New Edition faces tough market in return to the music industry

The group's latest album comes out after an eight-year layoff.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Over the past two decades, New Edition has managed to overcome the kind of obstacles that have sent other groups hurtling into "Whatever Happened To ..." territory.
They aced their transition from preteen bubblegum pop to adult R & amp;B, survived the loss (and subsequent reappearance) of the dynamic Bobby Brown, endured lackluster sales and flourished despite divergent career paths and stretches of inactivity.
Yet their latest comeback attempt may prove the most difficult one yet.
On Tuesday, Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe released "One Love," their eighth album, after an eight-year layoff. Although signed to P. Diddy's youth-oriented Bad Boy label, they've still got "old school" stamped all over them.
And that's part of the problem, especially in an R & amp;B market dominated by young stars with a hip-hop bent. Already they've struggled -- the album's first single, "Hot 2Nite," peaked at just No. 35 on Billboard's Top 100 R & amp;B and Hip-Hop chart.
Knows what's ahead
The Boston-bred group -- once again without Bobby Brown -- is well aware of the challenges. Sitting together in a Washington hotel conference room after a planned concert was scrapped due to technical issues, the men nod their heads in agreement when talking about the ruthlessness of today's market.
"We've been in the business for 20 years or more, but we haven't been on radio consistently year after year. The game changes," said Bell.
Bivins is even more blunt: "They send you home early. I think this generation is a little more colder."
And DeVoe says a recent conversation with a young teen about her music favorites confirmed his worst fears.
"She said, 'Let me start with the people I don't like. 50 Cent -- he's played out.' How is 50 Cent played out? He only had one record! [But] it's like that across the board," he lamented.
Good response
Still, New Edition has reason to be hopeful. Their last record, 1996's "Home Again," also came after an eight-year layoff -- and sold more than two million copies.
And their recent tour showed they still have an audience: At this summer's Essence Festival, where acts like Prince and Mary J. Blige were billed as the main draw, New Edition got one of the wildest receptions, as 30-something women shrieked like teenagers and men in baggy jeans swayed to past hits like "Can You Stand The Rain," "Mr. Telephone Man" and "Candy Girl."
"They have such a broad core audience," says producer Jimmy Jam, who along with partner Terry Lewis worked with the group on the new disc, which incorporates a bit of today's hip-hop sound along with the polished R & amp;B grooves that New Edition fans have come to expect.
"It really benefits them when they're coming out with a record that they have that fan base to draw upon."
"As far as their showmanship and the energy when they hit the screen and the stage ... they're like, professional," says another "One Love" producer, Stevie J. "Kids are going to get a chance to hear some classic sounds from an older R & amp;B group."
"They have to reinvent themselves," he said. "It's going to happen."
Not that New Edition is exactly ancient: They're all in their mid- to late 30s. "The crazy part about it is they're not older than most of the people that are in the game right now, it's just that they started so young," says P. Diddy.
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