There may be little that is musically authentic about RBD, a
prefabricated pop/rock act that was initiated on television, yet the
group of Mexican teens achieved astounding commercial success, quickly
becoming a multilingual pop culture juggernaut whose market impact
stretched from Brazil to the United States. The group is comprised of
six youths, three of them boys, three girls -- Alfonso Herrera,
Christian Chávez, Dulce María, Maite Perroni, Christopher Uckermann,
and Anahí Portilla -- all of them telegenic, able actors, and
physically fit to perfection, each with a uniquely fashionable look.
They're like a supergroup comprised of both Spice Girls and Backstreet
Boys -- manufactured for optimal appeal, no doubt, and forcefully
marketed across a range of entertainment mediums, television above all.
In fact, music came second for the group, who began as the cast of a
prime-time telenovela, Rebelde. The show proved so popular throughout
Latin America that the extension of the brand into pop music seemed
natural (if not prearranged), for this is a common practice in Hispanic
media, as numerous Latin pop stars -- from Thalía and Shakira to Carlos
Vives and Chayanne -- got their starts in telenovelas. RBD doesn't
write their own songs or play any of the music; they sing, act, dance,
and give the music a marketable face. Moreover, there's little that's
"Latin" about the group in terms of music. They may be Mexican and sing
primarily in Spanish, but their music is tried-and-true pop/rock,
modeled primarily after arena rock and power ballads of the '80s.
Critics, of course, loathed RBD, often mocking the notion that there
was anything "rebellious" about the act. Still, that didn't stop RBD
from garnering legions of young fans across the world and selling tons
of CDs and DVDs in the process.
It all began with a television show. The telenovela Rebelde
debuted in October 2004 and concluded in June 2006, running for three
seasons, 440 episodes in total. The show was produced by Pedro Damián
for Televisa, the largest media company in the Hispanic world,
headquartered in Mexico City. (Televisa owns a stake in Univisión, the
leading Hispanic television company in the United States.) A remake of
an Argentine telenovela of the same name, Rebelde is set in an elite
private boarding school near Mexico City. The main characters are
upper-class adolescents, and the major plot point is that they decide
to form a band. That band is RBD, which provides a reality show touch
to the music. Likewise, real-life music stars frequently make guest
cameos on the show, among them Hilary Duff, Luny Tunes, Gorillaz, and
JD Natasha. Too, the show employs extensive product placement -- for
instance, lots of Cola-Cola is drunk by the characters. Overall,
Rebelde isn't all that different from a typical telenovela, with the
exception of its popularity, which was international. Not only did
Rebelde earn top ratings in the Spanish-speaking world, but it also
proved extremely popular in Brazil and the United States.
The group RBD debuted in January 2005 with the album Rebelde,
released by EMI, and opened with the show's theme song of the same
name. The primary writers for the project were DJ Kafka and Max di
Carlo, and their songs proved nearly as popular as the show. The first
three singles ("Rebelde," "Solo Quedate en Silencio," "Sálvame") were
all number one hits in Mexico, with the fourth single, "Un Poco de Tu
Amor," reaching number two. A Portuguese-language edition of the album
was released for the Brazilian market, also in 2005. And though no
English-language edition was released, Rebelde sold well in the States,
breaking into the Top 100 of the album chart and reaching number two on
the Top Latin Albums chart. The releases continued with little pause.
In July came a live CD/DVD, Tour Generación RBD en Vivo, commemorating
the group's sold-out tour of Mexico (35 sold-out concerts across the
country, including six in Mexico City alone). And in October came their
second studio album, Nuestro Amor, which set new sales records in
Mexico, selling 160,000 copies in its first week alone. In the U.S.,
the album topped the Latin Albums chart and again broke into the
overall Top 100. The first four singles all were number one hits in
Mexico: "Nuestro Amor," "Aún Hay Algo," "Tras de Mi," and "Este
Corazón." These singles were hits in the U.S., but didn't do any
chart-topping. The following year, 2006, brought no rest for RBD. Tragedy
struck early, when a 38-year-old woman and her children, ages 11 and
13, were trampled during an autograph rush in the parking lot of a
shopping mall in São Paulo on February 4. The three died and another 42
were injured in the incident, which involved the breach of a security
fence holding back an estimated 15,000 rabid fans. Not long after, RBD
toured the United States for the first time, in April issuing a
commemorative CD/DVD, Live in Hollywood. Several months later, Rebelde
the telenovela came to an end with the finale of its third season on
June 2. With the finale came promising news for fans, however, as the
group announced that they would begin filming a movie and recording an
English-language album comprised of songs from their first two albums.
(Earlier in 2006 they had released a Portuguese version of Nuestro
Amor, titled Nosso Amor.) Plus, the group announced that they would
continue to tour and would begin working on their third album at the
end of the year. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Naslov: Biografija 
Sub Jan 19, 2008 4:43 pm
