We lived through the 90′s. The era of boy bands like New Kids On The Block, ‘N Sync, and the Backstreet Boys sweeping the nation with their love songs, charming smiles, and (slightly better than average) good looks.

Now in 2011, the one and only Mr. Lance Bass has taken it upon himself to bring back the era of the boy band. Bass’ new band, Heart2Heart, breaks the norm of what boy bands looked like in the 90′s and seem to take on more of a K-Pop look. Eccentric hair, lots of makeup, and a very young (twinkish?) look is what they’re sporting. At first I was curious as to who their target demographic was. Young girls have been known to crush on boys that are slightly more effeminate (ie. Bieber, Jonas Brothers, And even Lance Bass himself), but was this pushing that idea a bit far? I thought, “Is it possible that the band is targeting a gay male demographic?” Young, stylish, pretty-boys. Created by a openly gay ex-boy-band member. But nope, their lyrics talk about being interested in girls. So… there’s that.

Side note: Each of the members have Heart2Heart names and “birth names.” Their nick names seem to have nothing to do with their actual names as “Nico’s” real name is Julian Mracky, “Chad Future” is David Lehre, “Brayden” is Colby Cote, etc. Even their real names seem like stage names. Are they power rangers? I’m not sure.

Now it would be easy for me to pick apart what they look like. But since I’m not really one to prefer gender norms anyway I’m choosing to take the high road… and pick apart something else.

Their first single, “Facebook Official.”

I feel like I don’t really have to dig much deeper than the title here. Yes. A song about being Facebook official. If it were closer to April I’d assume this were some sort of April fools joke.

I can understand that they are possibly skewing to a younger audience of tween girls that live their lives on Facebook and boys, but come on!

Maybe they know it’s a bit ridiculous and are using this to get some buzz before they pull the ace out of their sleeve?

I listened through the rest of “The 1st Mini Album” their EP and it’s all pretty… bad. The sound isn’t great, but it’s not what I’m most concerned with. What bothers me really is the lyrics are consistently horrible. But I think back to the boy bands of the 90′s and wonder… “Were the lyrics ever that great?”

I’m not really sure what is up with the thought process behind the USA’s newest boy band, and I can’t say if they’ll last (though I can make an educated guess).

But I can say this…

Heart2Heart is here. They’re queer (in the traditional sense). So… get used to it?