” — a “valentine” to his home city of Boston, and his first solo single since 2011 — that Joey McIntyre realizes that this year marks the 35th anniversary of his famous boy band, New Kids on the Block. “The cool thing of being together for so long is you get to havethese anniversaries,” he laughs. “It seems like every day: ‘It’s the 30th anniversary! It’s the 30th anniversary ofBut NKOTB were hardly an overnight success.
Starr had intended New Kids on the Block to be a white version of the previous group he’d discovered, New Edition, and he had “called around public schools” and looking for “white kids who can sing and dance” when he found musical theater kid McIntyre. “I was 12, and I looked like I was 8,” quips McIntyre, who turns 48 this month. “I think where it starts from, is that first of all, Maurice was Black.
New Kids on the Block were hardly the first boy band to not be taken seriously. But they caught more flak than most after they finally achieved mainstream success with 1988’salbum and amassed a huge following of young girls, since sexist music journalists tended to discredit acts with largely female fanbases. “[We tell our fans now], ‘They weren't wrong about us. They were wrong about.
In a more open pop era, when music fans now love all sorts of artists regardless of their color, gender or genre; when NKOTB seem as popular as ever, with last year’s Mixtape Tour earning more than $50 million; and K-pop septet BTS now the biggest recording act on the planet, McIntyre thinks it’s time for a new American boy band. There’s such a lack of them, in fact, that he just might become the next Maurice Starr and start one himself.,” he says.