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[Joey] Hello.

- [Woman] Joey. - [Joey] Hello.

- [Woman] Joey! - [Joey] Hey, how are you?

[Man] Calm down, calm down.

[Man] Hey, Chris, [indistinct]

[hysterical screaming]

[tapping on glass]

[Man] Stay away from the elevator.

[Girl screaming]

[Chris] Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

I told you this is gonna be crazy.

♪ Yeah

♪ So tell me what to do now

♪ 'Cause I, I, I I, I, I want you back ♪

[Lance] In all of Europe,

there was this thing called boy band.

We never even heard that term yet.

Proudly, we're like, "Yes, we're a boy band."

And then we slowly like, "Oh, wait, that's a bad thing."

♪ You're my sunshine after the rain ♪

Well, the term "boy band" was one

that we were very hesitant to embrace early on.

We never thought of ourselves as a boy band,

at least in the conventional sense.

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

[Donnie] I love boy bands.

I'm proud to say I'm in a boy band.

I fight for boy bands. I stick up for boy bands.

I love touring with boy bands.

[Lyndsey] What is a boy band? It's a weird term.

A lot of bands that are called boy bands

aren't bands in the true sense.

They don't play instruments, they dance.

They're more from that Motown tradition

of The Temptations, the Four Tops.

And then there were some that are actual full-on bands

like Jonas Brothers or Hanson.

[Taylor] We weren't put together.

We were made together, right?

In the same womb.

It's gross, actually. [brothers grimacing]

♪ Candy girl, you are my world

[Man] We've seen so many stories

about boy bands.

This is about the evolution.

It formulates who you are at such an important age.

♪ All you people can't you see can't you see ♪

The rivalry is what made it huge.

Just this nonstop battle.

When you think it can't get bigger, it gets bigger.

♪ 'Cause I, I I'm in the stars tonight ♪

K-pop really is the center of the boy band universe

at this moment in time.

[Lance] I'm sure they looked at

what happened in Orlando, Florida,

but took it to the next level.

If I state the obvious,

everything that's happening in our lives,

none of it will be possible without our fans.

[Yve] The boy band is something

that only can exist in response

the wishes of teenage girls.

When you're in a boy band,

the main subject is the girl.

And you're saying things to the girl,

"I wanna be with you. I wanna hold your hand.

Quit playing games with my heart."

They're singing straight to the girls.

We would not be who we are without the fans.

The power has always been in the young girl.

[Man] It was the dynamic of the little girls

that created every boy band in existence.

[Ed] Ladies and gentlemen,

The Beatles.

♪ She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

[Debbie] I will never forget the feeling,

the excitement,

how magical it was,

when Ed Sullivan introduced them.

[Woman] The Beatles, who are considered

the original boy band,

were in the mid '50s.

[Brian] I heard about them through a lad

who was asking for a record by them

in one of my stores.

The Beatles were then just four lads

on that rather dimly-lit stage.

I was immediately struck by their music, their beat,

their sense of humor, actually, on stage.

And even afterwards, when I met them,

I was struck again by their personal charm.

[Woman] He approached them, offered to be their manager.

He had no management experience.

[Vivek] He believed that, if marketed and presented,

and done in the right way,

The Beatles could be bigger than Elvis.

♪ You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪

♪ Cryin' all the time ♪

[Man] Elvis showed the world

what passionate fandom could look like.

[Yve] With Elvis, you have this one guy

you can like.

But then The Beatles come out

and, suddenly, you have an option of four Elvis-es.

You have four different archetypes.

You can express your identity

by deciding which one it is that you like the most.

[Man] He really believed that each individual member

had something special and encouraged that,

and saw how different they were,

but how, when they came together,

they created something special

that was so much bigger than the sum of the parts.

[Debbie] Beatle mania was that's what it was.

It was Beatle and it was mania.

You ever been this crazy about any other entertainer?

No. And that's what's so amazing.

We don't know why we're like this.

I think they're sharp.

Ringo has a sexy nose.

[Debbie] Girls, fans, discovered The Beatles.

It's flattering. It's nice to think

that people enjoy either what you're doing

or the things you say.

It's a good feeling.

[Woman] And then, of course, all the merch started happening.

People were buying Beatle wigs and Beatle dolls

and Beatle wristwatches.

They stopped touring

because of the exhaustion

of the sheer intensity of this fandom.

[Michael] The Beatles deserve all the credit in the world

because they gave birth to so many boy band groups

over the years.

The modern definition of the boy band,

you guys really started, I'd say.

Not really.

We came after New Edition.

So, for us, they're really the real blueprint

of the modern-day boy band.

The New Kids called us the original boy band?

They keep it real.

My name is Michael L. Bivins.

That's B, as in Boston,

I, V, as in Victor, I, N, S.

When New Edition started,

our inspirations were LTD,

The Whispers.

We did Heatwave.

♪ 'Cause boogie nights are always the best in town ♪

And a lot of Jackson 5.

♪ A, B, C Easy as 1, 2, 3

♪ Or simple as Do-Re-Mi

[Suzanne] I first met the Jackson 5

when I had gone to work at Motown.

And one of the artists, Bobby Taylor,

he said, "There is something you really need to see."

So I went to his apartment

and there, across his living room,

were these kids.

They got up and they sang four songs a cappella.

And I was blown away.

They were adorable. They were talented.

And Berry Gordy described as the sound of young America.

Not "white American," not "black America"

but "America, young America."

He put the entire machinery of Motown behind him.

The way Berry Gordy would train his groups

was like the Ford assembly line.

They had four number-one records in a row.

Stop The Love You Save,

I Want You Back, ABC, and I'll Be There.

[Tina] And spanned different age groups

so the different girls across the country

could identify with which one they liked.

Was it Michael, was it Jermaine,

was it Tito?

But Michael was the heart and soul.

[Suzanne] It was the first time that young black kids

really had their version of Beatle mania.

Once we're coming down the stairs

of the airplane at a dead run

of 300 kids.

And, literally, we had to dive

into the limo.

We had decoy limousines

and we'd leave in a panel truck.

And they'd still find us.

As a young person, musical groups

were a big deal.

Jackson 5 came up and then there were The Osmonds.

♪ One bad apple don't Spoil the whole bunch, girl ♪

They came out with a number-one record first.

And then I don't remember how many months later.

We came out with One Bad Apple.

[Suzanne] This record comes out, this song,

and everybody stops 'cause they think it's them.

But it's called One Bad Apple

by The Osmonds.

And a hush fell over Jerusalem in the car.

[Donny] One Bad Apple,

our first number-one record,

was written for the Jackson 5.

And they had turned it down, from what I understand.

We got the song.

And we got the number-one record out first.

So I think they probably said,

"Damn, we should've got One Bad Apple."

Started singing when I was four, but professionally at five.

So by the time The Osmond mania,

as they called it, took place in 1970,

I been in the business a long time.

The first show, we were dressed in these Elvis type outfits.

We have no idea what's about to happen.

It was this moment.

Blackout.

We run on stage,

massive screams are taking place.

I think to myself, as I look out,

somebody's hurt.

They're screaming that something's happened out there.

And then I realize,

"They're screaming for us."

It was like, "You've gotta be kidding me.

I gotta do this the rest of my life."

This was the beginning of the popularity

of The Osmonds as a boy band.

I would come to the edge of the stage

and reach my hand down.

Couple of girls would grab my wrist.

And as soon as my brother, Alan,

saw what was happening,

he would grab me and pull.

Two things went through my head.

"Alan, save me.

Alan, let me go."

I wanted so badly to have them pull me in the audience

and just rip me apart.

[Michael] The Osmonds, the Jacksons,

those were the groups we looked up to, coming up.

That's the evolution of New Edition.

When you talk about boy bands

and where they originated,

of course you could say The Beatles,

of course you could say the Jacksons,

and then The Osmonds,

but, for me, it's New Edition, without a doubt.

♪ Ronnie, Bobby Ricky and Mike*

♪ If I love the girl who cares who you like ♪

♪ Cool it now

[Johnny] I was the DJ of Cape Cod at that point in time.

Fifteen minutes on the right side of 11:00.

Time check it, if you will.

I'm Johnny Wright here,

the conductor of this musical ride.

Then, all of a sudden, one night,

the phone rings in the station

and it's Maurice Starr.

And he says to me,

"I'm looking for 10 investors

to invest $1,500 a piece,

and I'm gonna have a talent show in Boston.

And the winner of that talent show,

the money is gonna be used to record a record."

And that was interesting to me.

[Michael] The Hollywood talent night,

I'll never forget it.

1978, we wanted to be in talent shows

to get the girls to scream

and to get money,

and to be popular right there in the projects.

In Boston, there was 82 groups.

We went on at 2:00. We were number 15.

That show went on till 11:30 at night.

And we lost. We came in second place.

But Maurice said, "You know what?

I'm still gonna give you guys

the recording contract to make the demo."

He allowed us to come in second place

and turned us into winners.

Our first single, Candy Girl,

is what I refer to as a monster.

When you can come out the gate

and blow it out the water, it's huge.

Their latest single on the Streetwise label

entitled Candy Girl, New Edition.

[Michael] It was Ralph Tresvant, myself, Bobby Brown,

Ronnie DeVoe, and Ricky Bell.

Our inspiration was the Jackson 5.

But Maurice Starr added a twist to the boy band.

He put the rap in there.

♪ She walks so fast she looks so sweet ♪

♪ She makes my heart actually skip a beat ♪

Then you got Mr Telephone Man.

♪ Mr. Telephone man

♪ There's something wrong with my line ♪

[Michael] Now with Bobby Brown as the lead,

we knew each song would have a different voice.

We wanted to make sure each member had a role.

Are you smiling?

Are you doing the pelvic thrust like Bobby?

Or are you pop locking like Ralph?

Or Ricky, tipping your hat?

Who are you as an individual?

[Woman] All of their videos

were targeted towards teen and tween girls.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

Maurice Star genius.

I'm the man to get the job done.

Unfortunately, in this business,

the contracts have to be right.

And your first contract is never gonna be in your favor.

[Michael] When we separated from Maurice,

we had some things we had to work out.

It was very hurtful. I quit the business

for about two weeks.

And I said to myself after two weeks,

"I'm not a quitter.

So let's get up and get this thing going.

Now I'm gonna put five of them white kids together."

They are what The Beatles were to us.

New Kids on the Block!

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

The New Kids experience, I think, was something

that not a lot of people really saw coming.

These five white dudes,

mix in R&B and a little bit or hip-hop.

[Donnie] When New Kids were formed,

Maurice Starr was looking for anybody

that could sing, dance, and rap.

Maurice almost got arrested for driving around schools,

looking for young white kids.

I love break dancing.

I love rapping, Run DMC.

♪ It's Tricky to rock a rhyme

♪ To rock a rhyme that's right on time ♪

♪ It's Tricky

[Donnie] It was New Edition, Run DMC,

that was my thing.

And when I met Maurice, I was the perfect guy

in the perfect place at the perfect time.

Maurice probably saved my life.

I was bus to school in Boston

one block from where New Edition grew up

in Orchard Park.

And when I would go to school,

I would look out the school window

and I could see where they lived.

These famous guys from Boston

lived right there.

And they made anything seem possible to me.

And, literally, within a year of that,

I was meeting their former producer,

Maurice Starr, and creating

the New Kids on the Block together.

My brother, Mark, was originally

the only other member of New Kids with me

in my boy band.

When he left, I brought in my friends.

Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood,

were my schoolmates.

We all went to school together

from 6th grade on up.

And Donnie was the first one to get in the group

- and he brought us all together. - [Man] Brought you all together.

Archetypes in boy bands, it's hilarious.

And it's really New Kids that started that.

Donnie was the bad boy.

Jordan was the matinée idol.

Danny was the workout sports kid.

Jon was the sensitive kid.

And you have that in Backstreet Boys

and you have that in NSYNC.

[Lance] Justin was the young heartthrob.

Chris was the crazy one.

I was the shy one.

And then you read it so many times,

you just started falling into that trope.

And then you started feeling like,

"Well, this isn't me, but this is what people want."

[Lyndsey] And that's because all us girls have a different type.

Some of us just want the eye candy.

Some of us want the one you can have a deep conversation with.

Some of us want the one that'll make us laugh.

[AJ] And I was the "bad boy."

Yeah, I'm the biggest pushover in the world.

I have not a bad bone in my body.

[Donnie] No, I don't think

I was ever a bad boy.

I'm good.

It was just really trying to find myself

and deal with all the fame and craziness,

but also stick up for myself and my friends.

[Johnny] And then sometimes you had

the little Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson type.

We need a Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond type little guy

policing and just--

Because the crowd really responds to that

and we found Joey.

Joey McIntyre had that sound and it was just great.

[Donnie] We decided, "Let's get a young guy."

And that was a group decision with Maurice.

Joey McIntyre was a godsend.

[Maurice] So, from there,

I went to every major label with New Kids,

but they just didn't get it.

They're like, "Ah, they're a bunch of kids, no talent."

They told me to get out of the building,

don't come back.

We played in prisons, high schools,

birthday parties, parks.

And we played in ballrooms

that we were too young to be in.

We played everywhere.

So I said, "Hmm, let me go,

instead of through the back door,

through the black door."

So New Kids were signed to the African-American division

of CBS.

[Woman] How do you feel about being dubbed,

"A white New Edition," or "The Osmond Four"?

We're not The White New Edition.

We're not The Osmonds.

We're the New Kids on the Block.

And the first album flopped.

I think this concept of people hearing the New Kids,

thinking it's New Edition or the Jackson,

and then seeing these Irish kids pop up,

that was a strategy in the old days.

And I think the record company tried it.

I think it didn't work.

[Johnny] But their second album started to take off.

And The Right Stuff became that big dance record.

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

♪ The right stuff

♪ First time was a great time Second time was a blast ♪

♪ Third time I fell in love Now I hope it lasts ♪

♪ You got the right stuff baby

[Donnie] We got really lucky.

A DJ took a chance on us and played our record.

And it found its audience.

And that's what made it go.

I was, technically, the tour manager.

So then Maurice called me and said,

"Hey, we have this opportunity

to work with this pop girl, Tiffany,

as her opening act."

[Tiffany] I'm Tiffany.

I sing a song called I Think We're Alone Now.

♪ I think we're alone now ♪

♪ There doesn't seem to be anyone around ♪

And I'm known as the Pop Princess from the Malls.

[Donnie] Much like the one DJ who played our record,

we were very fortunate that Tiffany,

herself, personally, advocated for us

to be her opening act.

Suddenly, we walked out and they saw us.

Nobody knew what was gonna happen.

Nobody knew.

♪ My favorite girl Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ She's my favorite girl

The teen twin bill of the summer has hit town.

Tiffany and New Kids on the Block.

[screaming]

[Tiffany] I started hanging out with Jonathan.

But it produced a little bit of a rift

because a lot of my female fans

wanted to you know, be with him.

[Girl] He has me.

One of these days, we're gonna get together.

[Johnny] So they're opening act of her tour.

And the DJ said,

"Are you ready for New Kids on the Block?"

And the place went crazy.

And then they're like, "Are you ready for Tiffany?"

And all of a sudden, you could start to hear boos in the crowd.

And we're like, "Wait, what's going on here?"

[crowd booing]

[Tiffany] When we would be on tour,

the fans are screaming, yelling at me,

calling me names, pulled my hair.

[crowd booing]

I was shocked.

The girls were very tough.

[Johnny] So Tiffany ended up becoming the opening act

of her own tour. [crowd cheering hysterically]

And New Kids on the Block were the headliners.

I came to MTV around 1986.

It was mostly random music video rotations.

And then the videos they liked,

we ran 50 times a week.

The fans were most insane for New Kids on the Block.

New Kids on the Block are awesome. I love them.

They're great dancers.

I thought it was the best thing I ever saw, ever.

The fanbase for a boy band is crazy.

[screaming piercingly] I love Donnie Wahlberg!

[Yve] What is a fangirl?

Well, according to the dictionary,

the Merriam Webster dictionary,

a fangirl is a girl or woman

who is an extremely or "overly-enthusiastic" fan

of someone or something.

They just have so much style. They have a lot of charisma.

Great bodies, great faces, just everything.

It means to love something without fear or apology.

[Woman] The tweens and the early teens,

it's a really special time

because most girls don't have a boyfriend yet.

And their boyfriend is often the person

that sings their favorite song.

You're a really great guy, Donnie.

You care for your fans and you're really understanding,

and I'd love to meet you one day, hopefully soon.

People have such a misconstrued idea

of what it means to be a fan of something.

[Lance] It is the first time that they experience

what is the meaning of love,

crushes, attraction.

Kevin, I love you!

[Yve] That's what boy bands offer them,

our first chance to suffer our first crush.

For all the girls out there, you can attack me.

They are the most successful piece

in the common thread from The Beatles

all the way to K-pop.

Because, without the young girl,

there's no scream, there's no audience,

there's really no poster.

Their lyrics don't have no one to sing to.

If that's the only price we have to pay

is having girls chase us around the streets,

then I'll pay that price for another 10 years.

I was there and it was a phenomena.

We questioned whether we really deserved

this level of success.

You're comparing us to The Beatles?

We're just a boy band.

After just two weeks, they've got

the number-one album in the country,

the number-one single,

and the hottest video in the country too.

♪ Step by step, ooh, baby

♪ Gonna get to you, girl

[John] With the Step by Step album,

these guys were like a money train.

[Maurice] Step by Step, around the world,

sold about six million-plus records.

Just that song, that single.

♪ Step by step

[Johnny] At that point in time, we were hawking thing.

So I would go, "Hey, don't forget

that, at the stands out there, we got

brand-new New Kids on the Block merchandise."

And then there was the 900 numbers

where they were charging $2 a minute.

Hi, [all] we're the New Kids on the Block.

Now you can hang tough with us 24 hours a day

on our brand-new hotline.

Just pick up your phone and call.

[Johnny] And in the first year that they were doing that,

we had two million phone calls.

And so they're making a ton of money.

[Maurice] I never thought it was too much product.

I was sitting back, thanking God

that these millions were flowing in.

[Johnny] Eventually, I think they were just burnt out.

It was not about the music anymore.

It was about the marketing

and they didn't like that.

[Donnie] The success was so much

and we were grateful for it,

and we also struggled with it,

having people constantly screaming

and yelling,

and people carrying my luggage for me,

and turning on a light switch for me.

When all of it stopped,

I looked in the mirror at myself.

And I saw Donnie Wahlberg at 18 looking back.

I hadn't grown in a lot of ways.

At some point,

we just needed to grow as human beings.

[Tina] In the meantime, this guy, Lou Pearlman,

who is cousins with Art Garfunkel,

had a plane business called Transcontinental.

[Donnie] One day a week, we would charter a plane

and fly home

'cause we missed being home in Boston,

and allegedly we chartered a plane

that belonged to this guy, Lou Pearlman,

and he said, "Wow, who are these teenagers

chartering my plane?

How can they afford this?"

And he said, "Oh, wow, I wanna do that,"

allegedly.

I don't even know if he owned the airplane.

[Johnny] People kept saying to me,

"There's this guy, Lou Pearlman,

that's trying to get in touch with you."

And I'm like, "For what?"

And they go, "He's got a boy band

that he wants to talk to you about."

♪ Backstreet's back, alright!

[Johnny] Orlando, Florida,

we called it Motown,

was, and still is to this day,

the United States boy band capital of the world.

[Tina] Back then, a lot of talented kids

went to Orlando,

trying to get cast at different studios.

And so Orlando just had a lot

of artists who were there.

Backstreet Boys were very much put together

by this enterprising sort by the name of Lou Pearlman.

- Good morning. - [Man] How you doing, Louey?

Out there in Orlando, he started doing

audition after audition

and AJ was the first one to get picked

for Backstreet Boys.

There was a thing in Orlando called the blue sheet./

which was the classifieds

for anyone in the entertainment circuit.

I saw this headline and I asked my mom

if I could go for the audition.

She's like, "Sure,"

and it was simple.

Lou signed me on the spot

and that was it.

Then we started generating a bunch of auditions.

Next, Lou hired Howard Dorough.

Before Backstreet Boys, he went under a stage name,

Tony Dinetti.

He looks about as Italian as I look I don't know what.

Then Nick auditioned.

He was 12.

Nick had a contract, potentially,

for The Mickey Mouse Club.

His mom asked him, "You wanna do this

$75,000 contract

or take a chance on this group that might go nowhere?"

Nicky made the right decision.

Hey, what's up?

And then we got Kevin.

Kevin was working at Disney.

[Barry] Kevin Richardson was the oldest guy in the group.

He was the "business guy."

[AJ] And then we tried to find a fifth,

and Kevin kept talking about this cousin he's got.

Brian was at junior high school.

He's like, "Hey, y'all. I'm Brian Littrell.

I'm Kevin's cousin."

I was like, "Oh, good God, man, really?"

[indistinct]

Two weeks later, we did Grad Nite '93

at Sea World.

♪ Tell me that I'm dreamin'

It just clicked.

[Man] Mr. Lou Pearlman, the man who started it all.

Onward and upward.

Lou was a businessman, entrepreneur first.

Not a manager, doesn't know the music business,

which is why he hired Johnny.

[Man] Right back at ya, babe.

Go right back at ya.

[Man] Johnny, yeah, got ya.

[Johnny] I was the tour manager for New Kids on the Block.

And Lou Pearlman called me,

so I ended up taking a meeting with him

at an Italian restaurant.

And this table was set up for 14 people

and he was sitting on the end of it like The Godfather.

All of a sudden, these five guys come walking in the room.

And they're singing.

And it was the Backstreet Boys.

And the rest is history.

[Man] we have five very popular new guys here.

It's called the Backstreet Boys.

Brand-new group.

And then we connected with Clive Calder

who owned Jive Records.

Clive Calder, he said, "There's a huge void

for boy bands in America."

And I was like, "Really?"

And he said, "These guys are really good, though.

These guys could really sing."

But at the time, the stock and trade of America

was all about Nirvana and rap.

♪ One, two, three and to the fo' ♪

♪ Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre is at the do' ♪

♪ Hey, wait I got a new complaint ♪

♪ Evenflow

[AJ] You had Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Snoop, Dre.

We don't fit anywhere in that at all.

[John] So there's an audience for young guys,

but a younger female audience

wasn't really being served in the early '90s.

[Barry] So we said, "You know what?

Let's take a shot. Let's do this."

And signed the Backstreet Boys.

[AJ] After we got signed to Jive,

we met Max Martin

who would, in turn, become

a staple of the Backstreet sound.

Max with like '80s hairband,

his hair was down past his ass.

We're looking at this guy like,

"He's gonna do pop music? Really?"

But Max created this sound with us

that was completely different.

That [imitates buzzing]

♪ Jam 'cause Backstreet's got it ♪

♪ Come now everybody

♪ We've go it goin' on for years ♪

[Johnny] But Backstreet Boys couldn't get a hit in the US.

So the label was gonna drop them.

And so I said, "Look,

right now boy bands are big in Germany.

Let's send them over there."

[John] In Europe, there was Boyzone and there was Westlife

and there was East 17,

and all these other boy bands,

and the most notable one would be Take That.

♪ Want you back, want you back

♪ I want you back for good

[John] Absolutely dominating UK music

from the early '90s through '95, '96.

[AJ] So the label shipped us over

to the German, Austria, Switzerland area,

and we did a bunch of radio shows

and all these festivals.

We were the first American group to come over to Europe

and they just slapped this word on us,

"Oh, it's a new boy band."

[audience cheering hysterically]

But what we noticed was

the groups over there were lip-syncing

to their music.

They never sang live. They couldn't do a cappella.

And we did.

[Johnny] So one time, I went to Backstreet Boys

and I said, "Go out there

and just sing a cappella style."

♪ Everybody groove to the music ♪

♪ Everybody jam

All of a sudden, the mouths of that audience

just dropped like, "What? These guys can really sing?"

It was a very massive turning point

for the industry to go, "These boys can sing."

♪ We've go it goin' on

[crowd screaming hysterically]

[Johnny] We've Got It Goin' On

was starting to move up to the charts in Europe.

And one time we came out to get on our bus

and there had to be 600 or 700 kids there.

And they're jumping all over the bus,

and that's finally when you knew like,

"All right, we're on to something here."

[AJ] And then, out of nowhere, Hanson came out.

They blew up with MMMBop.

♪ Yeah, yeah Mmmbop, ba duba dop ba ♪

MMMBop comes out of nowhere,

in the Middle of Nowhere

being the name of the record, ironically,

and it becomes number one.

Yes, we did it!

[Zac] We were guys with long, blonde hair

that looked like they were dressed like Nirvana,

but they're playing Jackson 5.

♪ Where's the love? Give it up

[Steve] I saw them perform.

I said to them on the spot,

"I really wanna sign you and make a record."

I just felt like there was this desire

for exactly this thing.

Grunge was so now-oriented.

It was music for dudes.

And I felt like there was nothing for girls

to really get excited about

in pop music at that moment.

We got them together with the Dust Brothers

who were hot producers at the time.

They had just produced Beck's Odelay album.

[Taylor] The Dust Brothers had this culture around them

of being DJs, being rip mixers,

really loving those '70s records,

loving those pop records, loving those Motown records.

We had a common bond.

[AJ] Once Hanson broke through the mold,

they opened up the door.

♪ Yo, I'll tell you what I want what I really, really want ♪

♪ So tell me what you want, what you really, really want ♪

[Johnny] Then Spice Girls came and wrote Wannabe.

So I was like, "Hey, boys, it's time to come home."

[AJ] So we came back to the US

and released our single, Quit Playing Games.

Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)

exploded off of the album.

And that became their first real American hit.

♪ Quit playing games with my heart ♪

♪ With my heart

They get their first big MTV hit.

♪ Baby, baby!

♪ The love that we had was so strong ♪

They're all writhing and sexual.

Getting all soaking wet.

♪ This is not right Let's stop this tonight ♪

We love our boy banders soaking wet.

While we're on set, I was like, "This is interesting."

Howie was all nip nip.

♪ Quit playing games with my heart ♪

At MTV, we had really violent debates

about what to play.

It definitely didn't feel like my kind of music.

But it felt like a genre that we have got to take notice of.

In our generation, you put out your first album,

it does good, cool.

But your second album

is the one that's gonna make or break your career.

Ours was Millennium.

[Girl] We can't wait to run into the store

and go get Millennium.

It's gonna be the best CD ever.

We love BSB!

[AJ] But it wasn't really until we then released

from the Millennium album

the single for I Want It That Way

that everything changed.

♪ Yeah-eh-eh

[John] The single greatest boy band song of all time.

The masterpiece that is I Want It That Way.

♪ I Want It That Way

♪ Tell me why Ain't nothin' but a heartache ♪

♪ Tell me why Ain't nothing but a mistake ♪

[Brittany] That video is so iconic,

the glowing white shirts and the airplane hangar

and all the fans screaming for them.

Essentially, a reference to The Beatles

with the fans screaming

and seeing them get off the plane.

[John] People, they analyze its lyrics

and people don't really understand what it's saying.

♪ I never wanna hear you say

"I never wanna hear you say I want it that way."

See, exactly. You're like, "What?"

So they felt, "This song doesn't make any sense.

This isn't gonna go anywhere.

So we then, we wrote it, so it made sense.

[John] And that was "I love it when I hear you say

I want it that way."

And the group didn't like it.

We're just like, "It just doesn't hit right."

So they put their faith in us

that we made the right call and we made the right call.

♪ 'Cause I want it that way

We were 100% wrong. They were 100% right.

The Backstreet Boys, they were

the masters of their own destiny.

[Johnny] But the next thing you know,

I kept hearing rumblings from Orlando

that someone else had another boy band.

♪ Bye, bye, bye (Bye, bye)

[Chris] Before NSYNC, way back in the very beginning,

I lived in Orlando, Florida.

I was in music class with this kid, Howie Dorough.

And I remember him talking about he just auditioned

for this band, the Backstreet Boys.

[Johnny] So then Chris Kirkpatrick decides

to audition for Backstreet Boys.

But he didn't make it.

[Lance] So Howie makes it

And Chris Kirkpatrick who was working at Universal at the tie

singing and performing.

He's like, "Well, I can sing just as good as Howie.

I'm gonna start a group myself."

So that's when he called Lou Pearlman and said,

"Hey, would you back us

if I put a group together?"

And Lou said, "Sure, let's do this."

There's a lot going around that I auditioned

for the Backstreet Boys and didn't make it,

but that is definitely not true.

I was introduced to Lou and he's like,

"McDonald's works and Burger King works.

They're the same thing, but they're different.

There's room for two."

So he said, "I wanna start another band."

And I was like, "Awesome."

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

my name is Justin Randall Timberlake

and I'm from Millington, Tennessee.

[Lance] So Chris Kirkpatrick, he called Justin Timberlake.

And Justin said, "Look, I would love to do this,

but I'm working with this guy, JC,

who I did The Mickey Mouse Club with

and we're having a really fun time at the studio.

Can he join the group?"

And Chris is like, "Sure."

Then we were out one night and ran into Joey.

JC was like, "Oh, I went to school with him.

And Chris Kirkpatrick works at Universal Studios with him."

So we brought Joey into the band.

I was 16 when I got the call.

They were looking for a bass singer.

And Justin said, "Oh, I'll call my vocal coach,

and I bet you he'll know someone."

And he said, "Yeah, the perfect guy

is Lance Bass, but his mom will never let him do it."

Which I also would've thought.

Justin and his mother call me,

and I had heard of Justin's name

because I loved The Mickey Mouse Club.

- Justin. - JC.

- Britney. - Ryan.

Christina.

All of these kids became a part of the new Mickey Mouse Club.

[Lance] So I'm like, "Well, let's go try it out."

I got to Orlando.

They put me up in a Rolls Royce

and I just thought that was the coolest thing.

I went to the house the guys were living in

and immediately you just felt that connection.

Those first few months

we all lived in a house together.

[Chris] I was poor,

so I was like, "Yeah, I'll live in the house.

Whatever happens with this,

I'll get free rent for a couple months, I'm in."

And we recorded everything we did.

[Lance] I had to learn very quickly

how to have better rhythm,

how to move a little differently.

I was embarrassed. I'm like,

"They're gonna kick me out of this group

because I can't dance."

I didn't know we were gonna be a dancing group,

but here we are.

- Hello. - How's it going?

- Welcome in. - How are you?

- I'm Jim. - Johnny Wright.

[Lance] But it wasn't until Johnny came on board

that things really started happening.

[Chris] Lou said, "Hey, listen.

I'm gonna to bring in somebody now

that I know that can take you to the next level.

Johnny's taken New Kids.

He's taken Backstreet.

HE's been around all this,

so he knows the deal."

[Johnny] At the same time,

Jan Boltz, who was the president of BMG

in Germany who had represented Backstreet Boys,

said, "If you have any other acts in the US

that are as good as them,

let me know and I'll sign them."

So I flew into Orlando to see

this new boy band, NSYNC.

And I'm not expecting anything great.

And I see these five guys perform.

And, bang, my mouth dropped.

And Jan Boltz goes,

"I'll sign the band, but I don't know."

He goes, "That Lance guy, how should I say it,

he's a little feminine."

And I was like, "No, he's not feminine.

He's sensitive.

This is the unit.

And we're not changing anything."

So, finally, he was like, "Fine, we'll just sign him."

So we got our record deal over in Munich, Germany.

And because we were an American group

that was on the same label as Backstreet Boys

and got a lot of attention.

Joey! Chris. Hi, JC.

[Lance] That felt like an overnight sensation.

It didn't feel real.

But eventually we were playing arenas in Germany.

[fans screaming]

[Johnny] So about a year later,

we brought NSYNC in.

For whatever reason the NSYNC album struggled.

They weren't really getting on the radio.

But the tides turned when we did that Disney special.

[all] Hi, we're NSYNC.

The Disney channel had launched the In Concert channel

and I was one of the architects of it.

Now Backstreet Boys flew to be on the show.

At that point, they'd gotten big.

[Johnny] The Backstreet Boys were on the cover

of Rolling Stone Magazine.

And the guys were like, "Why are we doing Disney?"

That's not who our audience is anymore."

[AJ] Disney asked us to do the special,

but we turned it down because we were just tapped out.

[Tina] Now I'm devastated.

I need to find a replacement in three weeks.

I was pitched NSYNC

by RCA.

And we said, "Okay, let's go."

The special came out and the world went crazy.

My favorite boy band is NSYNC.

- They're hot. - They're gorgeous.

Lance has the intelligence and Justin has the looks.

Joey, Joey!

I think there's an NSYNC boy for everyone out there.

You could just feel the change.

[fans screaming]

That Disney special was their launching pad

and, overnight, they blew up.

[Tina] Backstreet Boys were incensed,

'cause then, all of a sudden,

NSYNC was eclipsing them.

And they're going to Johnny like,

"How did this happen?"

He said, "It was yours. You turned it down."

And by the time our special ended,

NSYNC, they were platinum.

♪ Here we go

And then it was full speed ahead.

♪ Here we go one more time everybody's feeling fine ♪

♪ Here we go now

[Johnny] With NSYNC, it happened

even faster than the Backstreet Boys,

going from unknowns to this massive hysteria,

being chased around.

♪ Here we go

[fans screaming]

The personalities of the two groups were different.

There was something more genteel about Backstreet.

Backstreet just felt a little bit more restrained

whereas NSYNC were just like, "Let's have fun."

Are we that immature?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Oh, my God, you haven't seen the show? What is wrong?

[John] They had a very party vibe.

When they went into a studio,

it felt like trying to herd five cats.

[Johnny] The Backstreet Boys were dark and mysterious.

If we come into a hotel,

and there's 500 kids in the lobby,

Backstreet would go in the back doors

or underneath the garages.

And NSYNC would still just walk through.

And they would stop,

try to take pictures with 1,000 people.

And at that time, the three biggest bands

were Backstreet Boys, NSYNC,

and then the third band was 98 Degrees.

[Nick] With 98 Degrees,

we never thought of ourselves as a boy band,

at least in the conventional sense.

[crew] Nick Lachey, take one, marker.

And so we resisted, big time, the label of boy band.

But then I think we got very aware

of the fact that this was a movement that was happening.

And we were probably lucky to get swept up in it.

♪ Hardest thing I've ever had to do ♪

[Jeff] The plan, originally, for 98 Degrees

was to sell us to the public as a true R&B group.

We were heavily influenced by the group Boyz II Men.

♪ Oh God give me a reason

♪ I'm down on bended knee

But when our label saw the frenzy

that was associated with boy bands,

[crowd screaming]

and they thought, "Hey, we have our version

of a pop group like this."

So we were like, "Maybe it's not a bad idea."

At the time, boy bands were all about dancing,

and, Lord knows, we were not all about dancing.

We always joked that we were the non-dancing boy band.

We never auditioned.

We never went through dance class.

We put ourselves together. We moved to California.

We sang for people. We got discovered.

And then, from there, we got swept up

in a whole 'nother thing.

This was a time that was completely shifting pop music

for the next couple of decades.

[Nick] MTV was a huge part of that.

MTV, to be honest,

well, I don't work there anymore, so I can say this,

they were resistant to really doing much with boy bands.

And the news department was a little reluctant

to get on board with covering them.

At the time, "boy band" had a totally negative connotation.

[Lance] This boy band term was a way

to make fun of the group.

It was a way to explain a group had no talent

without saying that have no talent.

I'm not no Miles Davis or nothing,

but I know I'm good. I can tell you that.

The perception is it's manufactured.

But what band that signs to a record label

isn't, at that point, becoming manufactured.

[Woman] The bands like The Monkees

were actually put together for television.

It's pretty much the same way to form a group

than anybody else forms a rock and roll group,

whether it's John Lennon walking down the street,

asking Paul and Ringo and George to join him

or whether it's someone putting an ad in the paper.

You've gotta start somewhere.

So much of the criticism was leveled at boy bands

and ours, in particular, because of the screaming fans.

Everybody was so bothered by these female fans

and it was like, "Do they not have eyes and ears?

Do they not have taste?"

[Taylor] If those girls were reacting strongly to this,

maybe we need to pay more attention

to just how real and how authentic that is.

Watching how young people, and, specifically, young women,

how much, not only, their voices matter,

but their dollar matters.

[Donnie] And the marketplace had changed,

and MTV went from hating to play boy bands, us,

to relying on boy bands to stay financially viable.

[Van] We saw the research

that the audience wanted to se,

colorful, beautiful, funny videos.

Look! Look!

[Van] There was a need for a program for kids

when they get home from school

in the afternoon.

And TRL came after that.

TRL was fan-driven.

We had the audience vote.

[Host] To you at home, if you wanna vote

for your favorite videos, you can.

- Call 800. - DIAL.MTV.

[Nick] It was interactive.

Fans felt like they had a say.

I've tried to explain it to my kids,

what it meant to that era of music

and what it meant to that generation of kids,

but if you were of a certain age,

it was must-see TV.

Hollerin' folk outside. What's up y'all?

Hey, Quddus here.

[Nick] The fans really loved being a part of it.

People had bets with their friends

about who was gonna end up number-one on the countdown.

[Lance] It gives the fans a way to show you, quantify,

okay, which one is the biggest right now?"

Every day, right when kids got home from school,

there was our video on national TV,

and then the Backstreet video,

a 98 Degrees video.

And it was like, "All right,

who's gonna be number one today?"

[Host] It's been a battle all week long

between the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC today.

Unfortunately, NSYNC is at number two.

It fueled this giant energy

of competition, and TRL was the gasoline.

They're the Backstreet Boys with Shape of my Heart,

the number one video in the country

taking us into the weekend.

Every video we put out,

it was number one,

or number two, number one, number two,

and then NSYNC came out and then you had 98 Degrees.

It was just this nonstop battle.

98 Degrees, This Gift.

This is your seventh most requested video.

If any group told you they didn't wanna be

number one on the countdown, they were lying to you.

Of course you wanna be number one.

We took notice of where we were on the countdown.

[Jeff] The first time we went on TRL,

it was almost like an overnight change.

[Host] Jeff, Drew, Nick, and Justin,

why don't you get out here?

[Jeff] We had gone from driving ourselves around

in a Winnebago that we had wrapped

to, all of a sudden, not being able

to get out of the Winnebago.

Literally, fans everywhere, wherever we pulled up.

Fans would sneak on our tour bus,

and we would've even know they were there till the next city.

I'm sure it doesn't even come close

to rivaling The Beatles,

but it just felt special.

We ordered room service and they were in the room service cart,

and popped out.

Some things are a little bit too crazy to talk about.

[Van] Part of the reason we did TRL too,

we found out that the audience

wanted to see themselves on TV.

My name's Debbie.

[Van] So we brought them all into the studio.

This is our specially selected studio audience.

[Van] It really cemented the connection

between these boy bands and the fans.

Hey, what's up?

I think TRL was definitely the nail in the coffin

for the fandoms to be at each other's throats.

This is my favorite one pretty much out of all of them.

I'm usually always bragging about them

and how great they are,

'cause everyone's like, "NSYNC, NSYNC."

And I'm usually like, "No, Backstreet Boys. That's it."

You're either Team NSYNC or were Team Backstreet Boys.

Really couldn't be both.

Backstreet's going down.

[screaming] Backstreet Boys!

NSYNC can dance. Backstreet's nothing

compared to them.

Look at this shirt. I sleep in this.

Every boy band has to have that rivalry.

You always gotta have someone

that the record label just overpromoting against.

New additions thrown at our butt was Menudo.

A Spanish boy band.

♪ I just want you to hold me, let me show you ♪

♪ How love can make Our dreams come true ♪

[Woman] Menudo being the first Latin-American band

to come through.

I was like, "Who are these guys?"

They were just so cute.

There's Ricky.

The big thing about Menudo

was how they would replace the members

as they got to a certain age.

[Donny] The competition between The Osmonds and the Jackson 5

was real.

We all had to have cartoons back in the day

that played into this competition

of the Jacksons and The Osmond.

Which one was the most popular cartoon?

[Woman] The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The bigger the rivalry got, the bigger each band got.

[Barry] When the NSYNC album came out,

there was a concerted effort by the fans

to buy two, three, four copies of the CD,

so they could have the biggest first week ever.

It was a rallying cry.

They all come out because they want

their group to be the biggest.

There is no real bitter rivalry

between Backstreet and NSYNC.

I think that it's just friendly competition

more or less than anything.

[Lance] It was like a sport.

And friendly competition is great.

And I wish it would've stayed like that.

I would've loved this to have been a Motown.

Motown, back in the day, all the groups

were signed together, the would tour with each other.

They would do songs. It was a family affair.

But with Transcon, it was not a family affair.

At the beginning,

I got to know a lot of people at Transcon

'cause we went on the road.

That's where I learned about the Backstreet Boys

and if they were gonna be mad

that we were working with Johnny

and even at the record label, we were called beef eye

because they didn't want "the boys" to learn about us.

So, immediately, we knew

that there's some shady stuff going on there,

and if I was the Backstreet Boys,

I'd be pissed.

It's like, "Find your own identity."

I'd be so upset

if you're secretly putting a group behind my back

and not telling me about it.

That means you know you're wrong.

So I knew that they weren't gonna be happy.

[screaming fans]

[Johnny] So the Backstreet Boys were in Utah

and so I fly up there.

And Howie says to me,

"Hey, where you been?"

And I said, "Oh, I've been in Orlando

getting things squared away with NSYNC."

And he looks at me like, "What do you mean NSYNC?"

And I said, "Yeah, NSYNC."

I said, "Lou told me that he told you that we signed them."

He said, "Lou didn't tell us that."

I was like, "What?" He said, "Yeah."

So a little bit later after that,

Brian and Kevin come to my room and they knock on the door.

And they say to me, "Why did you lie to us?"

And I said, "What are you talking about?"

He goes, "Lou told us that he didn't sign them.

He said you signed them.

And he showed us the contract with your signature on it."

And so I'm like, "Oh, my God, Lou."

I had said to them, I said, "Look.

It's a done deal.

Both of you groups can survive."

I said, "I'll make this promise to you.

I will never pit you against each other."

Lou and Johnny were like, "Okay,

we're gonna manage them as well

to keep them out of your way, essentially."

But they also got signed to the same label,

got shipped over to Stockholm,

just like us,

working with Max and Dennis.

And it was literally a carbon copy.

[Johnny] They were upset.

And I can understand that.

They felt like, "We were the first.

You went and got these second guys.

So we feel like now you betrayed us."

It's like being in a relationship.

It got really funky too around our award shows.

Backstreet Boys, Everybody.

[Van] When those bands were on together,

we had to logistically plot their seating.

They couldn't be near each other.

At the height of Backstreet and NSYNC,

it was a methodical system

to keep them away from each other.

[Lance] The reason Lou kept us apart

was a byproduct of him not wanting us to speak

so we didn't figure out how horrible of a deal we've signed.

If we would've known those guys

and had real friendships with them

and were able to discuss business,

we would've figured out very quickly

that we're all getting screwed.

Everyone has the same story.

"First deal's horrible.

We got taken advantage of here."

But people will still sign that contract.

Congratulations to the Backstreet Boys

on this signing.

Because they know that sometimes that's the only way

they can get their foot in the door.

Please welcome NSYNC.

[fans screaming loudly]

[Lance] And then, after finding success,

people think, "They can change it."

"No, I can start here,

but I know a way I can change that.

It won't last forever. I can renegotiate."

But when you sign a contract,

especially teenagers sign these entertainment deals,

they're ironclad.

They're very, very hard to get out of.

[Johnny] Your first deal might be

the worst deal you could ever have.

Lou has taken the lion's share.

Let's just say it's a dollar

and the band gets 15%, he gets 85%,

well, on top of that, he was a one-sixth member of the band.

So he also got a piece out of their 15%.

He was the one-sixth member.

Anything we got paid, anything we did, he got,

even though he wasn't lifting a finger.

And we were generating him so much money.

It's crazy.

It wasn't until we got our first paycheck

years later, and it just was not what we expected at all.

And they had these big checks made

that I didn't know banks took.

And they handed us the big check, and he's like,

"$10,000."

And I looked at it.

And I looked at Justin.

And he looked at me. And I was like,

[whispering] "I can't believe we are rich!"

Meanwhile, JC pulled me aside and said, "You're rich?"

I'm like, "Yeah, I got $10,000."

He goes, "How much money did you make

waiting tables at the outback in a year?"

And I was like, "Oh, but...

Oh. Now I get it."

We're working for free for these guys.

[Brittany] The labels that signed them and worked with them

often worked them to the bone.

Guys, welcome, well, I don't wanna keep you too long here

because I know you wanna warm up.

[Brittany] These bands were touted out

on crazy schedules.

Yearlong tours,

producing an album while they're on tour.

Just be everywhere in the world at once, essentially,

for four, five years straight with no breaks.

[Lance] While on tour, we do hundreds of shows a year,

packing arenas.

We were just working.

Here are some of the passes throughout the year.

They all look the same.

[Lori] These boy bands,

NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees,

they were the hardest-working people I'd ever met.

[Brittany] They were on the biggest tours of that time.

They were selling a million albums a week.

And they were coming back and they had no money at all.

[AJ] It was a hell of a time for all of us.

While we were doing the next album shoot,

we hadn't had a title yet.

And we decided to call it Black & Blue

because we literally felt beat up by the label,

just beat up in general.

Eventually, we basically were like,

"Okay, you know what? Let's just cut you a check.

Cut our losses.

We're gonna buy the name.

You gotta open up the doors and give us our stuff."

And that was that.

[Johnny] When NSYNC came around,

they were watching what was going on with Backstreet Boys

and decided that they were gonna do the same thing.

[Lance] We work for three years and have

millions and millions and millions of dollars

coming in,

we have power now, so let's renegotiate

with the record label.

Oh, no, not even happening.

Not even a discussion to renegotiate.

I went to Lou and I said,

"If you're not gonna settle with NSYNC,

then I have to step away from you

and this battle is yours."

The kids should step back and say,

"How'd I get here?

Who took the risk? Who put up all the money?"

That's when we realized, "Uh-oh, this is gonna be a fight."

JC called his uncle who was a lawyer,

sent him the contract, and he was like, "Whoa.

This is horrible."

And he helped us find a little out in the contract

that the Backstreet Boys did not have.

And it was the 9999 Video Music Awards.

[Host] MTV Video Music Awards live on stage from New York's...

[Lance] And we were performing.

And Jive Records comes to the show and were like,

"We're gonna sign you."

[Brian] I was overseeing both US and Canada

for Jive Records at the time.

We stole them.

Yeah, we basically stole NSYNC.

We said to Johnny, "We'd like to have a meeting

with you and the guys in NSYNC"

I had to be careful at what I did

because were still fighting with Lou.

This is like enemy territory.

We were the Backstreet Boys guys.

But then Johnny was like, "Okay, let's go."

We met the group that night after the show

at the hotel conference room.

Talked about it and we said,

"Wow, these guys are great.

We gotta try to do this."

We were signing contracts there

and RCA was running

down the traffic of Times Square

to stop us from signing this contract

because they finally realized that we were telling the truth.

But they didn't get there in time

and [smacks lips] signed with Jive.

That felt good.

We got our power back.

[Chris] It was a good thing. I loved Jive.

But it was inside of me going,

"RCA worked hard for us

and now we're just saying, 'bye, bye, bye.'"

[Lance] I remember we were in a cab,

talking about the new album

and what we wanted to do and how it was so liberating,

and we're finally away from Lou.

And we're doing it ourselves this time.

And Chris was like...

"Hey, what if we do a Pinocchio thing?

And what if we cut our strings and we say,

we call it, "I got no strings."

And I'm like, "No strings attached."

And it just was born right there.

♪ Bye bye bye, bye bye

[Chris] Everybody in the business knows

you're only as good as your sophomore album.

So here we are. This is our sophomore album

and we go, "You Know what?

Let's leave our record company

and do this completely differently."

I don't think any of us thought it would've worked

like it did.

[Johnny] It's not about Lou Pearlman anymore.

It's all about NSYNC.

We sold a million and one records

in the first day.

♪ I want to see you out that door ♪

♪ Baby bye bye bye

[Michael] I think every boy band

has a sore spot in their career

with somebody, the manager, the producer, the record label.

I think it's just the nature of the beast, man.

However, the Jacksons, The Osmonds,

the talent was in the house.

Then you have your manager also in the same house.

The work ethic my father instilled in all of us

was second to none.

I remember, as a tiny little kid,

my brothers in front of that piano,

playing and learning the parts,

and harmonizing to where it was perfect.

My dad was an Army sergeant.

And so that infiltrated in how he raised us.

I never wanted to disappoint my father.

When we hit big,

father said, "Back in the rehearsal hall.

Learn a new number.

Keep this engine going."

And I think having a very strong father figure

was very important for our success.

However, it can go a little overboard.

I spent a lot of time with Michael Jackson.

You look at The Osmonds and the Jackson 5,

the comparisons of the two families

are just uncanny.

There's nine children in each family.

Mike and I both the seventh child of nine.

Our mothers' birthdays are on the same day.

Michael and I are the same age.

You and I are in the same boat, really.

Because we both sing with a group

made of our own brothers.

Most of them older and one younger.

- Right, right. - That's it.

We get together and we would just laugh

and reminisce about

the comparisons and the similarities.

Michael said something to me one day,

and he said, "Donny,

you're the only person on this planet

that knows what my childhood was like."

And Mike would tell me a lot of stories about Joe.

[Joe] I decided to deal with the boys

as much as I possibly can

as far as rehearsing them

and getting them prepared to be in show business.

- Did they resent it? - Yes.

[Tina] Joe Jackson, being their father

who was the driving force.

And you think, what would've happened

had that force been more loving?"

Would Michael have the difficulties

that he might've had in his life?

You have a kid who was truly robbed of his childhood.

[Donny] When you look at the dangers

of show business in general

whether you're a single artist

or a boy band,

I don't know if I could've been able

to survive show business if I didn't have my family.

[Zac] Our story is highly influenced

by our parents

but not in the Hollywood way.

They saw that all three of us

were getting a lot out of making music.

[Isaac] I remember Mom and Dad coming back

from a date and they were like,

"You guys didn't clean up the house.

You didn't..."

And then Taylor was like, "Yeah, but we wrote a song."

And then my dad was like, "Well, it...

- "Is it any good?" - "It better be good," yeah.

"How good is it?"

And so we sung the song, he goes, "Oh, that's pretty good."

"That's worth no dishes."

"You're forgiven. Now clean up the house."

Exactly. Exactly.

[Taylor] When you see your kids doing something

that seems productive and positive,

you wanna support it.

We are proud to be

in the heritage of great bands

that have brothers in them.

The Bee Gees, come on, the singing.

And The Isley Brothers.

Isaac Brothers and their groove.

They're singing with their instruments.

In My Room by The Beach Boys.

And there were three brothers in The Beach Boys.

With brothers in bands, oftentimes

you get that organic thing that you can't fabricate.

It is the closest thing you have to your own voice,

is your siblings.

Let us know when.

[Crew] Whenever you're ready. It's just practice.

Cool. Hey, we're the Jonas Brothers.

And you're supposed to talk.

I was supposed to talk.

At one point in time, I wanted

to go into the Christian music world.

So I had an assistant who said,

"There's this young kid who's signed to Columbia Records.

His name is Nick Jonas.

I saw him on a couple of thing.

His dad's a pastor.

And he'll be eager to meet you"

So I went to meet them

and Nick's brothers were his backup band.

So I watched them perform.

And they were great, so I became their manager.

[crowd screaming]

And then Steve Greenberg

who was the originator of Hansen

took over Columbia Records.

[Steve] In 2004,

when I took the job, they gave me a pile

of unreleased albums by acts

that they were gonna drop from the label.

And then I hit this Christian pop album

by a kid named Nicholas Jonas.

And I was amazed.

He sounded like Taylor Hanson.

And I thought, "Wait a second.

I wanna meet this kid."

So he calls me and he goes,

"I saw that you're managing this kid named Nick Jonas.

I don't really have a need for a Christian kid.

So before I drop him,

I just want you to tell me a little bit about him."

And I said, "Well, if you're not moving forward

in the Christian world,

I saw him perform with his brothers.

Maybe if I can convince the family

that this is the thing to do,

you could have the second coming of Hanson."

[Steve] They came in and they played instruments.

And I'm like, "Great, you're a band."

So I thought, "I know how to do this.

It's three brothers."

The album came out and that became the Jonas Brothers.

That first album had Year 3000.

♪ He said "I've been to the year 3000 ♪

And slowly but surely we all fell in love with them.

TRL, show some love for the Jonas Brothers.

[fans screaming] [chanting] Jonas, Jonas, Jonas!

It's great.

[Woman] The Jonas Brothers were a rock band

and had a punk edge to them.

But they also had a good-boy Christian image.

[Interviewer] What do you guys look for in a girl?

Somebody that our mom loves.

Yes, it's important.

And our dad, of course.

I was obsessed with the Jonas Brothers

just as much as her.

We grew up on Disney channel.

The Jonas Brothers were very clean,

like Hannah Montana, very clean.

[Lance] Because you have to remember,

with boy bands, it's family audience.

[Chris] And because of that,

there were some crazy boy band rules.

And a lot of those rules

I'd challenged from the beginning.

[Lance] Record labels and management,

we would always have these comparison stories.

We're backstage...

[Lance] Like the New Kids,

Donnie would do da, da, da, da, dah,

so you knew you were being told not to do this.

"Nobody can have tattoos."

Boom, I'm like, "All right, let me get some tattoos."

They would say, "Hey, shave your moustache.

Hold onto your youth."

You can't be Fatstreet. That is not cute."

Never had a drink in your hand or a cigarette.

"Nobody can ride motorcycles."

Boom, bought a motorcycle. Brought it on tour with me.

No girlfriends

because that would take away the dream of the fan.

Why don't you have a girlfriend?

Because I'm in too many places at one time.

And I'm like, "Screw you. I got a girlfriend now."

The Jonas Brothers, they weren't allowed to talk about sex.

[Johnny] With the Jonas Brothers,

each one of them would wear a purity ring.

And what we loved about the Christian aspect of it

was, if you have a daughter

who's coming to a show,

she's not coming alone,

so she's gonna bring a friend.

And Mom's not letting the two go by themself,

so either her or the dad comes.

So for one fan, we sold three tickets.

They're literally going from the garage to stadiums.

This is the stage. It's 144 feet long.

Every seat in the house is a good seat

and we are very happy

because we owe it to our fans

for bringing us to this place, for sure.

[Amber] 2007 to 2009, I would say,

is their peak.

And the Internet was just becoming seen as a way

to know your favorite celebrity.

They would talk to you directly through their livestream.

Hey, what's up, everybody? We're the Jonas Brothers.

- I'm Nick. - I'm Kevin.

I'm Joe.

And you are on our Myspace page.

Pictures, blogs, everything, check it out.

[Brittany] At that time, a lot of artists

were still trying to figure out

how to use social media.

[John] I think, probably, the earliest best example

of social media being used

for getting your music and image,

importantly, out there

is Justin Bieber.

[Van] Bieber was able to grow

from just doing a song on a street corner

to being able to perform and sing and write

all because of YouTube.

♪ Like baby, baby, baby, no

♪ I thought you'd always be mine ♪

[Lyndsey] At that point, YouTube had only been around

for a few years.

Even Facebook was pretty new.

And Twitter was very new.

One of the first accounts for a boy band

that I ever saw on Twitter

- was One Direction. - [both] One Direction.

But I don't think anyone saw One Direction coming.

Hello.

Nice to meet you. What's your name?

I'm Harry Styles.

[Amanda] They all came to X Factor in 2010

and auditioned separately.

[Woman] The first time I discovered One Direction,

was in my dorm room.

I was surfing YouTube

and my life changed forever.

I was like, "Who are they?

What's happening here?"

And then it was rabbit hole.

♪ One, two, three

♪ How we danced all night to the best song ever ♪

[Amanda] And then in order to help them on X Factor,

Twitter was this thing where you could tell everybody

to just support One Direction.

[Host] One Direction do not wanna leave tonight.

Call that number.

We see these 15, 16 year old boys

shuffle onto that stage

with a heart full of hope.

Hoping that their dream will happen for them.

And you get to feel like a stakeholder in their dream.

[Amanda] And then the One Direction fandom

spread on the Internet

- worldwide. - Around the world.

[screaming fans]

We made a short film called

The Day I Didn't Meet One Direction.

We've got 10 hours until concert.

I will meet these boys today.

Discovering them on Twitter

was like discovering a sovereign nation of teenage girls.

[Woman] Twitter is what sent One Direction

straight to the top.

I had a One Direction fan account.

That's where fangirls thrive.

That's where we get the information.

Spreading the word, making sure

that everyone knew exactly where they were at all times.

[Amber] Where they were staying at the hotel,

when their flight was landing.

It was like, "I saw Harry walking down the street.

Harry was just seen in the guitar store,"

and we would run there.

I swear One Direction fans are like the CIA.

We had eyes on them.

One Direction released five albums

in five years.

They went on tour every single year.

They were recording their next album while touring.

[Woman] It was album, promo, tour,

album, promo, tour.

There was no breaks.

[Amanda] So it was just go, go, go.

I think that was a lot of burnout.

And Zayn tragically left in the middle of a tour.

[military siren wailing]

I remember. I sobbed.

I cried all day because it was like

One Direction are the five.

And I think if they had been given time

to rest and breathe,

they might've been together a lot longer.

Zayn Malik left the band One Direction.

And this was a global news event.

Zayn Malik.

[Woman] He's shocking fans by walking away

from one of the most popular bands in the world.

[Amanda] I think it was the combination of burnout

but also being like, "I would like to be

the first one to leave to try to do a solo tour."

[Tracey] When an artist is so entrenched

in the history of a band,

and they break out solo,

it's all about that first single.

That first single is making a statement

as to who they are

as a solo artist.

So you have to come out of the box

with something big.

[Woman] If you think about the way

that Michael Jackson's career went,

he was at the forefront of the Jackson 5

for decades before becoming a solo artist.

[Suzanne] At Motown 25,

Michael wanted to perform Billie Jean.

That's when he did the moonwalk.

It's a piece of music history.

I don't think any artist has ever hit the world stage

with that kind of success.

That was fuel.

It changed the trajectory of Michael Jackson's career.

[Michael] After New Edition,

Bobby went out the coop first

and then Ralph Tresvant.

Johnny Gill went out the coop.

Bell, Biv, DeVoe came last.

It was natural procession.

It was growth spurts. It was just elbow room.

It was destiny.

We went from a group to four entities

who became platinum-selling artists.

That was the success of us as solo artists.

And look what it did.

Bell, Biv, DeVoe created a different genre

of how the boy band evolved

from just a "bubblegum" style

to the street style of hip-hop and R&B.

♪ That girl is poison

We all did infectious rhythm of Poison.

You had the hardcore drum.

You had a yah, cah, da, dah,

cah, da, da, da, dah, bam.

It spawned a whole nother generation

of an R&B group with a street appeal.

[Host] Let me give you Justin Timberlake.

[Johnny] With NSYNC, Justin exploded.

[Host] He is hotter than the surface

of Mercury right now.

[Johnny] NSYNC was on fire.

But they were out on a run

for a long four-and-a-half years straight.

So the conversation was, "Let's take six months off,

and then we'll regroup."

And then Justin's point was,

"Well, if there's gonna be no group activity,

I've got all this music built up inside of me

that I've been thinking about.

I'm gonna go work on a solo record."

Within five weeks,

he put the Justified album together.

And based on the success of that record,

MTV game him a look

for the first performance on the MTV Awards.

Came out in that boom box.

And at that point, it was on.

♪ Sing this song with me

♪ Ain't nobody love you like I love you ♪

♪ You're a good girl and that's what makes me trust ya ♪

[Johnny] I think that there's always members of the band

that feel that they could step up and go solo.

Whether they're successful or not,

it's questionable.

And, usually, you might get one,

maybe two,

but for everybody else,

sometimes it's the end of their career.

[Announcer] Here they are.

[Michael] The music business teaches you

how to hold on,

how to believe in yourself.

But what it doesn't prepare you for

is your downfall.

[AJ] With Backstreet Boys,

there is never a breakup.

But 2001 was a really dark time.

We had toured for nine years straight,

just go on tour, make an album,

go on tour, make an album.

And instead of dealing with my real emotions or my feelings,

kinda got caught up in the lifestyle,

and the partying and the drinking and the drugs.

And it wasn't until I did

what I told myself I would never do

which was drink on stage,

that's when I even had to know like,

"Okay, dude, something's not right."

And the day that I flew from tour

into rehab,

everybody was just at their wit's end.

And then Kevin left

for six years to go start a family.

And we gave him our blessing.

He gave us his blessing to continue as four

and we kept going without him.

[Lance] 2002 was our last tour.

Justin was gonna start his solo album

which we were super supportive of.

I thought that was a great idea.

The label told us, "Look,

come back in six months."

And we were supposed to go right into the next album.

That just never happened.

So it just phased out

without any fanfare at all,

with no goodbye.

We just never got back together.

[Chris] It was hard.

There was a lot of animosity at first.

There was a lot of anger.

There was a lot of resentment.

I remember thinking,

"Are we ever getting back together again?"

It was just a very confusing part of our life right there

'cause we didn't know what was happening.

[Johnny] From Justin's standpoint,

when he's got the number-one album in the country

and he's got offers to tour the world,

it's like, how do you come back to that?

"I gotta fulfill this.

It's not that I'm saying goodbye.

It's just that I can't stop this."

[Lance] And business-wise, I get that.

Justin has the most talent in the world.

And we wanted to give him that respect.

But tell us that.

[Johnny] With One Direction,

every member went solo

and every member had a top 10 record,

which was absolutely amazing.

And, obviously, Harry has gone on to be global.

[Lyndsey] Harry Styles has, at this point,

a bigger solo career than One Direction's career was.

He won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

[Woman] Harry Styles!

[Lyndsey] The only boy band artists

that have also done that would be Michael Jackson,

Justin Timberlake, and George Michael.

Shit. This is so, so nice. Thank you very, very much.

[Lyndsey] Most boy bands, when a key member leaves,

they don't continue on.

It felt like the end of the boy band era.

But if you're a One Direction fan,

you're probably a K-pop fan now.

[Lyndsey] The western world realized

that K-pop is something they can't ignore.

[Man] These groups tend to be

anywhere from 4 to 13 members.

And they come together to make something

that we've never seen as a group.

We are here with BTS.

I know the Army out there is going crazy.

'Cause we got the guys that are smooth like butter.

Yeah.

♪ Smooth like butter like a criminal undercover ♪

[Amanda] I am not shocked at all

that K-pop is the next boy band successor.

They're beautiful.

And they can sing beautifully

and dance really beautifully.

With K-pop, there's just this consistent theme

of marrying the old with the new.

You can just see the influence

of even Michael Jackson.

[Tracey] They are living

and breathing and sleeping music.

And that's not that much different

than what Berry Gordy did with Motown.

[Lance] With K-pop, I'm sure they looked at

what happened in Orlando, Florida,

with training boy bands to dance,

but took it to the next level.

[Brittany] It's great to see

that NSYNC, Backstreet Boys style of choreography

come alive in all these groups

like BTS and Seventeen.

[Man] Seventeen is the largest K-pop boy band

operating right now with 13 members

and they have members who are Chinese,

who have grown up in America, who are also Korean,

and their last album sold five million copies

in its first week worldwide.

Hi. Nice to meet you.

HI, nice to meet you.

To me, Seventeen means lifelong youth.

[Abby] Seventeen is so interesting

because they have 13 boys

and that just seems like a recipe for disaster,

but they really have just made it work.

Within the group, they have three sub-units.

The hip-hop team, the performance team,

and the vocal team.

You can tell their chemistry is real.

[Vernon] We just always try to have a good time,

make it fun for each other.

That's one of the perks of having all these members.

[Amber] Seventeen is just all these different personalities,

so the fans have ample opportunity,

a million options, so many questions.

[Vernon] Even before I was able

to dream about becoming a K-pop group singer,

I was on my way back home after school

and this casting director approached me.

And she asked me if I wanted to become a trainee

as a K-pop group singer.

And it just seemed like a fun opportunity.

[Abby] A lot of Seventeen's members

were street-cast.

And then, for a long time,

they become trainees,

and learn how to dance and sing,

and work as a group.

Many K-pop groups live together for a long time in dorms.

I think every group should have to live together

at the very beginning

'cause you know immediately if you like them or not.

Hoshi's video for Spider is the perfect example

of the strength of the performance unit.

Seventeen released a collaboration

with New Kids on the Block

called Dirty Dancing.

I think this is their way of honoring them.

♪ She's dirty-dirty dancin' dirty dancin' on me ♪

[Jeff] That song really resonated with people

because, again, it's a great boy band song,

but also I think people saw

the mutual respect between each other.

[Donnie] When I think back to my childhood,

I could never have dreamed that we would

influence anybody.

They've become to the world what New Kids were

30-something years ago.

[Vernon] Visiting all these places around the world

to see thousands of people

that are there just for us,

it feels very surreal.

We didn't know what specifically would lead us to success.

But having all these members as a group together,

they make the journey enjoyable.

[fans screaming hysterically]

[Nick] With 98 Degrees,

the idea that we could share

these incredible experiences together,

it was really super meaningful.

But, sometimes, when you're in a boy band,

you go through really, really hard times.

[fans screaming]

But that stuff, it makes you stronger.

And I wouldn't change any of it.

Whether it was personal stuff

that one of us was going through,

whether it was professional stuff,

we did it together.

[Donnie] Your bandmates, you'll struggle with them,

sometimes you'll even fight over something

as dumb as who gets the blue shirt

and who gets the orange one.

But when you look into each other's eyes,

you'll see something that no one else

or very few people in the world

will ever understand.

We all share it.

It's a very unique experience and it's pretty cool.

We talk like family.

We fight like family.

We laugh like family. We cry like family.

I think, of everyone in the group

that changed the most, it would be me.

I was the one that was hiding a huge part of myself.

I wasn't the person that I was supposed to be.

I became the shy one

because I didn't want people

to figure out the secret I had.

I didn't want people to see that I had a personality,

that, "Ooh, he might be gay."

Do you like girls who wear makeup?

Or do you have a limit on how much makeup

you like a girl to wear?

Well, I don't like too much makeup.

But I like girls

that like to keep themselves up.

I look back at my interviews 20 years ago

and I'm like, "Who is that kid?

That is not me."

It's just I didn't know who I was.

But I remember, towards the en,

that I could speak my voice.

I became more confident.

And everyone in the group

always supported whatever I did.

Which is amazing, looking at it now.

[Yve] Do I believe that boy bands

have created a beautiful safe space

for young people and, specifically, young women

to find community and love something together?

Yes, I do.

[Woman] When I was in college,

I was going through a really rough time.

I didn't have a great experience

and, at the end of the day, there is five boys

that I could open my laptop and make me laugh.

One Direction was my happy place.

It kept me going.

At 17, I was in a place

where, as a fangirl, sometimes you're ashamed

of what you liked 'cause the world tells you

the things that teenage girls like are stupid.

[Yve] Why is it that the image of a young girl

at a Justin Bieber concert

screaming her lungs out with ecstasy

might be described as crazy, psycho, over-the-top,

a bit much,

but the same image,

but make it a young boy at a sporting match,

might be described as passionate,

loyal, devoted?

We'd say, "That's the love of the game."

Slow down. Take a breath, ready?

What if we didn't undermine young women and their interests?

What if we didn't allow ourselves

to use this language

that minimizes and belittles

them expressing enthusiasm

and love for the things they care about?

[Donnie] The fans of boy bands all get the last laugh.

They're mothers, teachers,

doctors, lawyers,

politicians,

they're in positions of power

all over the country.

Our fans have grown up to be the new gatekeepers.

[Nick] The beauty of having young fans

who grew up on your music

is that they grow up with you.

We have been friends since we were in the third grade

and we used to wear T-shirts

and go to the concerts together.

And now, 15 years later, here we are

wearing T-shirts, going to the concerts together.

It's a very sentimental moment for us.

Boy bands can command this intense loyalty

that can really withstand the test of time.

[Donnie] For the boy bands who are willing to stick it out,

you will last more than two or three years.

And we are living proof

as are our idols, New Edition.

[Woman] The girls who liked you when you were 12,

those are the people that are buying tickets for the cruises

and the mixtape tour.

[Donnie] The best way to describe our second incarnation

is like when an athlete becomes a veteran.

[AJ] I'll never forget when Kevin came back,

we were at Staples Center.

And he came up on I Want It That Way.

And I've never heard screams so piercing.

I had to pull my inner ears out.

[hysterical screaming]

And he just stood there.

And I'm like, "Yeah, you take it in, buddy.

Take that shit in."

And then we went back into the studio.

It's generational.

You see our last tour, you're seeing

5-year-olds to 85-year-olds.

Fans are an extension of you

because you are making a personal connection

through music.

We lock eyes and that's a moment.

[Host] Make some noise for NSYNC.

[screaming hysterically]

[Taylor] You guys are pop personified.

I had your dolls.

[Chris] When the five of us are together,

it's almost like the world disappears for a second

and we get to go back to that time.

[Johnny] And after 11 years,

it was so great to see them back on stage

performing together.

[Justin] Ladies and gentlemen, we are NSYNC.

[screaming loudly]

[Nick] It's a beautiful thing about music.

It takes you back to where you were.

It takes you back to the things you were feeling.

There's a desire to feel good.

There's a desire to revisit those moments

that were happy and were care-free.

[Michael] It's a childhood memory

and it's something to be proud of.

Boy band music is so powerful

because it keeps evolving.

[Fan] I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you

always and forever.

- [music] - [screaming loudly]

[music]

[music]