"You sell 10m albums... I coulda made this much working at Starbucks"
April 5, 2019 9:32 AM Subscribe
The Boy Band Con [YouTube] is a new documentary about Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC then ripped them off for millions, told by the boy band members themselves.
Produced by Lance Bass (who's building a solid documentary resume), this is a window into the lucrative world of 1990s pop as engineered by Art Garfunkel's fame-hungry cousin. Pearlman would eventually be convicted of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
Pearlman, aka "Incognito Johnson" and "Big Poppa", previously on Metafilter here and here, c. 2007.
Produced by Lance Bass (who's building a solid documentary resume), this is a window into the lucrative world of 1990s pop as engineered by Art Garfunkel's fame-hungry cousin. Pearlman would eventually be convicted of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
Pearlman, aka "Incognito Johnson" and "Big Poppa", previously on Metafilter here and here, c. 2007.
Wasn't he also the Svengali on Making the Band? I guess those TWOP recaps don't exist anymore, but they used to have me weeping with laughter.
posted by praemunire at 10:23 AM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 10:23 AM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yvan eht nioj.
posted by msbutah at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by msbutah at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
From the title I thought it was gonna be about a ComicCon but for boy bands. Now I really want to see that.
posted by frenetic at 11:09 AM on April 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by frenetic at 11:09 AM on April 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
i've always felt bad for them since that 2007 expose that pretty much heavily indicated (as best it could) that Perlman straight up preyed on boys. I've left my teenybopper years behind but if i recall, there was a lot of fan speculation if this explained Aaron Carter's spiral, for example.
posted by cendawanita at 12:00 PM on April 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 12:00 PM on April 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also besides, the interviews in the trailer are the famous victims. He was basically an industry to himself in Florida. How many young girls and boys that he chewed up and spit out? lucky for Lance Bass, Timberlake, JC Chasez etc etc but if #metoo and the continuing conversations we've been having for the last decade at least, hadn't shown, it wouldn't be beyond reason to imagine the ones who weren't lucky enough to have the money to cope.
posted by cendawanita at 12:07 PM on April 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 12:07 PM on April 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
It's possible he may have inspired the K-Pop industry. Now that's assholery on an industrial scale.
Take your pick.
posted by Twang at 6:09 PM on April 5, 2019
Take your pick.
posted by Twang at 6:09 PM on April 5, 2019
There is a definite what if moment, when Shaq reveals the not signing N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys, were two of his top three financial mistakes. It came from his interview on Hot Ones. If you are curious, the third one was not investing in Starbucks.
posted by jadepearl at 8:16 PM on April 5, 2019
posted by jadepearl at 8:16 PM on April 5, 2019
Holy crap, the metafilter of 2007 acquitted itself very poorly in that post about Pearlman’s sexual abuse of band members.
posted by jeoc at 6:30 AM on April 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by jeoc at 6:30 AM on April 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm glad there is more documentaries on this, and holy shit, it's by Lance Bass!
The Lou Pearlman story is one I try to remind people of, because it shows how far you can go being a conman and creepy perv and how people will gladly sacrifice their children and friends as long as there are big numbers and TV appearances. This guy ran a fraudulent blimp company and started the boy band craze because he wanted some dodgy reason to have young boys dance for him.
I haven't seen this doc, but the unwritten rule was that for each of his boy bands, there was one that "took it for the team" to stay with his management company. Remember, this is also where Justin Timberlake came from, but AFAIK he's never spoken publicly about it.
Aaron and Nick Carters mom, I thought always came out looking especially bad, because she made public statements saying that Pearlmans actions almost destroyed her family, but then turned around and sent her next son back to him as soon as he was the right age (and made a song with Shaq, no less).
Wasn't he also the Svengali on Making the Band?
Yes. That was absolutely him. He was ass-deep in a huge pedo tax scam and doubled down so he could be on TV and have power over more young dudes.
Anyway, boy bands always irked me, not because it was corny non-threatening crap marketed towards girls, but ... growing up in that era, I never saw a group of teenage boys get together, say "we're starting a band!" and have it come out as something other than 45 minutes of "come as you are" mixed with "the unforgiven", but with extra chorus pedals!
At the time I wrote it off as "Florida is Bizarro-Seattle", but this story broke around the same time as Brittany Spears and Lindsay Lohan's post-Disney meltdowns, and all the weird shit that's come out about Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider has made me feel real sorry for the kids and really resentful towards the parents that put them into "showbiz".
Because all these names you recognize from these horror stories are the "successful" ones.
Which means there are a lot of tryouts and auditions and pilots and failures and wanna-be Lou Pearlmans that we will never hear about.
posted by lkc at 10:51 AM on April 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
The Lou Pearlman story is one I try to remind people of, because it shows how far you can go being a conman and creepy perv and how people will gladly sacrifice their children and friends as long as there are big numbers and TV appearances. This guy ran a fraudulent blimp company and started the boy band craze because he wanted some dodgy reason to have young boys dance for him.
I haven't seen this doc, but the unwritten rule was that for each of his boy bands, there was one that "took it for the team" to stay with his management company. Remember, this is also where Justin Timberlake came from, but AFAIK he's never spoken publicly about it.
Aaron and Nick Carters mom, I thought always came out looking especially bad, because she made public statements saying that Pearlmans actions almost destroyed her family, but then turned around and sent her next son back to him as soon as he was the right age (and made a song with Shaq, no less).
Wasn't he also the Svengali on Making the Band?
Yes. That was absolutely him. He was ass-deep in a huge pedo tax scam and doubled down so he could be on TV and have power over more young dudes.
Anyway, boy bands always irked me, not because it was corny non-threatening crap marketed towards girls, but ... growing up in that era, I never saw a group of teenage boys get together, say "we're starting a band!" and have it come out as something other than 45 minutes of "come as you are" mixed with "the unforgiven", but with extra chorus pedals!
At the time I wrote it off as "Florida is Bizarro-Seattle", but this story broke around the same time as Brittany Spears and Lindsay Lohan's post-Disney meltdowns, and all the weird shit that's come out about Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider has made me feel real sorry for the kids and really resentful towards the parents that put them into "showbiz".
Because all these names you recognize from these horror stories are the "successful" ones.
Which means there are a lot of tryouts and auditions and pilots and failures and wanna-be Lou Pearlmans that we will never hear about.
posted by lkc at 10:51 AM on April 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
Lance Bass has been making the rounds promoting this (which is great for me, since i technically have no access to YT Premium), so here's he on Jenny McCarthy, Elvis Duran, and Sway's Universe
posted by cendawanita at 9:55 AM on April 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by cendawanita at 9:55 AM on April 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
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