Are Boybands Losing Ground With Young Fans?

Chris Welch of The Huntsville Times profiled the future of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC asking Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar magazine, for his thoughts. “In general, the career span of nearly every teen pop artist is very limited, three to five years,” Bongiovanni said. “And, when you go away from the scene for a while, it’s tough to figure out how much of the audience is there. If the Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC take off two years, when their audience is teens and pre-teens, and their attention spans are short, it’s easy to go on to the next big thing. And, when they come back, you don’t know if they’re still fans. At their age, what’s ultra-cool and not cool changes overnight.”