Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:
Last week I poured cold water on the chart comeback of New Kids on the Block, who appeared on Billboard's less-heralded Pop 100 chart but remained M.I.A. on the all-genre Hot 100.
But I snarked too soon. This week, Danny, Donny Joey, Jon and Jordan have the week's highest Hot 100 debut with "Summertime," their un-Jazzy Jeff-related bid for postmillennial Top 40 radio. By debuting at No. 57, "Summertime" breaks a 14-year drought for NKOTB, who last made the middle rungs on the big chart with 1994's "Dirty Dawg."
It's poetic that the ur-boy band of the modern-pop era resurfaces the very same week boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman gets thrown in the clink. After all, 1994 was pretty much the moment when Pearlman began dreaming of rejiggering the five-boy New Kids template, launching the Backstreet-*N Sync era that entrenched the boy band in pop lore.
It's like a passing-back of the baton, from one pop era to its forbear. Not that I'd accept anything baton-shaped from Lou Pearlman...
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Idolator
Michael Jackson is collaborating with New Kids On The Block? Are they for real? Assuming he doesn't still think Donnie et al are still in their teens, the only reason he'd team up with a group he wouldn't have been caught dead with 20 years ago is that he really misses 20 years ago. And it seems he's not alone. We've got Sonic Youth filling most to all of their sets with Daydream Nation, Public Enemy taking a nation of millions back in time, Dinosaur Jr. reunited, R.E.M. showing off a drummer, My Bloody Valentine acting like ain't a damn thing changed, Lloyd and Lil' Wayne sampling "Ashley's Roachclip," and Pretty Ricky rocking giant shoulderpads. While it's no news that nostalgia can run in twenty-year loops, it's possible that no one who pushed product back in the day, and is still trying to do so now, wouldn't mind hearing it was 1989 again. Are any artists actually in a better state now than they were then? I could think of very, very few.
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After posting a MySpace bulletin yesterday claiming that the New Kids On The Block reunion was 
