Brand on the run

Mexico City â€”  YOUNG, ambitious and telegenic, they’re Mexico’s hottest export since those cute guys in “Y Tu Mama Tambien.â€� Across Latin America and the Spanish-speaking U.S., their music and their 2-year-old TV show, “Rebelde,â€� draw legions of shrieking adolescent devotees. Here in their homeland, you practically can’t turn on a television set or open a newspaper without confronting their toothy, tousle-headed faces.

Deal with it -- at least for the next few weeks, when the six members of the pop group RBD will be on a U.S. tour, starting Saturday at the Coliseum. It’s a sign of the band’s surging popularity that it already has sold more than 40,000 tickets for its L.A. performance, an impressive feat even for the likes of U2 or the Rolling Stones.

And although the names Anahi, Alfonso, Dulce Maria, Maite, Christopher and Christian don’t yet have the power of Bono or Mick, the RBD/�Rebelde� brand name is rapidly turning into a veritable entertainment empire, in which the group’s teeny-bopper television presence helps sell its sultrier pop-band persona, and vice-versa.

Following in the trailblazing footsteps of the Archies and the Partridge Family, RBD is an offshoot (skeptics would say a blatant cross-marketing tie-in) of an existing TV show, the telenovela “Rebelde.� Backed by the promotional muscle of Mexico’s gargantuan Televisa network, the series about a group of teens at a super-exclusive Mexico City prep school airs five nights a week and is easily the most popular -- and, in fact, virtually the only -- show of its kind here.

In a viewing culture dominated by formulaic, melodramatic telenovelas, “Rebelde� is one of the few Mexican-made programs that dares to mix genres (a big splash of comedy here, a touch of romantic pathos there) and to openly discuss issues such as teenage sexuality. In one of those life-imitates-art twists that have become almost run-of-the-mill in the age of reality TV, the band RBD was born when some of “Rebelde’s� principal characters decided to form a pop group.

The program airs throughout Central and South America (except Argentina), as well as in the U.S. on the Spanish-language Univision network. The student characters’ stylized school “uniforms� -- white shirts, red ties worn at a rakish angle, jeans for the guys, mini-skirts and go-go boots for the gals -- has sparked a minor fashion craze akin to the “preppy� look.

Meanwhile, Mexican newspapers are atwitter with reports of a film starring the sextet of singer-actors, which will begin shooting later this year according to published interviews with Pedro Damian, the TV series’ creator and executive producer and the band’s Prometheus. Damian, who thinks of “Rebelde� more as a U.S.-style TV series than a telenovela, believes that the show’s success results in part from its rejection of simplistic telenovela conventions.

“The characters aren’t limited,� he says. “They have different attitudes. They aren’t archetypes like this, of good and bad. And this is a more human characteristic.�

With so much cross-promotional background buzz, it’s easy to forget that RBD actually is a bona fide singing act, with two successful discs to its credit -- “Rebelde� and the follow-up, “Nuestro Amor� -- which together have sold 3 1/2 million copies in just 18 months, Damian says. Stepping clear of any Milli Vanilli-style scandal, the performers readily admit they don’t play the instruments or write much of their material -- yet. But they insist they’re serious about making music, and reject the idea that the band is merely a kind of aural product placement for the TV show.

Last week, between breaks while taping the next “Rebelde� episodes at Televisa’s sprawling complex here, four of the group’s members spoke about the challenges of balancing two careers, and the band’s mission to rescue Mexican pop from its current deep sleep.

“In this moment there aren’t many pop groups, because pop is categorized as music that isn’t worth the trouble,� says Maite Perroni, a bright, personable 23-year-old (her TV character, Lupita, is 16). “What I have heard is, ‘Pop doesn’t serve any purpose, it’s commercial.’ �

Much in the same way that “Rebelde� seeks to depict a socioeconomic cross-section of modern Mexico -- upper-class students rub elbows with scholarship kids at the fictional Elite Way High School -- RBD has positioned itself as a something-for-everyone sonic synthesis.

Christian Chavez, who grew up in the border state of Tamaulipas liking the Beatles and Michael Jackson, banda, bossa nova and norteno, agrees that U.S.- and European-style pop has lost ground in Mexico in recent years to reggaeton (Latin rap) and other genres.

“The truth is that there was a crisis in Mexican pop, at the end of the ‘90s,� Chavez says. “But I think that we, each one of us [in the band] has a sentiment, each one of us has a dream, and each one of us has a personality. And it makes us very proud to sing pop.�

Filling one-third of the seats in the L.A. Coliseum is an impressive achievement for a musical group that, chronologically speaking, is still wearing short pants. But youth audiences are notoriously impulsive in embracing teen-oriented acts such as Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Britney Spears and Hilary Duff, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert trade publication Pollstar.

“Those kids are known for latching onto something really tight,� Bongiovanni says. “Unfortunately, sometimes with that audience the trip in the other direction is often just as quick.�

In its favor, RBD will arrive north of the border at a time of year when there’s little competition from big-league musical acts, which typically don’t start major tours until sometime around Memorial Day.

Security probably will be tight after a February RBD appearance in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where three fans were killed and several injured in a crush of autograph seekers. “It was something that left us in shock,� Chavez says. “And at the beginning, obviously it let loose many emotions, feelings of guilt, very terrible feelings.�

Pop culture’s kids

Like the characters they play on “Rebelde,� the six RBD performers are the offspring of westernized popular culture. They were weaned on hyper-hormonal ensemble television series such as “Friends� and “Beverly Hills 90210,� and grew up listening to American and British as well as Latin popular music.

Dulce Maria, who plays the TV show’s most non-conformist character, Roberta, says that as a kid she was hooked on her older siblings’ Guns N’ Roses discs. She thinks that RBD/�Rebelde� came along at a time when Mexican chavos and other young Latins were looking for a youth-focused group that could speak directly to them.

“I think that guys and girls are always looking for someone to identify with,� she says, “looking to hear songs that are saying the thing you’re feeling, or for kids to say, ‘Ay, he’s like I am, she’s like I am.’ �

Fans may find some surprises in RBD’s ambitious-sounding third disc, “Live in Hollywood,� recorded in January at the Pantages and scheduled for an April release. (It also is being released as a DVD.)

“Practically, it’s the same themes as our second disc, ‘Nuestra Amor,’ � Perroni says. “What has changed are the arrangements, the music. You’re going to see gospel, you’re going to see strings, violins, percussionists, drumming, bass, guitar, keyboards, piano. Why? Because we wanted to give a different concept of our band in the sense, ‘OK, we’re following this second disc, but we want to listen to other music, other arrangements that are live.’ �

Though the RBD/�Rebelde� juggernaut keeps chugging along, the performers acknowledge that it’s not easy juggling dueling careers.

“It’s difficult, truly,� says Christopher Uckermann, who plays Diego, the privileged son of a Mexican politician, on “Rebelde.� “We work Monday to Friday, and then until Sunday we’re on tour and everything. And I arrive home at night, and I exercise in my house, or I go out to dinner with my friends.

“But, yeah, the truth is, it’s hard.�

It’s also far less lucrative than it likely would be for a U.S. multimedia youth phenomenon. However successful RBD/�Rebelde� becomes, the actors probably won’t ever be able to command the sort of creative control, or $1-million-per-episode contracts, that their Hollywood peers do. “Right now if we were in the United States, we already would have mansions or super-apartments in Los Angeles, no?� Chavez says, laughing.

But group members also say that the show and the music have been cross-pollinating each other artistically, while the performers work on building their musical chops.

“You can’t betray the public,� Perroni says. “You can’t tell the public that you can do something that you can’t. So it’s a process of preparing ourselves, singing, rehearsing, taking dance classes. Two years later I can say that it’s better in quality than at the beginning. But we have a lot to do.... Little by little we hope to keep growing.�

As for the criticism that the TV show and the group are selling a slick brand of consumerist conformity that’s out of reach for most Mexicans and betrays the very idea of youthful “rebelliousness,� RBD prefers to think that it is giving voice to young Mexicans who aspire toward a certain worldliness. A story last June in the Mexican magazine Chilango said that the largest chunk of “Rebelde� “addicts,� about 37%, hail from the lower-middle classes, but indicated that the show has hard-core fans at every socioeconomic level.

“People have dreams, and it’s incredible, because they see you on television and they want to be like you, you know?� Uckermann says. “And they want to do the things that you are doing. And I don’t think that that’s a big problem, because all the people in this world are the same for me, we are the same.

“So that’s OK.�