"Listen up everybody if you want to take a chance
Just get on the floor and do the New Kids dance.
Don't worry about nothing cause it won't take long
We're gonna put you in a trance with the funky song."
The New Kids on the Block. Yes I want to spend 500 words to talk about a male vocal group that nobody's seen or heard from in over 14 years.
I have the opportunity to talk about the New Kids for one simple reason..... I was a fan of theirs since I was 12. The feelings that young girls have for bands whose members are the same ages that they are has its share of girls who adore them and boys who are, well, a little bit jealous that these boys get all of their attention taken away from them by a boy band.
I must admit that Joe McIntyre was my first school girl crush. When I entered my teens I longed to run my fingers through his lusious, dark brown, curly locks. Of course everytime I even think about Joe, and I am thinking about him right this second as I'm typing this article, my heart starts to flutter.
But first I should tell the story of how I came to be a New Kids fan and how they've affected my life.
Well, when I was 13 my family moved away from Toronto to Cobourg. The girls around here were absolutely nutso futso about the New Kids so I made friends with a few of the girls and they got me hooked on the New Kids in grade 8. Yes that's just the way that it happens in middle school.
New Kids On The Block in 2008
Maurice Starr, the mastermind behind groups like New Edition and his son's band Perfect Gentlemen, was scouting the Boston, Massachusets area looking for five "white boys" for his next project. In the Dorchester area of Boston he found Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight and Jordan's older brother Jonathan. A fith kid from the same area Jamie Kelley was added to the group but he was let go for tardiness and truancy from rehersals.
To find his young "Michael Jackson" or "Donny Osmond" Starr went to the Needham Massachusets area and found a 12 year old kid named Joe McIntyre.
Right Joe in a 1990 issue of Teen Beat Magazine and Left Joe on the NBC Today Show April 4, 2008.
Most 12 and 13 year old girls have a lot to hold on to when they idolize their boy groups. When you reach a certain age, 31 for example, you never forget your school girl crushes.
The thing that attracted me most to Joe McIntyre was his piercing blue eyes and his dark brown curly locks. In the 1990 New Kids On The Block cartoon the characters didn't look anything like the real life New Kids.
An article about the New Kids cartoon as seen in Teen Beat Magazine. The photo on the top is the animated version of the New Kids while the picture on the right is the real life New Kids. The real New Kids look better than the animated New Kids do.
I remember watching the Hangin' Tough video on Electric Circus as a 12 year old girl but I wasn't ga ga goo goo crazy over them at the age of 12. I was a hard core New Kids fan at the age of 13. When I got to highschool at age 14 people made fun of me and the posters that were in my locker were destroyed by the boy in the locker next to me. It was a tumultuous time for me because at the time I really didn't care about what other people thought of me but then the kids in the upper grades made it really embarrassing for me and my small circle of friends.
I had to take them down from my locker for my own sanity. I didn't care but then again I didn't want to take a chance that my posters would be completely trashed by the end of January exams.
New Kids On The Block
This time around I'm hoping that my fandom won't be in vain because guess what? THEY'RE BACK!! Mothers lock up your daughters because the five fabulous Beantown Boys are releasing a new album and tour later this year.
I really loved some of their older songs. :) 18 + years and I've never forgotten the lyrics.
On The Today Show
Some of my favourite New Kids pics
Is there something interesting over there guys?
One of my very favourite pictures of the guys from the early 90s
Another of my favourite pictures of the New Kids from the early 90s.
So I think that's enough of my New Kids story for now. I hope that nobody here will make fun of me for writing about this but then again I really don't care. I like them and that should count for something shouldn't it? I invite comments no matter how small or insignifficant to help improve on my skills as an RJ writer and if you don't have anything that's constructive to add then that's okay too.
I invite people who don't like the New Kids to give me one good reason why I shouldn't like them? Come on! I dare you to tell me what's wrong with liking the New Kids?