Manufacturing pop stars

SO YOU'VE just bought yourself a copy of the new Backstreet Boys album (this part might require a bit of a stretch of the imagination). You open it up, pop the cassette or CD into your deck, crank it up, and start listening to the Boys' very own brand of original creative genius. Right? Not quite.

The truth is, while most people outside the West just assume that such pop groups write their own songs and make their own music, it just isn't so. The overwhelming bulk of boy bands, girl bands, and teen idols are, much like actors and actresses playing movie roles, complete fabrications of music executives and professional "artist" managers. And the strangest thing is, the kids in the West all know it. But they couldn't care less. It may sound strange at first, but part of the fun for them, really, is in the mindless fun to be had in something one has utterly no reason to like, other than the fact that the guys are cute or the girls hot, the choruses easy to sing, the beat infectious. Fair enough. But for millions of children outside the irony box, in countries like India, the real story behind imported teen pop may come as quite a surprise.

It all starts with the market. The teen pop music market is not so much a playground of self-expression as a lifestyle accessory for suburban children with plenty of money to burn - an estimated $275 billion in disposable income. The term Generation Y, coined by demographers and market researchers for those preteens and young teenagers in Western countries who respond best to teen pop and other youth culture accoutrements their older Gen X siblings have outgrown. When they're not patrolling the malls of America in packs, Gen Y kids are to be found particularly trolling the Net in chat room after chat room and firing off most of the billion or so instant messages sent across the Internet each month. After the suicide death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, music executives finally had their chance to once again push a plastic alternative to, ironically, alternative music (which was much harder to sell). As the fickle Gen X'ers grew up, the music industry moved in for the kill.

And a killing they did make. The Backstreet Boys' webcast of their "Millennium" concert kickoff was widely anticipated to score more hits than the webcast of Paul McCartney's historic return concert at The Cavern in Liverpool, and "Millennium" itself shattered a sound scan record by selling a staggering 1,134,000 copies in its 'first week'. But how the Boys and the others got to where they are now is another story in itself.

Like New Kids on the Block and New Edition in the late Eighties, each 98 Degrees, Boyzone, Westlife, 'N Sync, and Steps of today is typically the creation of a behind-the-scenes wizard who, on the basis of marketing, not music, elaborately pulls the strings, designing the group's musical feel, hairdos, outfits, everything. Finally, unknowns are cast to fit the image and make up the group itself, often by audition process. Songwriters are hired out and producers shared inside an ever-consolidating music industry.

The making of a teen pop idol, though, has no better example than Britney Spears.

A relative unknown who had as a child been a cast member of the Disney TV show "The Mickey Mouse Club," Britney has managed to dominate her niche in teen pop by appealing to both guys and girls. Make no mistake - the girl is talented. With a great voice, and phenomenal dancing ability, Britney is one of the few of the pack who is really headed places. And the girl is flat-out hot; her unblushing sex appeal cuts straight across to pimply teenage boys.

But there's some dark dealings afoot in the background. The record company that has a contract with Britney is also the Backstreet Boys' label. She shares songwriters with both the Boys and 'N Sync, for whom she opened part of a world tour, before 'N Sync really took off. Her manager also manages 'N Sync. And a hidden track on her "...Baby One More Time" album is an advertisement for the Backstreet Boys' "Millennium" album, prior to its release. The most sketchy part of Britney's career, though, might in fact be how she managed to score both a No. 1 single and album in the first week "...Baby One More Time" was released - never before done by a solo artist, much less a debut album. Although she had done a mall tour with two dancers and backing tapes, she was almost a total unknown to the world before "Baby" was released. So how did she do it? Well, the record company did it.

The German media juggernaut Bertelsmann BMG finally figured out the link between the Internet and Gen Y, and cashed in. Rather than the tricky practice of outright paying off teens, they offered gads of free CDs and promotional T-shirts in exchange for talking up Britney, whom they had never heard of before, on music chat rooms and bulletin boards. The scheme worked so well in generating a huge underground word-of-mouth buzz, that the company plans to use it from now on. According to BMG Music Publishing Creative Director Joshua Neuman, "I think if you empower fans, then that's great." So think twice the next time you get an e-mail or instant message from someone about this fantastic music group they just heard. That person just might be "empowering" you without your knowledge.

ARJUN DIRGHANGI

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