by John Harlow
Five young men from Florida are expected to earn more than $350m(£230m) from a year-long world tour, replacing the Rolling Stones as the world's number one live band.
Backstreet Boys are the first "bubblegum pop" stars capable of filling the international sports stadiums that are normally reserved for rock veterans such as Tina Turner, 61, who earned $80m on her farewell tour last year. They lead a new generation of stars who are sophisticated enough to appeal to older music lovers as well as pretty enough to attract today's ever more affluent teenagers.
Last week's 2001 Grammy music award nominations reflected the change in the rock order. While Carlos Santana, 53, won 10 awards last year, the latest nominations were dominated by youthful performers such as Destiny's Child, Backstreet Boys, and their Jive music label colleagues , 'N Sync and Britney Spears.
Last month Backstreet Boys broke international records by selling 5m copies of their album, Black and Blue, in it's first week of release, knocking the Beatles' compilation, called simply 1, off the top of the charts in America. In 1998 the group earned $60m-more than Bruce Willis, the Hollywood Star, according to Forbes magazine. Like their contemporaries Britney Spears and 'N Sync, they have defied critical sneers about the longevity of their music to increase their sales still further.
Two-thirds of the band's records are sold outside North America, many of them in expanding markets such as Aisa and Eastern Europe, where young fans now have the money to afford top ticket prices to see their idols.
The Rolling Stones spent nearly all the money they made in the 1960's by the early 1970's, when they relaunched themselves as a live act playing football stadiums. Their two-year Bridges to Babylon tour grossed a record $345m by the time it finished last year. The Stones' tour organiser, SFX, has also drawn up the schedule for Backstreet Boys. SFX has initially announced 115 tour dates, expected to gross $250m, and is planning other concerts which together with corporate sponsorship, could be worth another $100m. "This is the richest touring deal in history", said Bruce Kapp, vice-president of SFX touring.
Touring used to be a loss leader to promote album sales, but rock economics have been reversed as well-heeled followers of middle-aged bands such as the Eagles and Pink Floyd showed they were willing to pay $300 for a stadium seat.
In 1998 Rod Stewart earned $5m from album sales and $21m from touring: last year Bruce Springsteen sold $20m worth of albums and $70m worth of concert tickets.
Tina Turner said she had to keep touring because she did not write her own songs and so did not earn composing royalties. "But now I have completed building my house in Switzerland and can lay up and enjoy it", she said recently.
SFX was convinced of Backstreet Boys earning power last year when all 750,000 tickets for a limited tour were sold in nine hours. They delivered large scale shows that impressed even rock critics of the old school. Others may have difficulty distinguishing Backstreet Boys from 'N Sync. Both were created by Louis J Pearlman, veteran owner of Trans Continental Records in the mid 1990's in Orlando, Florida, honing their acting and singing skills at the Sea World attraction.
Both consist of five singer-dancers, who do not play instruments but are backed by competent if older and plainer musicians. Both sing tunes composed by Scandinavians, today's masters of the pop tune. Sociologists say the young stars are riding on a wave of unprecedented prosperity among America's 31m teenagers. This year they will spend an estimated $203 billion, nearly half of it on music.