New Kids on the Block featuring Flava Flav at the 1991 American Music Awards

And shoutout to J Lo who was one of the backup dancers before she was with Janet.

Pop music from that era is so dated

True r2. Take a look at the Billboard Hot 100 charts from the early 90s. Just full of dated shit.

Madonna's stuff still holds up beautifully, though. There are a few others.

Their song Step By Step holds up well and has amazing energy.

But they didn’t even do one of their pop hits here r2.

That’s what happens when you try to let Donnie take lead. It’s a mess and he had a chip on his shoulder at that time and felt they had something to prove. The rest didn’t really care.

They should have stuck to the normal routine where Jordan is lead and the rest just surround his hotness and beautiful hair.

Jordan Knight is a better singer and dancer than majority of boy band frontmen and also very good-looking. I'll give him that. Too bad majority of NKOTB's music was extremely tacky and cheap-sounding.

NKOTB were one of the many acts that got blown away once Nirvana hit the scene and changed everything, which was just a few months after this.

“New Kids on the Block ... were getting attacked hard from all angles, mostly for lip synching”

They too are a chip off the old lip-synching block.

Donnie could probably have gone solo: he has energy, personality and a big voice. Figures he's the only one with a thriving career (acting) 30 years later

LOL, Nirvana didn't blow the New Kids away. They were already fading and teeny boy groups never last long, anyway

NKOTB should have fired Maurice Starr after Hangin' Tough and got a better producer. Starr is a hack who recycled that cheap-sounding Casio for all of his material. NKOTB had all of 1983 era New Edition's leftover bubblegum fluff.

NKOTB really needed Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis or LA Reid and Babyface to mature their sound. New Edition's music was consistently better in every possible way and they were much cooler too which is why the NE members were all more successful in their solo ventures. MTV gave a lot of love to Bobby Brown and Bell Biv Devoe.

This is the direction they should have went earlier.

Speaking of Jordan Knight, he was one of the first males that I was attracted to, only I didn’t know what it was yet. I was a young child when The Right Stuff came out and I remember seeing this on TV as my cousin and her friend watched and feeling weird about him. Later I watched and realized I had a crush lol.

And then today I rewatch and realize I had good taste. He was quite cute! You know how sometimes when you’re young you find someone hot then years later you think WTF? Not with him lol

Oh god. I remember watching that show like it was yesterday. Cool JLo was one of the dancers!

White New Edition and they were marketed to a Black audience originally. Maurice Starr had their songs played on local R&B stations in the Boston area before "Please Don't Go Girl" (which is a rip-off "Is This The End?" by NE) became a big hit on pop radio stations. He changed their marketing then on to appeal to white suburban tween girls. Their first album is actually not bad imo. It's synth-funk-pop that flowed well despite the awful rapping.

R9 Donnie certainly has more talent and brains than his brother. That's for sure. Marky Mark would be in prison for life as a repeat offender if he didn't have that rockin' body.

Amazing how they only had 4 hit songs, yet they can still fill up an arena full of 50 year old fat women wanting to re-live their youth.

They had 9 Top 10 hits, with 3 of them being 1.

That’s more than 4 hits

r10 Nirvana put the nail in the coffin.

Why didn't Janet, Jam and Lewis sue Maurice Starr for blatantly ripping off "You Can Be Mine" for NKOTB's song "The Right Stuff"?

They produced 9 Top 10 singles and 4 #1 albums wishing 4 years.

R16 you don’t know what you’re speaking about. Their first album alone sold 15 million copies in its first 4 years. They were popular.

In 1990 or 1991 they earned more than Michael and Madonna. I remember it made headlines that they outsold both of them.

They didn’t vanish because they faded. They were at their peak in concert sales and album sales when they quit because of one of the guys. Music changed while they were gone for 3 years. They came back in 1994 with a new image but it didn’t work and flopped.

They were marketed to young elementary school and middle school girls. They had lunchboxes, merchandise, a Saturday morning cartoon, cereal, etc.. Their audience grew up and moved onto rock, R&B and other genres.

I always found their song Tonight interesting and you could feel it was gonna be one of their final songs. The song is literally them reminiscing about their hit songs (they name them) and their career.

It felt almost like a goodbye.

The late 80s/early 90s produced some of the most bizarre pop artists with no musical talent, Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, NKOTB, Tiffany etc.

R17 The only ones people remember are Shit by Shit, The Wrong Stuff, Hangin’ Weak, and Please Don’t Go Boy.

"Nirvana put the nail in the coffin."

You're giving way too much credit to Nirvana. They didn't end pop music

[quote]And what was the point of bringing out Flava Flav?

Street cred. NKOTB wanted to be embraced by the Black community because they were accused of cultural appropriation even back then.

Jordan was extremely talented but super lazy he was the face of the group but Donnie who can’t even sing was the leader and super ambitious. Jordan should have had a solo career back in 1990 when they were still hot not in 1999.

Upbeat youth-oriented dance-pop/New jack swing died out by 1991/92. It shifted to alternative rock, house music, R&B, adult contemporary and electronica. Spice Girls, Backstreet and Britney Spears revived the youth-focused dance-pop sound in the late 90s.

R27 yup. And were accused of stealing from black artists then.

I loved the song Summertime from when they came back in 2008. And they looked so good! It was such a cute summer song.

When they came back Joey was made the main lead as Jordan didn’t wanna do it.

Jordan's solo album in 1999 was actually pretty solid. It was R&B for a grown audience though. Produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. "Give It To You" being an upbeat dance song, was promoted on TRL along with Britney, NSYNC and J. Lo and Jordan Knight could not have looked more out of place along side them. Jordan really should have kept releasing R&B albums like that. I actually liked his cover of Prince's "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man". A way better falsetto than Timberlake.

I dont understand why Jordan didn’t pursue a solo career when NKOTB were on a 2 year break ...with the right producers and song he could have been the next JT or Harry Styles.

He covered a The Delfonics tune proficiently. The dude has my respect. He completely wasted his talent with NKOTB in my opinion. His great voice wasted on such subpar bubblegum material that aged like milk. If Jordan went solo in 1990 and got Jam & Lewis back then to produce him a solo album, then things would have worked out differently.

“Baby I Believe In You” was a Jordan song they wrote for him and put on the Step by Step album to groom him into a solo career. That was the goal. He had pretty much become the face of that group by then and did almost all the lead singing and dancing etc. they even had him perform the song on tour.

It was him who didn’t wanna do it and I’m pretty sure he was a big part of why they took that 2-3 year break. I believe he was starting to suffer from anxiety and all the work was doing him no favors. He needed time away to hide.

I know his brother Jon was struggling later too and they pretty much kicked him out of the group.

^ That song is very sexual. Very nice groove to it. Jordan could have been a male counterpart to Janet. Though that spot was eventually taken by Usher.

What r22 said. They were for teen girls, and not popular with mainstream audiences. I remember it well, I was a kid at the time.

r26 Nirvana ended a lot of careers for 80s and very early 90s artists. The music landscape changed overnight. We should thank the gods every day that one genre they absolutely killed was hair metal. Christ, that was the worst.

His 1999 album was incredible. Unlike Timberfake, Jordan actually had an R&B voice.

Corny ballad and their voices don't exactly match well. But like I said, Jordan's voice is much more suited for R&B.

Yes, “Please Don’t Go Girl” and their first album as a whole was pushed toward black audiences, but once the song took off with white audiences and went “mainstream pop” they changed their sound for their second album. The first album was very R&B and poppy R&B with rap and then the second was pure bubblegum pop.

The video was even redone to be more “appropriate” for white audiences.

The original was in Boston and they all are singing to the teacher (what a pedo whore) in a mostly black school. The second video was set in Coney Island, Brooklyn and had them chasing white girls.

They also were so young for their first album. I forget they started as actual kids.

The first.

The remake of the video

R35, There was a pretty weird rumor in the tabloids that Jordan’s Dr convinced him that he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and he wanted to be more open about it , according to the reports he was already giving hints by the earrings in each ear, bit of makeup and how he dressed. Donnie blew a gasket when he heard and it all when down hill from there and he became withdrawn...

I get the earrings in both ears thing because it signaled one's sexuality. But the makeup and dressing style he had didn't stand out much considering he was a pop star and they are allowed a bit of flamboyancy compared to regular men. And 1990 was still culturally the 80s.

R43 thats just a rumor started because of how he dressed and his earrings. 🙄🙄🙄

People are always starting rumors about celebs

Jon wasn’t kicked out of the group, he left during their 1994 tour and the group split up afterwards. They weren’t attacked for stealing black music, their manager/Svengali is African American and their songs are mostly pop. Their audience was already starting to age out by 1991, and they were considered a lightweight teen act and not taken seriously.

Jordan didn’t have the ambition to pursue a full time solo career. Donnie and joe were the ambitious ones. In the early 2000s there was a show called bands reunited that tried to get NKOTB back together for a one night only concert. Both knight brothers said yes but the other 3 said no way and Donnie and Danny wouldn’t go on camera:

Their tours are wildly successful and they were smart to do package tours with other acts. I think they are touring with New Edition and a few others next year. The last one was with naughty by nature, Debbie Gibson, salt and pepa and Tiffany.

Didnt they do one with Paula Abdul too?

New Edition who were considered cooler and more mature got to perform at the VMAs in 1990. Apparently, MTV wasn't giving love to NKOTB because they were considered wack and for little kids. Funny enough, MTV turned a 180 and began pushing boy bands like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC heavily in the late 90s.

R46 incorrect. They voted him out of the group because they were tired of his back and forth and up and down attitude about being in the group again. This was for their 1994 resurgence.

Here is their Behind The Music. Skip to the 36 minute mark. They speak about them kicking him out.

Pop music has always taken from African-American music like rhythm and blues, doo wop, jazz, funk and others. NKOTB obviously had Black influence from their music which had a lot of groove and bass to it, the rap bits, their hip-hop/breakin' choreography and their urban streetwear style. Their first album was a straight up New Edition synth-funk album. Yes, their manager and main producer Maurice Starr was a Black man. He created NKOTB to spite New Edition for firing him after he scammed them out of their money. Maurice knew that because NE was successful that if he created a white version of them that he could make twice as much money. Starr was right.

Remember their first song after their hiatus, when they came back in 1994, “Dirty Dawg”? It was their new image and sound to fit in with what was popular then but it flopped commercially, but was well received by critics.

Me and my sister laughed at this.

Found one of the tabloids that covered Jordan’s desire for a sex change:

Despite petty Maurice Starr's attempts to create a competitor for New Edition. New Edition has no resentment towards New Kids on the Block. NKOTB knows that they owe their existence to NE and always make that known. I still wish racist Boston would acknowledge New Edition, Bobby Brown and Bell Biv Devoe to the same extent they do for NKOTB.

[quote]I dont understand why Jordan didn’t pursue a solo career when NKOTB were on a 2 year break ...with the right producers and song he could have been the next JT or Harry Styles.

I know many people who have met him that have said he was unpleasant to deal with. That might have had something to do with it as well.

R52 you said it... TABLOID. 95% of their shit is made up.

He left two weeks into their tour R49 that they themselves canceled 2 weeks later. He wanted to quit and was starting to get panic attacks which he had for years.

Except Joey McIntyre, the rest of NKOTB were ghetto white boys with working class Boston accents. Jordan was a breakdancer. Donnie who was basically the Bobby Brown of the group who was authentically into hip-hop (unlike his racist brother who only used the culture as a self-promotion tool).

Here are the knight brothers on Oprah in 2001, Jon is having a panic attack during the interview.

R56 they kicked him out. They said it themselves. He even acknowledged it. It’s right there to see. I’ll take their word over yours.

And they played for a few shows after and then decided to cancel the tour all together.

Their Arsenio episode, where the focus was them making headlines for Lip-Synching (as if they were the first ever to do so).

R57 your point? Who cares that the others were from working class families? Most people are.

There was an original 5th member who then either left or got the boot and Maurice went out scouting in other parts of Boston because he wanted someone younger who could sing high notes. Joey was from a very different background than the rest and younger, so you can imagine how the picked on him and bullied him. He would go home hysterically crying because of them tormenting him when they first started.

Obviously that changed with time and as they got a little older.

Also, Marky Mark helped form the band.

I can barely remember New Edition. Weren't they only briefly popular in the early 80s and quickly fizzled? I can only remember that Mr. Telephone Man song, did they have other hits? They definitely weren't huge superstars.

That Arsenio interview was around the time Jordan’s extreme anxiety started. All the negative press and hate from the media they were getting, the pressure to do everything perfect, him having to fucking carry the group every damn day... he started breaking down mentally. That’s when they went on hiatus for a couple of years, and derailed any plans of a solo career.

Question: How many of you on this thread are women? I cannot remember any males liking NKOTB. Even gay boys thought they were shit.

R61 NKOTB had a wholesome image but they were street punks with limited education who partied, fucked around and did drugs. Jordan and Donnie had a love for Black music and hip-hop culture. They were marketed to a very young and white suburban audience and their image were to be these role models.

R63 New Edition was popular throughout the 80s and 90s. They were R&B and their audience was always predominately Black or at least white R&B/hip-hop fans. Boyz II Men eclipsed them in the 90s.

r63 "Candy Girl", "Cool It Now" ...

I remember Bobby Brown went solo in the late 80s, and was a big star for about five minutes. Did New Edition switch out their original members for younger artists? I honestly can't remember them past the early 80s.

New Edition had one of the greatest 80s R&B/new jack swing albums Heart Break. Produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

R66 again, your point? All artists are “marketed”. Every single one. What does Donnie and Jordan having a love for black music have to do with anything? Why does that bother you? Your racism is showing.

[quote] Take a look at the Billboard Hot 100 charts from the early 90s. Just full of dated shit.

1990 was the nadir of pop music. Take a look at the songs that went to #1 on the Billboard chart that year. A few good songs like Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" and Madonna's "Vogue," but mostly pure shit. #1 hits from NKOTB, Vanilla Ice, Tommy Page, Glenn Medeiros, Nelson, Sweet Sensation, Stevie B. A very forgettable year for pop music. Most of NKOTB's music was crap, but no worse than all the other crap at the time.

R70 Umm, well it doesn't bother me per se. As people can love what they love. It's great they love our music and culture. I just wish the fans would acknowledge the Black roots of the music of NKOTB. It's the same reason why Elvis and Eminem fans are frustrating. Black people aren't appreciated in American culture despite their major influence on virtually all of entertainment. That's all I have to say

R66 NKOTB had a wholesome image because they were fucking kids. Joey was legit like 12 when their first album came out. The rest were a little older. All minors.

You’re sitting here judging them pretty hard. They were older later.

[quote]Question: How many of you on this thread are women? I cannot remember any males liking NKOTB. Even gay boys thought they were shit.

I’m guessing 75% of the posters are women because they always come on to DL threads about their favorite male celebs and defend them whenever there are gay rumors (because god forbid someone they will never have anyway actually be gay!)

R71 a lot of that music you labeled as forgettable shit is still played on radios today, while Sinead is not.

The LA Times article from 1992 after their Arsenio appearance defending themselves against the lip synch lawsuit

[quote] a lot of that music you labeled as forgettable shit is still played on radios today

On radios in hell, maybe.

Are you really going to claim that songs like Glenn Medeiros' "She Ain't Worth It" or Nelson's "Love and Affection" get more airplay today than Sinead's version of "Nothing Compares 2 U"?

R65 I'm gay, Black and I love New Edition, Bobby Brown and Bell Biv Devoe. NKOTB had mostly subpar music to me except for some of their songs like "Baby, I Believe In You", "I'll Be Loving You Forever" and "If You Go Away" which are guilty pleasures. Jordan Knight is a great vocalist and very sexy. I just found their story interesting how Maurice Starr got up and created a white clone of NE and gave them their outdated leftover material and NKOTB ended up becoming a huge sensation when only 2/5ths of them had anything close to singing talent. I find Jordan Knight a complete waste of talent and beauty.

R77 yes.

Also, there are bad songs at #1 every fucking year.

NYTimes review of their 1990 tour

[quote] I find Jordan Knight a complete waste of talent and beauty.

Mary! He’s 51. Those days of hoping for solo success are over.

[quote] there are bad songs at #1 every fucking year.

But there were just a lot more of them in the early '90s, compared to the '80s.

[quote]Are you really going to claim that songs like Glenn Medeiros' "She Ain't Worth It" or Nelson's "Love and Affection" get more airplay today than Sinead's version of "Nothing Compares 2 U"?

Speaking of Nelson, why have they been randomly listed on my YouTube suggestions list when I have never listened to their music in my life?

Is Flava Flav pronounced

Flay-vuh flay-v

Or

FLAH-vuh FLAH-v

r71 it really was awful, as were other years. Another putrid genre that was popular at that time was adult contemporary "Lite FM" music. Gloria Estefan, Michael Bolton, Rod Stewart and others. Just total shit and you'll see a bunch of those artists on the early 90s charts.

Here are the Billboard Hot 100 songs for 1990. There are maybe five songs that are actually good. It really was an atrocious period. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can look at other years. It's interesting to look at these lists and remember what was popular at the time. Looking at all the 90s lists year by year, I was amazed at how much of the music was garbage. We tend to only remember the good stuff, but every time period has had it's share of awful music.

Had its share, not it's. Whoops!

Michael Bolton sounded like he was contistipated. It's funny how he was originally a rock vocalist and had a lot of really solid AOR albums in the 70s and 80s before deciding to become a pop balladeer and inflicting his overwrought sapfests onto us.

R86 but to many out there those songs you dislike are good.

He was the worst r88.

r86 to many those songs are utter shit.

I think the 90s music people fondly remember the most was between 1991 (Nirvana) to 1998 (Lauryn). Spice Girls, Backstreet and Hanson were warning signs for the teen pop revival that was solidified by Britney and the Max Martin sound.

Jordan waited too long for a solo career. Give It To You was a great song and was a hit in the late '90s but he should have done it earlier. I agree that a Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-produced album in the early '90s might have been a big success, with maybe a few Babyface-produced cuts.

New Edition's Heart Break album really is terrific. One of those late 80s albums that gets better with time. You can hear its influence even today. Even Beyonce's Love on Top video was NE-inspired as it was reminiscent of the If It Isn't Love video.

In the music business it's all about striking when you're hot. Jordan definitely waited too long. You can't do nothing for three years and expect to come back.

Jordan’s solo song went multi platinum but the album didn’t do well.

Their big comeback song for their reunion in 2008 was great! Their harmonies were great. They didn’t need Ne-Yo but I get why they did this.

They've done well for themselves. They understand they are a nostalgia act but can still pursue their own solo endeavors. Their fans are very loyal, and it's interesting how their touring has branched out into cruises and packaged tours.

"Give It To You" was released too late. It was 1999 and he was nearly 30 which is over-the-hill by pop music standards. The music video is even awkward too with 30-year-old Jordan dancing in a turtleneck sweater and singing seductive lyrics at a summer carnival. Jordan really missed his shot in the early 90s. He could have taken the spot that Bobby Brown left open that eventually got filled by Usher years later.

They’ve only released two new albums since they reunited 13 years ago, yet they still tour every single year. Don’t the 50 year old grandmas get tired of hearing the same songs every year?

R97, no! And many of their fans are in their 30s and 40s too.

They aren’t all as old as you say.

If a 10 year old girl was a huge fan 30 years ago she’s 40 now.

R98 I can tell by your response you are a woman. Just admit it.

So the routine starts with a homage/tribute to or rip off of ‘Its Just Begun ‘ by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. Iconic Bboy song. The horn riff but not the bass line, which might suggest a knock off. That’s not a good start. Then the walk and the rapping ... embarrassing. Boy bands that accept being boy bands are fine. Trying to be anything else just comes across as laughable.

Jordan did carry the group on his back -he was such a perfectionist too but now he just goes through the motions and let Donnie decide on NKOTB ‘s business venture and the others follow along.

Donnie and Joey call the shots r101. It’s not just Donnie.

Their 1990 medley performance was much better than their 1991 upthread

Winning Pop/Rock album at the AMAs 1990

One of their very first performances, before hitting it big.

So Flav has had the same schtick for over 30 years?

R38, grunge fans give way too much credit to grunge. Nirvana didn't kill off anything except hair rock. Pop and R&B remained popular throughout the 90s. The biggest selling artists of the 90s were Mariah Carey and Garth Brooks, not any grunge artists. Music critics overstate the popularity of the kind of music they like (usually rock), while downplaying artists they think aren't "cool" enough

R107 thats two of them. Celine Dion, Shania Twain and a few others were up there.

Britney’s debut album came out in 1999, the final year of the 90s, and is the 10th biggest selling album of that decade.

[quote] grunge fans give way too much credit to grunge. Nirvana didn't kill off anything except hair rock.

A lot of artists whose careers started to fade in the '90s love to blame grunge ("Nirvana destroyed our career!") instead of admitting that their music had simply run its course or had started to decline in quality. Artists from the '80s who tried hard enough were still able to break through during the so-called "grunge era." Duran Duran, for example, had one of their biggest hits, "Ordinary World," in 1993.

Grunge affected the "alternative" music scene more than anything else. In the '80s, alternative music was all about the Cure, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, New Order, etc. Then, in the '90s, alternative music became Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. By the mid-90s, "alternative" had become such a meaningless term that even artists like Hanson and Hootie & the Blowfish were being labeled "alternative."

Nirvana and grunge definitely put an end to many artists' careers. Dance pop was no longer a thing on top 40 radio except for Madonna and Janet. The whole landscape definitely changed in the early 90s because of Kurt Cobain. And then of course you had rap and hip hop totally changing R&B as well.

[quote] And then of course you had rap and hip hop totally changing R&B as well.

The rising popularity of rap and hip hop definitely changed the music landscape in the 1990s -- far more than grunge. Nirvana had TWO Top 40 hits -- "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which peaked at #6 (people talk about it as if it was a huge #1 song), and "Come As You Are," at #32. People like to pretend that grunge dominated the music charts and radio airwaves in the early and mid-90s when it was barely even a blip. Grunge DID start to dominate the alternative music scene and alternative radio, but it had very little effect on mainstream Top 40 pop.

It's not about chart dominance of one particular band or artist, it's the influence they had over the whole musical landscape. The Rolling Stones changed music but they didn't have a lot of #1 hits either.

^ And yet few current artists sound even remotely grunge. Pop dominates the current music landscape

r113 this is about music back in the early 90s, not now. Of course things changed in the late 90s.

Actually R&B and Rap dominate.

Pop is just as dominant as rap or R&B

Their 1994 “Face the Music” album was honestly good. It was what was popular on the radio at the time and it was even embraced by critics, who hated and trashed everything else they did.

It’s a shame the public didn’t embrace their new sound. They couldn’t keep putting out the same shit, music changed and they were older now.

You can hear the full album here. As soon as it starts you know that is what was taking over the mainstream by mid 90s.

R116 it’s starting to be again because of Dua Lipa and a few others but for years now it’s been mostly rap and R&B

^ No, Taylor Swift and Adele and other pop girls were dominating the landscape

R119 look at the charts. There will be very few pop artists on them. It’s almost all Hip Hop/Rap/R&B with a few pop acts and a few country artists here and there.

No. There are plenty of pop artists, not just a couple

Last week 5 out of the Top 10 albums were all R&B/Rap albums. R121 the numbers are right there online.

2 Country albums (Alan Jackson and Morgan Wallen)

2 Pop albums (Dua Lipa and Justin Bieber)

1 alternative rock album (The Black Keys)

#1,2,3 are all rap albums.

So 2 pop albums in the top 5 alone? I guess pop isn't as invisible as you make it seen. I notice you only focused on the top ten, too...

Dua Lipa looks like a tranny.

What's funny is that it's actually Flav[bold]or[/bold] Flav, and he would get very upset if you called him 'Flava'. This came up several times in [italic]Flavor of Love[/italic].

That 1991 performance is tragic. Everything about it is total cringe, except maybe the dancing.

The overall concept of it is laughable: "we're not really these teen idol pussies, we're really hardcore hip-hop street thugs, and we're coming for our haters!" Sooo lame.

But if they'd done a good job with it, at least they'd have pulled off what they'd set out to do...instead, they fell flat on their faces here.

The rapping is embarrassing. The singing is horrifically weak and out of tune, especially Jordan, who was supposedly the "great singer" of the group. His much-lauded falsetto totally deserted him, and he sounds incapable of hitting a single note on key.

Even that simple "oh wee oh, oh oh" chant thing that was used in tons of songs at that time, which they sing in unison with no harmony, sounds like pure shit.

It's weird, because we expect acts who at their commercial peak to also be at the top of their game artistically. Yet here is one of the hottest acts in the business at the time, revealing themselves to be complete musical incompetents.

On the positive side, if they wanted to prove to the world that they weren't lip-syncing, well, mission accomplished. Sadly, though, they clearly SHOULD have been.

Teen pop acts like NKOTB, Debbie and Tiffany were completely distinct from mainstream pop at the time like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bobby Brown, Janet, Whitney and Paula. Apparently MTV didn't play NKOTB, Debbie and Tiffany much. NKOTB made a shit ton of money from their concerts and merchandise but were see as for kids not adults. New Edition and Boyz II Men were R&B with Motown influence, so they were never pigeonholed to just a kid audience. Kid and teen singers in R&B has always been a thing and there was Aaliyah, Brandy, Usher and Monica hitting big in the 90s. Hanson, Britney, Christina, NSYNC and Backstreet Boys were the first teen pop acts to get very mainstream and MTV pushed them very hard which showed a big shift in media perception.

Donnie was the worst!

I recently listened to Debbie Gibson and was amazed that she could really sing.

Debbie also wrote her songs too. So she was actually very talented. Tiffany was also a better singer than Madonna, Janet and Paula. Both of them deserved better careers.

R123 neither is in the Top 5. They’re in the top 10.

Tiffany had better vocals than Debbie. But Debbie could sing.

R123 who said they were in the top 5?

Dua Lipa is, at 5 and Bieber at 7.

1-3 are all rap albums and 4 is a country album.

Outside of very specific artists, pop is not thriving.

R132, of course it is. You just cherry pick random stuff from the charts to try to claim that only rap and R&B are successful

Back in those days teen idols were not taken seriously, it's true. And their careers only lasted for a short while then they were gone and they could never break into the mainstream. Even if Jordan Knight had Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and released an album in 1990/91 it probably wouldn't have caught on. Things were a lot different then.

r129 True. It is interesting how Britney and Christina were able to transition from teen stars to adult music stars pretty smoothly in comparison to Debbie and Tiffany. A big factor in this was MTV and especially TRL. You really can't mention late 90s/early 00s pop without mentioning TRL. When those artists released new albums they would go on that show and they were major events. NSYNC's "No Strings Attached" album sold like 2 million physical copies the first week in large part because MTV/TRL dedicated their programming to promoting it.

R133 Cherry pick? I literally named the Top 10. How is that cherry picking? Are you ok? Do you need meds?

I’m pretty sure NKOTB were mainstream. You couldn’t turn on a Top 40 station without hearing them back then. That’s as mainstream as it gets.

They were not mainstream in the sense that they were taken seriously in the media and adults did not listen to them. Also, no award nominations.

TRL also promoted shit that flopped.

No Strings Attached was a phenomenon all over the world.

R138 that isn’t what mainstream means.

A lot of adults listen to all types of music and much of it isn’t mainstream pop. NKOTB were mainstream but for younger audiences. But if you look they had many adult fans too. Watch that Arsenio interview. He says that people think they only had young fans when many adults lowkey liked them too. Same can be said of BSB and NSYNC later.

R136, do you need to take your meds? You seem weirdly obsessed

R141 youre the one who has no comprehension skills. Go lay down. Maybe that will help.

[quote] But if you look they had many adult fans too.

I was around back then and believe me, only basic teen girls liked NKOTB. Boys hated them, even gay boys. No adults listened to them in any great numbers. They were totally a teen girl act, like David Cassidy before them. Don't try to rewrite history, I remember it all very well.

R143 apparently knew every person in the USA.

Young gays weren’t out in 1990. They were pretending to be straight.

Many grown women liked them.

Debut album sells 15 million albums but we are supposed to believe it was only teen girls.

r144 you're an old fangirl who is grasping. NKOTB were a teen girl thing, nothing more.

They may have had mostly teen girl fans but they were not only liked by them.

Their popularity plummeted as soon as the teen girl fans got a little older, it happens to countless teen idols.

NKOTB were an absolute fucking joke back then, what is this bullshit about them being adored by all and sundry? Most people dismissed them as lame and shitty.

Omg. What r147 is saying is that the majority of their fanbase were teens. Yes. We know that. But that doesn’t mean they were 100% of the fanbase. Did most adults like them? No. But does that mean every adult disliked them? No. Like with everything, some people who are older are gonna like them.

What is so hard to understand about that?

Was Maurice Starr a chickenhawk like Lou Pearlman?

My cousin told me Joey once had to have a gallon of cum pumped from his stomach.

It's amazing what ten years difference can do.

Both Debbie and Tiffany shot to fame and then - poof - it pretty much ended. It didn't help that both released underwhelming second albums (sorry but I thought Elecritic Youth was shit). And their image was too cutesy. It wasn't going to last for them, although Tiffany I've heard has released some decent music since.

Britney had the combination of the Max Martin sound, the sex appeal, the videos, TRL and changing technology to benefit her. The transition from teen to adult pop star was very easy. I don't remember anyone really questioning if she or Aguilera would last. I think it helped that both Britney and Aguilera released solid second albums and were able to continue their success.

R153 Britney was penned as a 1 hit album wonder. Everyone thought she was gonna have that one massive album (which exceeded all expectations) and song and that was it.

But then she released Oops and the album was a smash and she was solidified and proved many critics wrong. She is the first female to sell over 1 million physical copies in 1 week with Oops, and the first artist to have the #1 single and album on the chart at the same time.

Aguilera didn’t transition into adulthood well, and her last hit album was with Back to Basics. Everything after flopped.

Britney had hits still in the early 2010s. Xtina hasn’t been able to produce a hit in like 15 years.

To clarify, she had the #1 album and single at the same time with BOMT, not Oops.

She sold over 1 million copies of Oops in 1 week though.

I've forgotten over the years that BMOT and Oops aren't the same song so I was confused reading r154 comment.

Britney was walking Barbie doll. She had all the right ingredients for a marketing success. Pretty, could dance and was charismatic but polite, relatable and nonthreatening. Thus she was very popular with little kids and middle schoolers who begged their parents to buy her albums and merchandise. Nowadays, the teen pop stars try to be walking Bratz dolls. I don't think Britney was popular with actual high schoolers who leaned more towards rock, R&B and hip-hop at the time. I think Britney made the proper transition to an older audience with her third and fourth albums which incorporated more hip-hop and electronic production.

r155 The transition from her first album to Stripped and then Back To Basics WAS her successful transition into an an adult music star, dumbass.

Step by Step is still a bop. This was their peak song but not peak era. Their 2nd album had the most hits. This one only generated 2, this one peaking at 1 and Tonight peaking at like 7 or 8.

Loved the video as a kid and love it now. They had great energy here and weren’t just standing being cute. They actually danced etc. and Jordan and Donnie look hot here. Donnie looked good with that haircut. Never noticed he’s blond. 💀

I never ever saw or heard this one. Who is the guy in the beginning? They don’t even name him as a feature.

Jordan was gorgeous.

I would totally have fucked all of them, except Joey. He was too twinky. Even Danny was fuckable.

Danny was a buff hot midget

For the record, to all of you calling NKOTB a white trash boy band, the only trash in that band was Wahlberg. I was born and raised in Dorchester around that trash family and the stories I could tell you about them. Garbage people.

I was very friendly with the Woods. Both of Danny’s parents were educators. His mother was particularly beloved in local teachers’ circles. I think she was in special needs. Sadly she died 2 decades ago from breast cancer. But even after the fame and fortune, the Woods maintained their family home in Dorchester only adding a fence to stop the teenie boppers from invading 24/7. A very humble and caring family even though Danny’s muscles and tats might be out of character for the Wood family.

The Knights are not trashy townies either. Their parents are Canadians so they didn’t harbor that provincialism so common in Boston in the 80s.

And McIntyre was raised in Jamaica Plain which was already gentrifying and becoming a hip, artsy, urban, gay-friendly enclave by the mid 80s.

Just the Wahlbergs were filth. As low rent scum as you can imagine. They existed to create turmoil from Savin Hill to Ashmont. The father was a drunk and the mother a chain smoking psycho abusing prescription drugs because her eldest was back in jail and her other boys were drinking, drugging, and beating up Asians and Black kids.

Poetic justice: The Vietnamese neighborhood where Marky used to terrify immigrants and blinded a guy just received cultural status and is now Boston’s Little Saigon. That must be killing his pasty white Irish ass.

R164 they themselves say they struggled. The Knight brothers, that is. They had no money.

All 4 guys grew up together in the same area.

Joey is from an upper middle class area.

There are NINE Wahlberg siblings! Wow.

BTW Wahlberg is not an Irish surname, it's Swedish.

Yes. They’re half Irish.

Jordan seems just as gay as his brother Jonathan. Both are good-looking men.

He doesn’t seem gay 🙄

What is seeming gay?

Flava Flav was so gross looking. Not because he was dark as a gunny sack, but you just knew under his gold plated grills his breath was rank and his knuckles and knees were ashy as fuck. He always seems to be high, but not on anything fun like cocaine, more like ghetto drugs like PCP. Blech

R170 that racism jumped out, huh?

Flava Flav was the black man every white entertainer dragged out to show how street and hip they were. Vanilla Ice, 3rd Base, NKOTB, Snow. All of them used him.

Because he was popular r172

R165 You can struggle and not be trash. The Knight family may have had financial challenges like many of us did but they were decent and respectable people.

R166 The Wahlberg reach was beyond just the siblings. The cousins were part of their gang of terror, too. And I’m talking about the girls. Cousin Ruth, who we called Toothy Ruthie, got her nickname after getting bashed in the mouth with a pipe during a fistfight in a parking lot and losing her front teeth. Classy, gurl!

Also R166, they would knife you for denying their Irish heritage. I never once heard a Wahlberg brag about being fucking Swedish. Lol! ☘️

You would think NKOTB is the epitome of a mediocre boy band but then there's this and also the millions of short-lived 90s UK boy bands.

A genealogical breakdown of the Wahlberg's: Ethnicity: *59.375% Irish *25% Swedish *6.25% English *6.25% French-Canadian *3.125% Scottish

Most self-proclaimed American Irish, Italians and French are mixed with other European groups. In fact, most white Americans are still mostly English descent.