Caught In A Teen Dream

Teen Idols make great singles but not great albums. At least until the boy band era of the late 90's. The Backstreet Boys and N'Sync and Britney Spears didn't just make great singles but made albums that still hold up today. You couldn't say that about the teen idols of yesteryear. Can you name a good album by the Donny Osmond (maybe the Osmonds) or David Cassidy. But at least Shaun Cassidy dropped one good album, that's never been released on CD in the States. In fact outside of "Hey Deanie", one of the best teen idol songs ever was never a single, Cassidy's "Teen Dream." Capturing the joys of youth before adulthood its a great song.

Now, 10 years later Disney has resurrected the teen idol movement and its prize staples are Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. To me Cyrus is making good singles and her latest is a good album, but the Jonas Brothers are the ones on the verge of something bigger. When I heard that it was a combo of Cheap Trick and Power Pop, my ears perked. I like Cheap Trick but love Power Pop, and even if the Brothers don't know much about its history their songs do. Little Bit Longer straddles the obvious teen idol line. Songs about girls, maybe one about life, but they are too young to go any other route. But not too young. Ages 15, 18, 20 are not all teen idol ages. Fifteen maybe, but the other boys are gonna grow up fast. On this new album they still hew to the obvious subjects with tight Pop/Rock. How long will they last before they experiment? Will the kids follow? And will us adults follow?