Who’s Lou Pearlman? Without the music industry impresario, the modern era of boy bands might never have happened. But there was a dark side to the man who formed Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, as revealed in new documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story.
As we’ve seen recently, with great music success can come great corruption. And although the crimes committed by boy-band manager Pearlman are mostly of a very different nature than those alleged against R. Kelly or Michael Jackson, they also had a significant impact on his victims – initially, members of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC; later, a number of other young performers also lured into unfair contracts; and finally, the numerous people who lost millions in a Ponzi scheme he masterminded.
This feature co-produced by *NSYNC’s Lance Bass recaps the rise of the multi-million-selling pop phenomenons before taking a closer look at Pearlman’s life, from his start in the aviation industry to his death in jail in 2016. And it’s when this documentary shifts from being just another account of musicians being screwed over into looking at the bigger picture of Pearlman’s pattern of behaviour that this really becomes fascinating. (On YouTube Premium now) 4 stars
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