claims will make me "move on" from the Backstreet Boys. Linkin Park is a fairly new fascination of mine. But Papa Roach has been one of my favorite bands for over a year now. The lyrics are awesome, the sound is solid, and they are really nice guys. I've even met them twice. And has this made me want to move on from pop music and stop liking everything except for angry metal bands? Nooooo. I'm capable of listening to and enjoying many types of music at once. I want to believe that not all of you out there are complete morons and that some of you are just as capable of liking a wide variety of music, but why do I get the feeling you will all prove me wrong?
On a lighter note, read on to find out what our little genius Nicky has done now. I got a good laugh out of this one. It was printed on the inside of the front page of our local newspaper yesterday:
Backstreet Singer Suffers Boating Mishap
Nick Carter melts teens' hearts as a crooner with the Backstreet Boys. But it looks as though he could use a few pointers when it comes to cruising the seas. Carter, 21, ran his luxury cabin cruiser aground near the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon, Fla., on Tuesday--and it was still stuck there Friday. Carter, who owns a home in Marathon, was piloting the 450 foot SeaRay boat in N Control from the Atlantic Ocean to Florida Bay when it struck a shallow seagrass bed on the bay side at the east end of the bridge, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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