Teens May Get Their Own Summer Tours

The tone-setting pop tour of the ‘90s was Lollapalooza.

For the ‘00s, will it be Lollipopalooza?

With teen tunes the hottest sounds around, there are several plans in the works to launch a definitive teen-themed tour for this summer--a “lifestyle” festival that would be to this music what Lollapalooza was to alternative rock.

Both Seventeen and Teen People magazines are in talks about putting their brand names behind such a venture, while several major booking agencies and concert promotion firms are exploring the possibilities. And youth-oriented cable channel Nickelodeon, despite generally poor box-office showings for the debut of the concert tour it launched last summer, has a sequel on the drawing board.

But there are several major hurdles to the establishment of any name-brand festival. One big one is that acts popular enough to headline a tour of amphitheaters and arenas are doing their best to grow out of being seen as just teen-oriented acts.

Boy groups ‘N Sync and 98 Degrees seem poised to follow Backstreet Boys to success among adults as well as teens, while Christina Aguilera is being positioned as an artist with Mariah Carey-like adult appeal. Even Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, with their first hits still fresh, are looking toward growing beyond the teen market.

“A lot of acts worry about getting targeted as a teen act,” says agent Mark Cheatham of International Creative Management, whose clients include 98 Degrees and Simpson.

Cheatham, though, is working on two potential teen tours. One is a smaller-scale event designed to introduce some newer acts to the market, with a lineup expected to feature Youngstown, No Authority and Vitamin C in 2,000- to 3,000-seat theaters. Setting sights higher, he’s exploring the possibility of what he terms a “female teen Lilith Fair” featuring teen diva singers.

“It would be a lifestyle day, girls can see all the different products at booths, along with the [musical] talent,” he says.

Teen People publisher Anne Zehren also sees her magazine’s potential involvement with a tour--either as a sponsor or organizer--as a way to promote the publication as central to the teen lifestyle.

“Our top-selling covers last year were all music-oriented,” she says. “We just had Christina Aguilera on the cover and Britney Spears is on this month, and so for us it makes sense to connect with music fans directly.”

But the competition is intense, and the summer is already expected to have Backstreet Boys, Spears, ‘N Sync and Aguilera headlining their own tours. Is there enough money in teens’ (or their parents’) pockets to support much more?

“How many shows can you do a summer for that audience?” wonders promoter John Scher, president of New York-based Metropolitan Entertainment. “It’s still an audience that isn’t going to go to six or seven shows. You have to be careful.”

SMALL WORLD, BIG JOB: At the top of the all-time list of annoying tunes you can’t get out of your head has got to be Disney’s “It’s a Small World (After All),” right? So for a songwriter to be asked to come up with something new of that nature seems like a backhanded compliment.

But Walter Afanasieff, who produced “My Heart Will Go On” for Celine Dion and as a writer and producer has worked on hundreds of hits, couldn’t resist the offer from Disney to write a song that will serve as the official tune for its new California-themed park being built adjacent to Disneyland in Anaheim.

“The carrot they dangled was that the ultimate compliment for a writer is to have a song everyone knows so well they’re sick of it,” he says.

So Afanasieff and lyricist John Bettis have composed “A Place in the Sun,” which he will produce for use at, and in promotion of, the new park.

The honor comes at a time when he’s received more conventional recognition--a Grammy nomination in the best producer category for his work with Ricky Martin, Savage Garden, Marc Anthony, Babyface and Kenny G. It’s also a time when his field of endeavors is widening. He’s working on writing and/or production for Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Julio Iglesias and the rock band Train, and new projects for Martin, Anthony and Savage Garden.

“Producers and writers get stuck in 10-year marriages in terms of who they’re known for working with,” he says. “I’ve had my Mariah Carey and Celine Dion years, and now I’m trying to diversify.”

MR. UBIQUITOUS: Moby’s 1999 album “Play” has sold only about 285,000 copies in the U.S., but it has become increasingly difficult to get through a day without hearing it. All 18 tracks on the album, plus all the related single B-sides, have been licensed for use in commercials, movies, TV shows or compilations. That’s believed to be a first for a current release. Total usage licenses for tracks from the collection have passed the 400 mark, including five songs for the Oliver Stone movie “Any Given Sunday” and five more for “Play It to the Bone,” with more to come in “The Beach” and “The Next Best Thing.”

“It’s everything from a teeny-bopper compilation in Germany to a candy bar commercial in Sweden to a casino in Sydney to ‘The Beach,’ ” Moby says.

Now the techno performer has broken a self-imposed moratorium on taking commissions for new music, signing on to do the theme song for John Waters’ upcoming film “Cecil B. Demented.”

“I’ve had to turn a lot of offers down in order to focus on my own records,” says Moby, who is nominated for alternative performance and rock instrumental Grammys. “But since [Waters] has been a hero of mine since I was 14, I had to say yes.”

All the attention and exposure have been especially helpful to Moby when he takes someone to the movies.

“I’ve licensed some songs for movie [preview] trailers,” he says. “I can always impress my date by nudging her and saying, ‘I did the music for that.’ ”