You might read the title and say, “Duh, Donnie, you have the amazing looks, an angelic voice, dance moves like Usher and phenomenal hair, everything needed to be in a famous boy band,” and I would pay you a lot of money for saying that.
Honestly, none of those things are true. Well, the amazing looks, hair and dance moves might be true, but the angelic voice … it could have been better.
I already wrote a story about the genesis of my love for music, but I only had 700 or so words to explain it. I included Motown, rap, rock and R&B, but I forgot my boy Kenny G, and I also forgot my love for boy bands.
My love for boy bands started young when my brother got this VHS tape called “New Kids on the Block: Hanging Tough” for Christmas in 1990. Being a fan of a boy band like New Kids was frowned upon by dudes his age because the music was supposed to be for girls.
My brother didn’t budge. He liked what he liked.
That’s where my confidence in liking a genre of music that was weird for a male to like started. My brother was 10, and he had a New Kids blanket, sweater and their album. None of his friends batted an eye.
Who was this guy? Don Corleone? (For the younger generation, watch “The Godfather.” It’s a classic.)
This confidence he had stuck with me throughout my life. I’ve always followed in my brother’s footsteps when it came to music. Biggie, Jodeci, Nas and Boyz II Men were always on my boombox.
One thing I never did was watch “The Mickey Mouse Club,” but I probably should have. Almost everyone on that cast became a pop icon. I was too busy watching “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Saved by the Bell” and “90210” with my dad.
The cast of “The Mickey Mouse Club” consisted of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez and Ryan Gosling. What? All of them became huge stars.
Thank the Lord for “Total Request Live” on MTV because it changed everything. This show started at 3:30 p.m. and would play the top 10 music videos of the week.
A group called the Backstreet Boys got onto the countdown, and then the next year a band called *NSYNC hit the countdown. I was hooked on *NSYNC. Their music was amazing, the choreography was phenomenal, but the biggest thing I took away from it was the female reaction.
These girls loved the guys in the group. I mean, they adored them!
This is what I wanted! I wanted to have every female adore me.
What did I do? I called my buddy Tommy C. I knew Tommy C thought like I did, and we both agreed to create a boy band ourselves.
We rounded up two more of our friends to create our own boy band. We called ourselves 4-Reel.
Yup. 4-R-E-E-L.
Why wouldn’t we?
We would three-way call each other and practice singing melodies on the phone. (Remember three-way calls? We clogged up our parents’ landlines for hours.)
We actually performed a few Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC songs at a friend’s birthday party, and it went over well. The females at the party actually enjoyed it.
We all started high school, and the group disbanded soon thereafter.
A few years later, I noticed that one of my best friends, Chris, was also into the boy band thing. I asked him if he could sing, and he could. Not only could he sing, but he could sing well, and he looked the part.
I promise you that a lot of girls liked us. They probably wouldn’t have if they knew we practiced singing together over the phone and in his basement.
After a couple of sessions of singing together, we discovered that he was basically JC in *NSYNC and I was Justin.
We grabbed two more of our friends who could play the other parts of the group, and we created 4-Reel Part 2. One of the group members’ brothers taught us choreography and everything.
Four 17-year-old dudes danced in a room full of mirrors and learned *NSYNC choreography for about six hours.
That’s dedication.
We never performed as a group, but if we did, I think we would’ve been a sensation. There it is, my love for boy bands. Let the judgment begin.
Donnie Black was born and grew up in Ewing Township. He currently works at radio station XTU in Philadelphia as a producer, on air personality and promotions director.
