That Time A Billionaire Scammed The Backstreet Boys

[@Fuzzy_Barbarian]

Lou Pearlman is the archetypical evil record producer. While some of his victims made it out okay (no surprise Timberlake has moved on), it's an awful thing that happened to those who didn't. I'm glad you brought up the Kpop comparison. This practice of shaping impressionable young people into marketable idols for impressionable audiences while not giving them their due is just... ignored by a lot of people for the sake of glitz and glamour. Of course it's part of the music industry in general, but when it comes to boy bands and girl groups, a lot of the darker stuff just seems to be more readily ignored or downplayed. Which of course creates more impressionable aspiring idols. One of my students told me she wants to be a Kpop idol, and when I mentioned some of the bad parts about it to her, she seemed genuinely shocked that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

[@Fuzzy_Barbarian]

@@hewasnotjoggin9943 Okay, and...?

[@glennjanot8128]

All of Nsync moved on. But who I was really sorry for was Aaron Carter. I remember his interviews for the documentary about Pearlman and with Carter you saw a kid who drank the Koolaid.

[@GoogleDancingIsraelis]

Go check the early life. Another one.

[@vilhjj]

The acting scene is just as bad a famous actress was forced to have sex with multiple execs by her manager just so he got favoritism from them he was basically prostitution, she ended up commiting suicide and revealed everything in her notes

[@imjustsam1745]

I just can't feel sorry for attention seekers. There's no reason to want to be a pop star other than for attention. Athletes have the competition, instrumentalists have the pursuit of skill, pop stars have fans. It's a disturbed, I'd say potentially dangerous mind that seeks attention. Let them be destroyed by the devils they make deals with for devilish gains. Edit: money has and will always be easy for people with STEM skills.

[@SomeplaceScary]

I know you mentioned Kpop, with the corporate construction of boy/girl bands, but the Japanese idol industry has been pulling wild shit for Decades, I'd love to see you cover it.

[@Jano693]

Johnny Kitagawa is an insane rabbit hole (allegedly, just in case his estate tries to sue me)

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

KPop is actually much wilder. If the JP idol industry did it, K-Pop did theirs way, WAY worse...

[@1-eye-willy]

lous school mates hated him and thought he was lying about garfunkle playing at his birthday party, that nobody showed up to. he went on to make his first million by insurance fraud when he crashed his first blimp

[@imuruncledaddy8753]

He didn't crash it but a pilot who worked for him did. Think it was blamed on the sun...

[@Bobbbybags]

That’s incredible. He made that story up in grade 4 and ram with it his entire life.

[@1-eye-willy]

@@Bobbbybags garfunkle really did come to see him on his birthday, i think he was related to him some how. jjust imagine how insufferable of a child he was that the prospect of garfunkle showing up to his bday wasnt enough for even a single kid to show up

[@-Conn-]

Kira has basically become my source of better and less problematic illuminaughtii content

[@View619]

Don't jinx it.

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

@@View619 He should make a video about the term "don't jinx it".

[@epicalglory5099]

What happen with her? I used to download and listen to her content but yeah she no longer recommended and i just lost on another type of video to listen

[@commbs9838]

@@epicalglory5099 It's a long story, but to shortform it, turns out she is kind of a horrible person. Like, "almost worse than creepshow art" levels of bad. If you like longform stuff, Inabber has a few vids going over the mess.

[@cesj1]

​@@epicalglory5099mental abuser, chronic liar, horrible, pretentious "friend" and hypocrite.

[@SirAsdf]

The Dan Schneider of the Music Industry.

[@CollagenExpert]

The Harvey Weinstein of the Music Industry.

[@argylemanni280]

@@CollagenExpert I'm not seeing the connection... I can't figure out what these things have in common. Not sure what you're trying to say or why people keep pointing out these unrelated bad people.

[@CollagenExpert]

@@argylemanni280 It’s a joke. The punchline is pointing out the infamous individuals who were big in their respective industries.

[@SirAsdf]

@annoruse3908 Generally, just sleazy, fat, old men using their positions of power to exploit people who don't know any better or are too afraid to speak out.

[@alextaunton3099]

​@@argylemanni280shady agents/managers who take advantage of their position of power to fuck the talent, literally and/or figuratively

[@frankiecoss7141]

4:38 I feel like this is also happening with the v-tuber "academies". Another aspect that parallels this is how Lou encouraged the performers to be interactive with the fans, creating a parasocial aspect.

[@pyropulseIXXI]

yep

[@sandspada]

Streamers and KZbinrs being interactive with their fans and having parasocial relationships is a thing long before V-Tubers

[@aluvrianne]

V-tube academies? Sounds like exploitation to me.

[@Jebsucks]

It actually is at least with Nijisanji (the second biggest one), they litterally give their talents 2% of the sales from their merchendise and make them pay out of pocket for the equipment they need to do their job (e.g. model, PC capable of running the software needed, ect.). The remaining 98% basically just goes straight into the CEO's yacht fund.

[@at0micl0bster]

V tubers are a tragedy

[@dartz005]

I used to listen to NSync & the Backstreet Boys a lot growing up. (still enjoy the music when it occasionally comes on) I feel so bad for what the boys had to go through with that scumbag. Pearlman is a good example of what can happen when karma catches up with you.

[@SeanStrife]

It really is fascinating when you put some of their post-Pearlman works into that perspective; like apparently "Bye Bye Bye" wasn't so much a post-breakup song as it was a "fuck you, Lou Pearlman" song.

[@jimmynoneya2584]

Kira..... My man we need to get you @1mil.+ subs! Ur quality and obvious research into every story that you upload is of the highest quality! Thank you for your efforts once again great video!

[@yakacm]

Tam Paton did something similar to the Bay City Rollers. BCR were massive in the UK up to the mid 70's, but they were even gigger in the US and Japan after the UK lost interest in them. Tam Paton was supposed to have stollen millions from the BCR, the kids from the band flipping burgers and working on building sites after the band was over, when they should have been minted. I always admired The Spice Girls, cuz they weren't daft, and kept an eye on the financial side, most of them are comfortable still to this day.

[@yvonneyuman8727]

The Spice Girls do not get enough credit for dodging a few massive bullets. I wish someone would cover them from that angle.

[@yakacm]

@@yvonneyuman8727 Deffo, they understood from day 1 that the big money came from royalties, and demanded they have writing credits despite maybe not adding that much to the songs.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@yakacm It seems that they were highly involved in writing and also producing the songs. And yes, they did indeed dodge a few bullets, some even because the management company that first cast them acted pretty dumb, by not having them sign binding contracts right after casting them. I think that was done because the managing company didn't want to pay them right from the start, but indeed had them collect unemployment benefits while training them and giving them songwriting lessons.

[@Minaruok]

He was clearly a true glutton through and through

[@IdentifiantE.S]

Fr 😶

[@joeyjo-jojuniorshabadoo6827]

But officer, I am the blimp.

[@dougray30]

Managers, sadly, have been scamming their talent for SO many decades. Look at Terry Knight.....hi might be a good video subject. Meanwhile, this is yet another great Kira deep dive video.

[@roboelectrooverlord6346]

R.I.P. Aaron Carter.

[@MomentsInTrading]

I saw a documentary about this a couple of years ago. I remember one of the Backstreet Boys saying he was making only $50K a year at the peak of their career.

[@TheRealCHIMShady]

Kira hitting us with that pivotal early life check early on

[@MiniDallas000]

25 years in the joint made him a cat

[@deadprivacy]

He was truly bonkers, they lock him up ,whats he do? prison boy band! True dedication to his "craft".

[@rubym357]

If you saw Lance Bass' doc or the 20/20 ep on Pearlman, the "missing" $300M has MOSTLY gone through Caribbean casinos. His former talent managers stated that he "made payroll" for his Transcon (pun intended) staff in Orlando, and to keep the lights on and water running. On the day the FBI raided the office (and Big Poppa having skipped out for SE Asia), the staff pretty much couldn't get paid because Pearlman cleared out all the accounts. I mean the FBI brought an x-ray into his mansion to see if he had hidden any cash, jewelry, or anything of value in the walls (meganchurch fraudster Jon Ossoff hid $600k in cash in his church's bathroom wall from the IRS), and they found nothing.

[@melly218]

Looking forward to this video 😁

[@ArzHole]

You should do a video about Robert 'Budd' Dwyer. That's an interesting story with a particularly sad ending. There's also been a number of songs about his infamous demise, as well as a documentary and he was also featured on the first of the Traces of Death tapes and even 'Bowling for Columbine'.

[@yyxy.oncesaid]

Faces of death.Have you seen the uncut version

[@aluvrianne]

One of my friends from university was a child actor whose parents were using him to live a cushy showbiz lifestyle. This friend had had some run-ins with Perlman in the early 2000s and said the guy was a smooth-talking creep.

[@Optable]

Same thing my broadway cousin told me when she met Michael Bay and was asked to audition for a hit movie. Before the audition, all we heard was how incredible and kind he was. How incredible it would be to work with him. Then suddenly without even speaking directly, he's a self centered prick that looked at her too long. Then we found out she didn't make a follow up audition to even get considered for the role from my aunt. Shit I wonder why! Since we must oversplain and tone-clarify everything from the nuking of sarcasm and face value web discussion between strangers: Brought this for humor and relatability sake of an old memory entirely. Am in no way concluding Lou Pearlman was some straight edge wonderful guy that your jaded friend didn't get a large opportunity from.

[@aluvrianne]

@@Optable Don't know how you came to the conclusion that my friend was jaded for relating what a smooth-talking creep this boy band guru smooth-talking creep was b/c your "cousin" crashed and burned. Sorry you didn't make it big (or at all), but that's why it's called showbusiness instead of showfriends.

[@Optable]

@@aluvrianne Because I didn't, which i blatantly stated. Feel free to actually comprehend what gets written before drafting out a reply to it in some sort of unnecessary defense. But since it looks as if you must puzzle yourself like this constantly with those horrific writing skills, I'll leave it at that. It's not nice to pick on mentally inept toads

[@aluvrianne]

@@Optable Seeing as we're here and going over what you've said, ". . .Pearlman was some straight edge wonderful guy that your jaded friend didn't get a large opportunity from." I've spend enough time around actors and Hollywood to know a bitter hasbeen when I see one. Sorry Michael Bay was typical Michael Bay, but your shitty experience has no bearing on what my buddy went through. He eventually came to the realization that his parents put him through a lot of shit b/c their own acting careers had gone nowhere, but they still wanted the $$$ and name recognition. He was glad to have aged out of those kid actor roles and took his talents behind the scenes where he now does practical special effects. Honestly, of all my friends who were in USC Film when we were in school, he's one of the most level-headed and realistic of the bunch. The only jaded person here is you. You're still pissy that other people had better opportunities, thus, you feel the need to paint others with your grievances. If you still have an agent, whine to them and leave the rest of us out of things. It's not too late to partially soothe your hurt fee-fees,. You can always be a big fish in the small pond of community theater.

[@NemesisOgreKing]

@@Optable Internet used to be a great place before Corporations, social media, normies, and self righteous pricks ruined it. 😒

[@quebrandojogos]

GUYS! Remember Guitar Hero 3? In that game the band sells their rights (and soul) to a producer called Lou, just Lou, and in the last stage of the game he reveals himself to be a demon and you have to battle him to get out. This is too much of a coincidence. The only ONE fictional Lou I can remember also being an evil music producer exploiting a band.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

I think he was also atleast partially parodized in Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush, the fictional producer has a lot of resemblance to Lou Pearlman and he also isn't the nicest person around.

[@Matattack117]

As a orlando native i never heard a intro so real thank you for that 😂😭

[@lorddrayvon1426]

For reference, NSync were being paid about $12,775 A YEAR. Just for context, the US minimum wage in 2005 when this all came to light was $5.85 an hour which, assuming an 8 hour work day, adds up to $46.80 a day. In total, that's $2433.60 a year being earned by the most generic employee. Meanwhile, some of the most famous people in the world at the time were earning just under half that whilst living in an expensive as hell city.

[@DG_plusrandomnumbers]

The figure for yearly minimum wage earnings should be about 5 times higher. It would be $2433.60 if the person only worked one 8hr day per week

[@Delta6500ThisIsAURL]

A boyband made entirely up of prisoners 😂

[@Fuzzy_Barbarian]

Honestly, I could see it. Look up Jeremy Meeks. Dude did violent crimes but now has a modelling and acting career due to people thinking he looked hot *in his mugshot.*

[@Acebets70]

We got Cardi already

[@CamJames]

NSYNC and Backstreet Boys' ages are all different: Chris, Kevin and others were grown men throughout all this.

[@LautaroQ2812]

Too bad Phillip Seymur Hoffman is gone, he could've played the part of Lou Pearlman.

[@retroatx]

Indeed

[@alaeriia01]

What about Roger Allam?

[@i-naufraghi]

Great content!

[@Heymrk]

I love the Windows Paint usage in the thumbnail.

[@FranklinWilson-ev9dq]

Those Old Acquaintances, Definitely Knew Him Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Tactical_Turtwig]

So this is why I haven't heard him ask the big question in a while.... "Howse web3 doing?"

[@chrislondo2683]

I would love to see Chris Farley as Lou Pearlman. If he had lived. It would be like Foxcather but with a boy band.

[@blue_mountains28]

I knew none of this but I’m not surprised in the least. And I strongly believe the music streaming platforms are extorting artists in an even worse way

[@CamJames]

oh they are. the industry is broken.

[@BiffTech05]

KIRA: Picture this, you're part of one of the biggest "boy bands" in history... ME: Umm... do I have to? I'd really rather not...

[@mathieuleader8601]

Pearlman is the black sheep of the Garfunkle family

[@matro2]

I don't even need Early Life anymore.

[@freakinpayne7228]

"pearlman" hmm? "born to jewish parents" ahh there it is.

[@markholland9278]

This puts that one boy band episode of Gravity Falls into a new light. Good one as always Kira!

[@watertrooper]

The thing is with these contracts you need a good lawyer to decipher them due to how they are worded.

[@DarkbloomVis]

This is a huge W from Kira, Lou was a parasite

[@missgiddycarousel3468]

I noticed.

[@YouCorny]

Jesus Christ, his chin is nonexistent.

[@Anonymouseys]

Bit like Jesus himself. And his old man.

[@just-be-nice]

What do you mean? He has 2 chins- one bigger than the other.

[@omegagilgamesh]

I immediately recognized Lou Pearlman in the thumbnail, even with the obscured face. This guy's a piece of work. I'll watch this one later, little busy right now, but interested to see how it compares to the documentary made by former N'sync member Lance Bass, now no longer requiring a KZbin Red subscription to watch.

[@lil_bingus]

>5 seconds into video >look up Lou Pearlman >early life section Already explained everything.

[@screenwriterjohn]

He liked his zeppelins.

[@luca57882]

And was a bit of a blimp himself🤭

[@_dh]

Anybody else think the old picture of him looks like biff tannen?

[@geoffreywendelen660]

So big poppa was actually a pimp 😂

[@phunkym8]

but once lou was out of the picture and the formalities corrected, didnt they suddenly drown in royalties?

[@FearMonarch]

Ah, another "early life on wiki" moment

[@zaahruq]

Wooooooooooow. Sad man. The greed of man is REAL

[@jamesporquez3682]

That's the truth that the Manga Oshi no ko wants the reader to see, the darkest side of the entertainment industry in general from stalker fans to exploitative record labels/producers that harms the well being of the artists and destroys their mental health until they fall to the deep end,

[@YorticusTV]

1:45 ..... He's out! GET HIM!!!

[@jakelynch3450]

besides kpop I think the American electronics seen is like that too they literally have DJ's named after products LOL an example they have a DJ named Cascade a cleaning product

[@CharlieKellyEsq]

2 minutes in. He diddled kids. He looks like he diddles kids. There is a reason for prejudices, it helped us survive in the caveman times. To ignore this instinct today just seems foolish

[@GuyEndore]

Dude I’m up to 04:54 of your video and what he was doing was also like the star system/studio system in Hollywood from 1930-1950. Thousands of people went through it and it essentially created classic Hollywood. Also why would he do it for altruism? That isa ridiculous statement.

[@toobalkain]

it's noteworthy that vast majority of these financial fraud cases involve members of a particular ethnicity, it's as if they operate with a different set of moral standards that make fraud and usury ok, especially if victims come from the out-group.

[@sourlemon3337]

You should definitely make a video about the kpop industry. I do love kpop music but there’s a lot of messed up stuff that happens

[@ty-xq7bl]

yes prostitution, sponsorship, pleasuer groups

[@rustymason3860]

The entertainment business has always been seedy, and it always will be.

[@Nerathul1]

This reminded me of that one Idol group who five years into their career are still not being paid.

[@andrewdunbar828]

Manufactured K-Pop boy bands didn't start "many years later". Even Wikipedia lists H.O.T., Sechs Kies, Shinhwa and g.o.d. as being from the late '90s and early 2000s, the same time period you list for the big American boy bands. Western manufactured boy bands go way back too. Menudo and The Monkees are from the middle of the last century. K-Pop kind of branched off J-Pop, which already had tons of manufactured bands but unlike K-Pop not all was boy bands and girl groups and there were also plenty of non-manufactured artists. K-pop is all manufactured single-genre. Anyway great video. I'd never heard any of this before. But also I hated the boy band era (-:

[@hirosh.s]

Is this the guy that inspired that episode in gravity falls? The episode that mabel freed a boy band jsjsn

[@geminimac613]

Ain’t nothing but a party 💯

[@htomerif]

What's up with people changing their video thumbnails after a few days? Everyone seems to be doing it. This used to have a completely different thumbnail with Xs over Lou's eyes.

[@Tnargav]

Algorithm game.

[@htomerif]

@@Tnargav nah. This isn't an "algorithm" thing. The algorithm doesn't care at all if you change your thumbnail. This is a "fuck you, I'm changing the thumbnail so you don't know if you've watched the video or not" thing. KZbin has removed and replaced the watched video progress bar like 3 times. If they take it away for good, you just won't know until you're 5 minutes in if you've watched the thing before. Some of the more ass-hat channels have started putting a red border around their videos so a watched video progress bar doesn't show up at all.

[@Tnargav]

@@htomerif Kira said it himself that changing all titles etc helps a lot so I trust that he know what he's talking about.

[@muhwyndham]

Your content are awesome. And my highlight is always about how you're never stop to Emphatize with everything while also putting level headed discussion front and center. Wherever your content goes, please don't ever lose that.

[@WorLadCiz]

He hasn’t, he won’t ! Kiratv is a gem of a channel and Ash is a gem of a man.

[@patriciamorgan2669]

Actually NSYNC only got $10,000 a piece according to Lance Bass on the video Boy Band Con.

[@regalgiant1597]

You are changing into a sunnyv style channel?

[@obsidian00]

WHERE were their PARENTS in all of this???

[@datemasamune2904]

Colonel Parker: This amateur.

[@Frank_Nemo]

In fairness, he was very good in Hellboy.

[@supersmurf4884]

Ron Pearlman and this Lou Pearlman is NOT same guy.

[@Frank_Nemo]

@@supersmurf4884 How come no one ever saw them together at the same time then?

[@etuheu]

HE'S JEWISH??!! I'm shocked, just SHOCKED!!!

[@TubeRator747]

Lesson learned: if you see a man wearing prescription aviators...run far away

[@cloutm_anager8262]

Honestly I don’t see anything wrong with fair contracts creating superstars. The key words are “fair contracts”. The law should have limits to duration. Essentially term lengths for the contracts and the law would say a max of 3 years.

[@dominicmanester8125]

Shocking how harshly the system punishes financial crimes compared to much more traumatic crimes. Money is fake anyway. Don't get me wrong, the guy deserved to die in jail but not for his financial crimes.

[@DiscipleGames]

You must have missed the thousands of people who commit major financial crimes with little to no punishment. Lou is an exception

[@dominicmanester8125]

@@DiscipleGames It isn't financial crimes that go unpunished, it's crime in general so long as you have the right connections and power. You could be a crack smoking fraudster that abuses children but if your dad is president you'll get a slap on the wrist. That's just how power works. If it gets too big, they'll pick a fall guy and lock him up for you and if the fall guy might try to implicate him, then you can have him mysteriously die.

[@AmongRevenants]

Is there any there there, in regards to the return of alexensual and the wow hardcore scandal? Future story? Alex uncovering an actual scandal, has been referred to as a broken clock being right twice a day. And his character makes him an easy target for a smear campaign. First saw Kargoz on the wow Bloodsail Buccaneers server. He seemed like an okay dude, until the hardcore "lifestyle" as he called it, took over. A wow cc dropped a vid showing how the hardcore elite were using cave logout cheats to teleport pass difficult challenges. Someone mapped out all destinations from logout cheats and monetized them into a speed leveling hardcore guide. Rested XP, founded by Kargoz and 5 other wow influencers. It was a serious enough issue Kargoz privated his longtime YT channel and disappeared his social footprint, as the story broke.

[@solknuckles2408]

2:30 yeah I figured

[@kyrinky]

I heard Jewish, and it all made sense. Am I right boys?

[@ragnaroking]

I'm jewish and said the same thing 🤣

[@bluestorm9651]

What kind of last name is Pearlman?

[@kingdavid7516]

*_Lou Pearlman was born and raised in New York City, New York, the only child of Jewish parents Hy Pearlman, who ran a dry cleaning business, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide._* *_He was a first cousin of the musician Art Garfunkel._* -- wikipedia

[@cd5433]

If you want to see the cause of wars and strife , make sure you check the “early life”

[@Zen_Power]

The children’s parents are also responsible. They should have checked contract terms and conditions before having children sign them.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

And the lawmakers aswell. How is it even possible that children are allowed to sign such contracts and those contracts aren't void? I mean, you're not allowed to drink a beer at age 16, but you can sign away your life in a contract you don't understand?

[@Zen_Power]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo I think the parents signed on their behalf.

[@lostcosmos3245]

hmmmm ironic that the majority of Pearlmans company names all had the word CON in them...

[@cetriyasArtnComicsChannel]

and now he's dead and can't take anything with him. Why do this to people?

[@aj1218]

Oy vey

[@Hjylps]

I had no clue about this at all, thanks Kira.

[@AMultipolarWorldIsEmerging]

of course justin timberlake is OK with lou perlman.. he ended up extraordinarily wealthy after n sync.. the other members of these bands probably arent wealthy or nowhere near as wealthy so it stings a lot more that they had to put up with the humiliation of being exploited for so long

[@chaozboy9482]

blows my mind that nobody took a hatchet and settled the score before he bit the dust.

[@alexanderveritas]

Alright, since the thumbnail of the video has been changed, might as well comment on that one. hate stating the obvious, but of all the members of the *NSYNC,* it’s safe to say that *Justin Timberlake* was the one less affected of the scam overall.

[@catholiccontriversy]

The most famous boy band being broke, and here I thought the Chip Skylark story was just a joke, an ironic parody of being a famous musician. It's crazy that it was real.

[@edschelchang6123]

Actually Chip Skylark was voiced by an NSYNC member

[@KCDrives]

10:42 I thought you shopped pearlmans face on that missus all the way to the right.

[@Michaele1991]

This guy gives me major Epstein vibes. Wonder if there is a connection there.

[@Bobbbybags]

I know, right? The entire time I kept waiting for the sex crimes to come to light 😂

[@RoosterTOOF]

Every. Single. Time.

[@liamkneesocks]

Another banger

[@truebones]

wow, now this is spicy, thanks kiratv

[@soloperformer5598]

Makes Tom Parker seem like a saint.

[@guillermo3564]

Why do people think that there will be restitution from someone who's been sent to prison?

[@PMDRODNEY]

4:52 🤘⚡

[@theludonarrian]

5:38 I think you meant to say that he thought that THEY were nothing without HIM. You said that he felt he was nothing without them. Based on him thinking they were disposable, what you said makes no sense.

[@ferrouswheel2677]

It's funny cause I don't agree with them that they should be rich. They didn't write the songs, they didn't play instruments. They were just dancers.

[@WorLadCiz]

Dancing is still art ?

[@n00bnetrum]

I don't even need to check the Early Life section for this one.

[@sarat6488]

love these "exposés" you do!

[@sarat6488]

also not tell you how to do your job by any means, but i bet if you put NSYNC in the title, you would get clicks from people that don't normally watch your stuff.

[@JK-gm6kk]

That video Dire Trip did on K Pop is wild!

[@foscogrubb]

Weird.... almost like theres a specific tribe that runs the entertainment industry.

[@NotKimiRaikkonen]

He was never a billionaire.