NKOTB a litmus test for whether aging fans use YouTube or not
The cycle of music has found its way back to its 80s roots with the "comeback" of Aquanet-era boy band New Kids on the Block. Gone, however, are the days of cassette mixes and recording songs off the radio; thrust into the world of YouTube and Muxtape, the 'Kids are trying to catch up with the band's new oh-so-relevant website, complete with soon-to-be-launched "NKTV" and mobile ringtones. With the recently released song, "Summertime" flooding Yahoo Video and YouTube, how are our former tween heartthrobs faring online?
Since "Summertime" became the "Featured Artist" on Yahoo, the music video has managed to wrangle the curiosity of older fans with about 14,000 views. The YouTube numbers fare much better, pulling in about 400,000 views after a week online.
But compared with current Tiger Beat poster boys The Jonas Brothers — who have their own YouTube channel, natch — the oldsters are being dusted by Internet savvy 12 year olds who don't even know what NKOTB stands for. "When You Look Me in the Eyes" by The Jonas Brothers was released in January 2008 and has reached 17.7 million views since its release; that's an average of 840,000 views per week, about twice what NKOTB has seen since releasing their new song.
With the death of print being foretold by teenagers, the online generation gap is widening. With YouTube's views down, it might make sense for the site to reach out to older viewers in order to expand even further. If the generation that fell in love with Jordan's heavenly falsetto doesn't step in soon, we're all doomed to an existence with ZipIt's Fred and his annoying legion of fans.