By NEKESA MUMBI WOODY
AP Music Writer
NEW YORK - O-Town, the latest boy band to make teen-age girls swoon, has a message for its critics: Don’t hate us just because we’re beautiful.
“We’re going to be the best band out there, and we’re not even going to let the fact that we’re five good-looking guys in the teen market affect us musically and let it lower the bar,”group member Jacob Underwood said.
Credibility is what O-Town is seeking since their gimmicky formation on ABC’s “Making the Band” reality show last May. Viewers watched scores of wannabe teen idols audition for a spot in the group - the latest creation of Lou Pearlman, who put the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync on the music map.
The five guys who were eventually picked - and who landed a contract on J Records, the new label from record mogul Clive Davis - were Underwood, 20; Ashley Angel, 19; Trevor Penick, 21; Erik-Michael Estrada, 21; and Dan Miller, 20.
So far, the formula has resulted in moderate success.
The album, released Jan. 23, debuted at No. 5, selling an impressive 145,000 copies its first week, according to Soundscan. However, the album sunk to No. 20 on the charts in its second week, according to Billboard.com.
O-Town has taken its share of potshots from critics who deride it as a carbon-copy, boy-band clone, and from some unlikely sources as well: Members of both the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync have made derogatory comments about the group’s quickie creation.
But the group hopes to be around long enough to prove the naysayers wrong, modeling themselves after another group that made teen-age girls swoon.
“To be able to take it (to where) the Beatles did, where their first album was totally the epitome of teen pop and bubblegum pop, and move to something that was so artistic it actually drove the world of music for, like, decades - that’s something that every artist aspires to, and we aspire ourselves,” said Underwood.
