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Boy power >> The Backstreet Boys rise to the top by JULIET WATERS
Givin' it Their All: The Backstreet Boys' Rise to the Top is published by Random House but, needless to say, it wasn't on the list. There are probably several good reasons for this. First, it's not fiction. (Although, as an unauthorized biography with astrological projections for what's up in the future for the boys, it should probably qualify as fiction.) Second, it's atrociously written. And third, the Backstreet Boys (a.k.a. BSB) will probably be considered as influential on the culture of the next millennium as the Bay City Rollers. Still, when I'm old enough to make my list of the 100 books that altered my consciousness of the world, I'm saving a spot for Givin' it Their All. This, despite the fact that I couldn't hum a single BSB song if you paid me. But I figure if Sherri Rifkin can write the group's biography without ever having spoken to any of the BSBs, I should be able to review her book without knowing anything about them. Why would I want to review this book? Well, it's partly the simple pleasure of taking cheap shots at a lousy writer and a gang of cringingly uncool super-posers. But mainly I chose this book because the other day I was stopped dead in my tracks by a poster advertising a compilation CD called Boy Power, which included songs from bands like BSB, Hanson and solo acts like LL Cool J. "Hey," I said to myself, "I get the play on 'Girl Power,' but there's something that makes me queasy about this." Like, would someone ever have the balls to put out a concept album with songs by the Beastie Boys, Marky Mark and a few other Caucasian rap bands and call it "White Power?" Of course not, since it's still obvious that whites hold a disproportionate amount of power in the world. So why wouldn't girls be offended by "Boy Power?" Because, as I discovered through reading Givin it Their All, pre-teen girls today don't have a clue that the world of pop music was ever dominated by boys. Ergo, when author Sherri Rifkin explains the rise of BSB, she has to introduce her material with a seemingly obvious statement like "...the Backstreet Boys was [sic] not the first boy band to make the scene in the United States. There is a long history of all-male music singing groups popular with people between the ages of 9 and 19." Pre-teen girls also don't have a clue that these "all-male music singing groups" were once proud practitioners of nasty, sexist, promiscuous behaviour. Thus, when they read that the BSB's Kevin Richardson, A. J. McLean, Howie "Howie D." Dorough, Nick Carter and Brian "B-Rok" Littrell, are all single, vulnerable, sensitive guys--and all looking for girlfriends who are independent, intelligent, faithful and career-minded--girls today have no clue of how full of shit these guys sound. Honestly, for all its blandness, Givin' it Their All is one the most horrifying books I've read since Brave New World. The more I read about the boys and their humble beginnings in Orlando, Florida, their first jobs dressing up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a Disney parade, how one of them had to turn down offers to be in the Mickey Mouse Club to risk a career in the Backstreet Boys, and the worst thing--their phenomenal success in Montreal, the first city of girls to become infected by the deadly BSB virus--the more I'm convinced that the BSBs are evil Disney cyborgs constructed to brainwash innocent girls into believing that boys are "the sugar and and spice that make the music scene nice" (actual nauseating quote from Rifkin). At any rate, that's this books' columnist's conspiracy theory for the week.
Givin' it Their All: The Backstreet Boys' Rise to the Top by Sherri Rifkin, Ballantyne
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There was a flurry of controversy in literary circles last week, when an editorial board appointed by Random House released a list of the 100 most important works of fiction of the century. At least one dissatisfied books' columnist came up with a conspiracy theory suggesting that the main criterion for what made a book worthy of a spot on the list was probably whether or not it was published by Random House.