MUSIC Bands try to reach Fab Four's success

Many such groups have appealed to fans, but how many keep it for decades?
By MICHAEL CANAN
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Charlie Andrews was nervous. It was her job to greet The Beatles' plane at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Feb. 7, 1964. But she was anxious because she'd never been in front of a crowd this big.
Thousands had gathered to welcome the British rock group to the United States for the first time. The band's arrival sent shockwaves through American culture and changed the course of rock music. In addition, the sign waving, screaming crowd and the band's poppy, feel-good music established the Fab Four as the originators of a cultural and musical phenomenon -- the "boy band."
The Beatles came to America to play music and were not manipulated by managers like many boy bands, but for the last 40 years bands in the genre have followed The Beatles' blueprint. These bands -- including The Monkees, The Jackson 5, The New Kids on the Block and *NSync -- target fans, mostly girls and young women, with an attractive, friendly appearance, solid marketing and a bubblegum pop sound.
"I think certainly any band would be crazy not to want to follow the success of The Beatles," said Bruce Spizer, author of "The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania In America." "I'm not sure [if boy bands] do it consciously or if they subconsciously try to do what The Beatles did because it worked so well."
Reaching for a goal
Whether boy bands try to mimic The Beatles or not, their goal is the reaction the band brought to the United States on that cold February day.
"[The fans] were mostly young people with signs," said Andrews, a Pan Am Airlines passenger service representative for five years. "They were just screaming, passing out and grabbing. They even grabbed me by mistake one time when we went by. In the five years I'd done that kind of work, I had not seen that kind of reception for a celebrity or dignitary ever. Not ever."
In fact, there had never been this kind of reaction for a musical group, Spizer said. In concert, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra aroused screams and fainting spells in the 1950s. But fans followed the Fab Four on and off stage.
High-pitched screams, sign waving and fanatical fans remain a norm around boy bands. The Monkees, one of the first to spark a Beatles-like reaction, played their first concert in December 1966 to a crowd packed with young fans.
"It was just wild," fan Leslie Nofoagatoto'a said. "It was even hard to hear over the screaming. At times that roar was so much you could just vaguely hear the concert."
For boy bands, screams aren't for just one band member. The Beatles began a tradition of each member drawing admiration. Before The Beatles, fans latched onto only lead singers, Spizer said.
Having their favorites
Capitol Records, The Beatles' record company, marketed the individual personalities of the Fab Four -- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Boy bands use similar tactics to familiarize fans with band members. Now, fans of every boy band have their favorite.
"Every girl who I knew had one guy who they really, really liked," said Jenny Albrecht, a New Kids on the Block fan in the late 1980s. Her favorite was Jordan Knight.
While marketing John, Paul, George and Ringo fueled popularity, the most important item for sale was the music. Capitol Records tried to directly attract music fans. Before The Beatles, music was marketed only to radio stations with the hopes of getting airtime. Boy bands and other musicians now commonly advertise their music.
All Beatles music needed, however, was radio time, Beatles historian Martin Lewis said. The listener-friendly music appealed to young fans because it was positive and upbeat.
"What emerged from The Beatles ... was full of exuberance, brashness and giddy optimism." said Lewis.
Kept changing
While the bands that followed aimed for that sound, the Fab Four's music quickly changed, Lewis said. The Beatles went from the bubblegum pop sound of their first hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to the slow, destitute "Yesterday" in one year. The band continued to change. They added complex arrangements and new instruments such as the sitar, a type of Indian lute.
That adaptation and the ability to write and perform are why The Beatles remain popular and other boy bands fade, Spizer said.
"The quality of music is why people keep coming back to The Beatles," Spizer said. "I don't think 40 years from now people will be doing [anniversary celebrations] for the Backstreet Boys."