What happened to Lou Pearlman from Netflix’s Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam? The disgraced ‘kingmaker’ behind the Backstreet Boys and NSync was jailed for 25 years in 2008
- Netflix’s docuseries Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam exposes the dark side of the early 2000s music industry, including the con man behind bands NSync and the Backstreet Boys
- Pearlman started out leasing taxis and blimps but switched to the music industry after seeing the success of New Kids on the Block at the time – he was also musician Art Garfunkel’s cousin
Netflix’s new series Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam exposes the dark side of the music industry – namely, the con man behind two of the Y2K era’s most iconic boy bands, NSync and the Backstreet Boys.
The shocking docuseries follows the rise of pop music “kingmaker” Lou Pearlman and his decades-long fraudulent enterprise and exploitation of young talents, as seen in a number of interviews and old footage.
Whether you’ve watched the docuseries yet, here’s what you need to know about the man behind “one of the longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history”, per Netflix:
Lou Pearlman’s early life
According to People, Pearlman was born on June 19, 1954, and raised in New York City by his parents Hy and Reenie Pearlman. He was also the cousin of American singer Art Garfunkel from the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Per Forbes, he founded a helicopter taxi service in the 1970s, then got into leasing blimps though his business, Airship International. However it didn’t start off well – the company’s only blimp reportedly crashed soon after take-off in 1980.
How did Lou Pearlman get into the music industry?
Pearlman went on to create a private air charter company called Trans Continental Airlines, which flew musicians around the globe. It was around this time that he met the members of New Kids on the Block and learned that they were grossing around US$100 million a year, writes Vanity Fair. “I just didn’t know who they were and I was just questioning, ‘How could these kids afford an aeroplane?’” Pearlman told ABC News in 2000. “I was told these kids did US$200 million in record sales and US$800 million in touring and merchandising. I was like, ‘I’m in the wrong business.’”
What bands did Lou Pearlman manage?
Sure enough, inspired New Kids on the Block’s success, Pearlman decided to make the transition to the music business. Under his label Trans Continental Records, he launched its first boy band, the Backstreet Boys, who of course went on to become a huge success. Pearlman then started funding and managing NSync, as well as O-Town, LFO, Natural, Take 5, Marshall Dyllon, US5, Solid HarmoniE and Innosense, as noted by People. Per the outlet, he also managed artists including Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Smilez & Southstar and C-Note.
