Lance Bass previously produced a documentary like Netflix's Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam
By Reed Gaudens
Netflix's new documentary series Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam was released on Wednesday, July 24, and it's by far one of the buzziest true crime docuseries on the streamer this summer. Not only is Dirty Pop nostalgic for millennials who grew up with Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and the other boy bands featured, but it's also a shocking true story of a massively destructive Ponzi scheme.
In the three-episode docuseries, the wide-ranging crimes of Lou Pearlman are profiled, beginning with his start in the business world with blimps and his Trans Continental business. Before long, he entered the music industry in the '90s to piggyback off of the moneymaker that turned out to be boy bands. Following the New Kids on the Block formula, Pearlman launched two of pop's biggest groups.
However, this isn't the first time this story has been told in a documentary and it likely won't be the last either. Back in 2019, *NSYNC member Lance Bass produced the documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story. If you have tuned into Dirty Pop on Netflix and are looking for another perspective, cosigned by one of Pearlman's former clients, here's where to watch!
The Boy Band Con released on YouTube in 2019
After making its premiere at the South by Southwest festival in March 2019, The Boy Band Con was released on YouTube Premium in April 2019. Right now, the documentary can still be watched on YouTube for free with no subscription necessary. There will be ads while watching on YouTube, but that's par for the course with the video streaming platform.
The nearly 100-minute movie was directed by Aaron Kunkel and features interviews with some of the same boy band personalities, including Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean and *NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick, though YouTube's doc features some exclusive perspectives that aren't seen in Netflix's docuseries.
Among the additional interviewees in The Boy Band Con are *NSYNC's JC Chasez and Lance Bass, O-Town's Ashley Parker Angel, solo artist and Nick Cater's late brother Aaron Carter, actress and Innosense girl group member Nikki DeLoach, the mothers of Bass and Justin Timberlake, members from boy bands Take 5 and C-Note, and other people impacted by Pearlman's fraud schemes.
Some viewers will likely prefer one telling of the story over the other, but they both appear to fairly present the facts. YouTube's doc features a larger number of the band members who worked directly with Pearlman, as well as parents who watched what their children went through. Dirty Pop offers a similar but different perspective with additional details, including shocking firsthand accounts from two members of Natural.
All in all, both The Boy Band Con and Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam are must-watch true crime stories for fans of '90s pop music who want the full picture of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history that happened to, unbeknownst to the members, include boy bands. Check out the Lance Bass-produced documentary on YouTube in the video below!