This article for Southam News appeared after April 16, 1998 in several Southam newspapers, including The Hamilton Spectator
By Nick Krewen
TORONTO -- It's time to send in the clones.
In what promises to be one of the more successful replications in pop music history, a handful of Orlando-based semi-anonymous male singers known as 'NSync are about to stroll down the same path cleared by that other Orlando pop vocal quintet: Backstreet Boys.
Heard of them?
If you're the long-suffering parent of a daughter just entering her teenage years, they've been gnawing at your sanity the past 18 months.
The records. The videos. The posters. The high-pitched screams at the mere mention of their names...
So brace yourself. JAMES "LANCE" BASS, JOSHUA "JC" CHASE, JOSEPH FATONE, JR., CHRIS KIRKPATRICK and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE are about to make you reach for your wallet and your aspirin.
Again.
Although 'NSync possesses all the qualities and mannerisms of an assembly-line pop group -- five cute guys aged 17 to 26 who can sing, dance, and churn out the fluffy, R&B-scented romantic pop that inexplicably triggers your daughter's budding hormones -- they deny duplication.
Instead, Lance and JC -- last names are inconsequential, just ask your teenager -- are acknowledging a debt to you-know-who during an interview in a cramped suite at Toronto's Sutton Place Hotel.
"Yeah, Backstreet Boys opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. But so have groups like HANSON and THE SPICE GIRLS," argues Lance, the bass-singing blond who soon plans on buying a 4-Runner with his 'NSync earnings.
Yet one can't ignore the similarities between Backstreet and 'NSync. Both are repeating a pattern that sold millions of records for THE OSMONDS and THE JACKSON 5 in the '70s and forecast the global success of NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK in the late '80s.
Like their Backstreet brethren, 'NSync are achieving their North American success through a European back door. Formed three years ago, 'NSync initially hunted for a North American record deal. When U.S. labels didn't bite, BMG Ariola Munich did.
"The rest of the world is very open-minded to all kinds of music," explains JC, a former host of the updated Disney Channel TV program "Mickey Mouse Club."
"The States were very close-minded."
RCA Record opened their minds when Backstreet Boys blossomed, and added 'NSync to their roster. They completed their training in Germany.
"In Germany we gained a lot of experience, learned what our mistakes were, what to improve, and then we felt we had a great package to offer America," says Lance.
Coincidentally, Backstreet Boys also made their mark in Germany. Today, Backstreet boasts Canadian sales of over two million albums and 500,000 videos.
'NSync is trailing at the moment, but already has sold 100,000 copies of its self-titled debut album in only three weeks, piggybacked by the chart-topping success of the group's first single "I Want You Back."
It should be no surprise that 'NSync is so closely synchronized with Backstreet Boys: they're both managed by Trans Continental, the same Orlando-based company that handles Chippendale.
The dancers. Not the squirrels.
It's working.
Last week, 200 teenage girls patiently endured a Thursday afternoon rainstorm as they pressed their noses against MuchMusic's studio windows to glimpse their teen idols. You can also bet free concerts and promotional appearances in Southern Ontario and Montreal through Tuesday will draw thousands more.
With tentative Canadian concert dates booked for July, a European album out in the Fall and a Christmas album in the planning stages, the only question is how long 'NSync will be able to sustain its momentum.
"You don't know how long success is going to last, so we're going to eat it up," says Lance. "We could be like the BEE GEES and last for years, which is what we plan to do.
"But you never know."
DISCOGRAPHY
1998 -- 'NSync
2000 -- No Strings Attached
COLLABORATIONS
1998 -- Various Artists, Sabrina The Teenage Witch -- The Album
1999 -- Alabama, Twentieth Century (with Alabama)
1999 -- Various Artists, Music Of The Heart (with Gloria Estefan)
1999 -- Various Artists, Pokemon
THANKS: CAMERON CARPENTER, JOAN WALTERS
©1998, 1999 Nick Krewen, Octopus Media Ink
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