TEEN IDOL GROWS UP

A funny thing happened to Canadian pop-rocker Bryan Adams on the way to superstardom: He grew up.

If you’re a singer who usually gives his young fans a steady diet of carefree, giddy, party-time music, maturity is a no-no. Most teens don’t want sophisticated, provocative or socially-aware songs. They prefer escapist fare--the kind Adams has done so well since he started recording for A&M; Records nine years ago.

To most of his following, maturity is an unfortunate, debilitating disease--usually reserved for old people. At 27, Adams, who’s headlining the Forum on Saturday, appears to have contracted maturity. His latest album, “Into the Fire,” is full of the symptoms.

The tone is set by socially-conscious songs like “Native Son,” which deals with injustices done to the American Indian, and the stark, anti-war anthem “Remembrance Day.” There’s even a vulnerability and sensitivity on the romantic songs that separates them from his earlier songs.

That youthful aggression that his fans coveted isn’t raging unchecked this time. It’s been harnessed and channeled into thoughtful material. Though easily his best album, it represents a detour on his predicted trek to superstardom.

For Adams, his “Into the Fire” album is sort of a flirtation with commercial suicide. Can you imagine one of those teen-aged girls who think Adams is so dreamy swooning to “Native Son”? And “Remembrance Day” won’t set young hearts aflutter.

This album has sold more than 1 1/2 million copies, but much of that can be attributed to the automatic momentum following the huge, 4 1/2-million sales of his most recent LP, “Reckless”--which contained six Top 15 singles.

“I just couldn’t do the same kind of album again,” Adams said during a recent interview. “I don’t like sequels--in movies or on records. Doing the same record twice is boring.”

But it’s also profitable.

Making another album like “Reckless” would have been money in the bank and Adams knows it. He even wrote and recorded some songs that would have turned “Into the Fire” into “Reckless II.” But he finally decided not to include them.

“I took songs off the album that would have been sure-fire hits,” he said. “These were songs that would have been played to death on the radio. We’ve (collaborator Jim Vallance) written enough songs like these to know when we have some good ones. But I wanted to do something different.”

Translation: he wanted to make an artistic album.

What happened to Adams? The same artist who was singing about infidelity and punching out a girlfriend has turned away from tawdry themes. Some contend his participation in the Amnesty International tour, Live Aid and other benefits awoke his slumbering social conscience.

“It wasn’t slumbering,” Adams said. “I’ve always had an active social conscience. I just didn’t make it public until now.”

About the Amnesty tour, during which he performed with such industry heavyweights as Sting, Peter Gabriel and U2, he said, “I didn’t feel like I was in over my head with those guys or that being on that tour turned my whole musical outlook upside down.”

Maybe what it did was give him a yen for challenges. “Singing in front of that political audience on that tour was an incredible challenge,” he recalled. “I loved it. I came to realize that if you don’t set up challenges you’ll stagnate and become complacent. That challenge really made me feel alive. I felt I didn’t want to go on doing the same thing.”

Another reason Adams moved in this new direction is that all those critical barbs finally got to him. Beside trashing his music, critics had frequently accused him of being a bad imitation of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and John Cougar Mellencamp. Possibly the savage criticism of “Reckless” was the last straw. While he wouldn’t admit that the critics helped inspire this change, he did admit that the rapping of “Reckless” wounded him.

“Every time I picked up a review of that album I grimaced,” he said. “I didn’t think they were right but I didn’t want to see that happen again.”

Though Adams may have lost some young fans with the new album, he may have picked up some support from another audience--the collegiate, Yuppie crowd that probably got its initial exposure to him on the Amnesty tour.

“The audience for this tour is a little older,” Adams reluctantly admitted. “The screaming girls are still there but there are also more older people.”

The question is which path Adams will take with his next album. He could woo the young fans again by adding some of those potential hit singles he didn’t include on this one, but that might alienate the older crowd. It’s a big decision. It’s hard being a teen idol and the darling of the Yuppies at the same time.