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Men II Boyz
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April 3, 2000 | The executive is Lou Pearlman, the middle-aged, apple-shaped impresario of Orlando's Trans Continental Records and mastermind of the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. Both groups no longer work for Pearlman, both having left after suing him over financial disputes. (The cases were settled out of court.) "Making the Band," from the creators of MTV's "The Real World," will follow the shaping of Pearlman's latest boy band, O-Town, as it makes a record, goes on tour and lives communally, "Real World"-style, in a rambling, lakefront Orlando, Fla., house. (The premise sounds an awful lot like that of "Pop Stars," a recent Australian TV series that followed the creation of a new girl group.) In the March 24 premiere episode, young Backstreet/'N Sync wannabes auditioned for Pearlman in casting calls held across the United States. Twenty-five guys were chosen to fly to Orlando for further scrutiny; that group was then winnowed down to a rainbow-hued finalist pool of eight, amid many tears, group hugs and a cappella choruses of "Amazing Grace." It was like watching a cross between a beauty pageant and the NCAA tournament of wusses. As guilty pleasures go, they don't come any more car-wreck fascinating and unintentionally hilarious than "Making the Band." There have been countless boy-band parodies, like the devastating Ben Stiller-Andy Dick spoof that opened the MTV Video Awards a couple of years ago and the recent, disappointingly lame MTV movie "2-Gether." But all of them pale before the giddy "unrehearsed, unscripted, unknown" reality (or so the ads say) that is "Making the Band." The audition episode was a scream, as (mostly white) young men with varying degrees of talent performed phat dance moves and over-soulful renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" while Pearlman, a bespectacled, Scoutmasterly man incongruously given to hep phrases like "Yo, yo yo," and "Wha's up," intently sized them up.
Making the Band
9:30 p.m. Fridays, ABC
Joyce Millman Joyce Millman's column appears every other Monday in Salon Arts & Entertainment. Since O-Town is slated to be a five-man harmony group, three of the finalists will eventually be tossed. Will the euphoniously named Ashley Parker Angel be among the unlucky wash-outs? How about flirty Paul Martin? Sensitive Trevor Penick? Clean-cut Mike Miller? Elegant Bryan Chan? Confident Erik-Michael Estrada? Sunny Jacob Underwood? Cuddly Ikaika Kahoano? Oh, please, please, not Ikaika! Is it cruel to laugh at people reaching for a dream? Well, yeah. But, admit it, that's why shows like "Making the Band" and "The Real World" are so popular; creators Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray understand that for a voyeuristic series to be any fun, it must make viewers feel vastly superior to the dippy exhibitionists they're observing. Besides, as cruel as it may be for us to goof on the boys who would be O-Town, it can't possibly be as cruel as when a Pearlman aide burst into laughter in the middle of one tone-deaf guy's audition. As "Real World" viewers know, the hallmark of any Bunim-Murray production is the dramatic tension arising from diverse housemates in close quarters. And sure enough, there is trouble on the O-Town horizon in the form of envy, personality clashes and prima-donnaism. How much of "Making the Band" is manipulated by the filmmakers? Given their track record with "The Real World," do you have to ask? But, the thing is, it really doesn't matter in this case; brainless artificiality is such a major part of boy bands -- and of today's intensely commodified pop scene in general -- that it's pointless to try to figure out what's real about O-Town and what's fake. It's all fake, to a certain degree. Which gives us all the more reason to sit back and laugh. But as enjoyably cheesy as I'm finding "Making the Band," one question nags me: Don't these guys realize how silly they look? Why would a grown man -- assuming that you can consider 19- and 21-year-olds "grown men" in these days of elongated adolescence -- want to be in a boy band anyway? Imagine the life of a Backstreet Boy, getting dissed by everybody over the age of 14, prancing around in a shopping-mall-dilution of rap poses, having to do all those fabulous Michael Jackson-imitates-Bob Fosse dance numbers while wearing thick-soled, clunky Doc Martens -- why bother? Oh, I suppose the money and fame would go a long way toward easing any low-self-esteem issues and physical discomfort arising from boy-band success. And there's also the soothing prospect of using one's boy-band experience as a steppingstone to solo stardom (like former Menudo member Ricky Martin) or an acting career (like 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake). And then there are the traditional perks of pop stardom, like the chicks and the parties, to which two O-Town finalists fall victim in the coming weeks. I'm not sure chicks and partying really figure into the equation where the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync are concerned, though; it's hard to do those dance steps if you're falling down drunk, and as for chicks, well, there are tabloid headlines to consider. Of course, the million-dollar question is, How many of these boy-band members are really gay? But nobody's talking, because such a thing would be very bad for business, if your business happens to be making little girls dream about marrying you.
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