If one genre of music ruled the airwaves during my middle school and early high school years, it was that of the boy bands. Millions of completely not legal girls screamed, lusted after, and forked over their parents money to support The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, LFO, 98 Degrees, and Winger. Wait...maybe not Winger. Early twenties boy fever was everywhere and the only thing as intense as the adolescent girls’ love was perhaps the almost universal hatred by the entire male population. At the risk of losing some serious cool guy points, I will admit that I, in fact, did like The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync. I’m not even kidding.
You can hate on No Strings Attached as much as you want; I will still play “Bye Bye Bye” at full blast on my iPod and scream the lyrics. It’s just good fun. For awhile I thought I was the only one with this bizarre fascination, but apparently someone at VH1 agrees with me. The MTV little sister has just announced that it will produce a new show entitled ‘Mission: Man Band’ that will bring together a group of former heartthrobs in an attempt to create a new aged man candy supergroup. The participants will have three weeks to live together, strike up a friendship, and create some new catchy, irresistible songs.
So far, four members have been announced including Chris Kirkpatrick (N’Sync), Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees), Rich Cronin (LFO), and Bryan Abrams (Color Me Badd). Sadly, this is where I have to question the judgment of VH1 executives. Rich Cronin? LFO was probably one of the shittiest bands that has ever existed. Ever. I would rather listen to prehistoric Cavemen bang rocks against their foreheads for an hour than hear the worst trio in music history play one more song. You probably remember LFO’s one hit “Summer Girls”, with lyrics like “I’ll steal your honey like I stole your bike” and “There was a good man named Paul Revere/ I feel much better, baby, when you’re near”, I’m surprised they aren’t already in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame.
Still, despite my qualms with one of the selections, I will be watching every single episode of this. The premiere date is August 6th; so, you only have a few weeks to bust out your old CDs and catch up on all your favorite tunes. Remember, with your support, they can once again see how your love’s affecting their reality. Every time they’re down, you can make it right. And that makes you larger than life. Yeah, that makes you larger than life.
