McIntyre Rounds New Block, Keeps One Foot in the Past

Little things can mean a lot for singers trying to stake a claim in the increasingly crowded kiddie-pop field. Take Joey McIntyre, whose Greek Theatre performance on Tuesday was meant to be a stab at artistic respectability.

For one thing, he performed without the de rigueur pack of lithe dancers. Instead of relying on tapes for musical accompaniment, he was backed by a living, breathing band. And just in case the crowd didn’t get a clue, he replaced a lyric of his opening number, “Play That Funky Music,” with the lines, “I’m not a boy anymore / I’m a man.”

McIntyre wants to have it both ways, hitching his wagon to the youth pop movement, yet distancing himself from the persona he cultivated as a member of the defunct b-boy pop band New Kids on the Block.

McIntyre has charisma to spare: He’s good-looking but approachable, like a high school jock, and he works hard to please. But his husky, mid-range voice is merely serviceable, and it did little to elevate the air-puffed dance grooves from his self-titled debut album.

Whereas McIntyre wants to separate from the usual teen-pop crowd, second-billed Christina Aguilera embraces all its cliches. The midriff-baring singer flashed some bump and grind moves with her four male dancers, performed a few songs from her just-released debut album, and closed with her amiable, mammoth hit “Genie in a Bottle.” Aguilera can actually sing; her melisma-soaked lines recalled Mariah Carey, suggesting that she has the goods to be more than a one-hit phenom.