An article.. what is this guy on? -- *N The Loop

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Date Posted: 09:16:48 07/30/01 Mon
Author: Gina
Subject: An article.. what is this guy on?

Could *NSync be the ex-big thing?

Newsday-7/29/01

*N Sync knows it's never easy at the top. Lance Bass, J.C. Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake are the reigning princes of pop. They are holders of an amazing music industry record, selling 2.4 million copies of their "No Strings Attached" CD in one week-about 10 times the sales of a typical No. 1 album. They are among the world's biggest concert draws. They are the stars of countless teen and tween girls' dreams.
Their days on top, however, are numbered - along with the days of their belly-baring friends such as Britney Spears, their rivals the Backstreet Boys and the rest of the freshly scrubbed, impeccably dressed, well-choreographed
contingent that has dominated pop culture for the past three years.
How many days remain in the current pop crop's reign depends on how *N Sync's latest album, "Celebrity," in stores this week, fares with the public.
If it's a huge hit, the pop life may continue a bit longer. If it isn't, the changing of the guard will come faster than you can say, "Bye Bye Bye."
"Yeah, there's pressure on us," said Kirkpatrick, calling from a tour stop in Denver. "We could sell 1.5 million and still be falling off."
However, the Orlando quintet has decided that if it's going down, it's going down swinging.
"We're not aiming at a certain age group," said Chasez. "We make the music we like to make and roll the dice.
The first single from "Celebrity" is the aggressive, genre-bending "Pop," co-written by Timberlake and featuring lines like "Sick and tired of hearing all these people talk about/What's the deal with this pop life, and when is it gonna fade out?" and "The thing you got to realize, what we're doing is not a trend/We got the gift of melody, we're gonna bring it till the end."
"Pop extends to every kind of music," said Bass. "We're very, very lucky because pop crosses into R&B. We can stretch out musically." "It keeps it interesting," Chasez added.
"We don't want to release Bye, Bye, Bye (Part Two)," said Bass.
"People are moving on with us," Chasez finished. "A lot of other people will start going on in our direction." *N Sync plans to stick with pop-or "dirty pop" as they like to call it, accounting for the R&B influence in their music - and try not to worry about the consequences.
"We're not thinking about it," Bass added. "We've been wrapped up in the tour, so it's not the only thing on our minds. We're hoping it goes well. We're playing half the album and we like the reaction from the crowd. As far as breaking the record, I don't know. One thing that's good is you don't have to break your own record."
In the pop world, however, that's not exactly true.
Those who aren't moving up are generally getting pushed down. If "Celebrity" doesn't set the charts ablaze, it will likely certify that the bubblegum pop boom has gone bust.
"You can see it," said Max Collins, singer of the rock band Eve 6. "The labels aren't looking for another *N Sync anymore. Rock is coming back."
There is already a cavalcade of rockers like Staind, Tool, Incubus and Linkin Park waiting in the wings, set to push the pop groups off center stage at a moment's notice.
Only the strongest artists can boast more than three blockbuster albums in a row before the changing tastes of the marketplace or some sort of misstep knocks them from the top of the charts.
Michael Jackson strung together "Off the Wall," "Thriller," "Bad" and
"Dangerous" before running into public relations trouble. Madonna also
managed four hits before the "Sex" book and "Erotica" fiasco. Hootie and the
Blowfish, on the other hand, never came close to matching the sales of its
debut, "Cracked Rear Mirror." The Backstreet Boys have completed three hit
albums, though with A.J. McLean in rehab and the group acknowledging internal
stresses, it faces a major challenge for its next album.
"I don't think any band expects to spend more than three years on top," said Chris Johansen, president and chief executive of Odyssey Marketing, the Denver based trend watcher. "Usually what happens is that these groups start out with an older fan base, then they move to teens, then tweens and then kids. As the fan base gets younger and younger, the older ones start to move
to something else."
Though adults are buying more albums than ever, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, it is still teens and tweens (ages 9 to 12) who rule the charts.
Unlike adults, teen fans move in packs and they move quickly when it comes to CDs. That means teens will buy CDs as soon as they are released, which leads to the huge opening weeks teen-oriented acts like *N Sync and the Backstreet Boys have seen.
However, now that the under-10 set has latched onto the group, older teens find it harder to think of their heroes as hip.

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