We've known for a while now that British searchers have an impact on Lycos search traffic. We've seen it in searches for Big Brother, which is more popular in the UK, and in searches for the whole Claire Swire incident last December.
The Lycos 50 list of top bands of 2000 shows the British Internet traffic is very strong, with UK bands like Oasis and Westlife making waves on Lycos despite US popularity which is declining and nonexistent, respectively. Now a new British pop group is showing up on the Lycos search logs, though they haven't reached American shores yet.
They're called Atomic Kitten, and they are the latest teen dream to take over the English pop charts. They've been on top of the UK singles charts for six weeks now, four with their song "Whole Again," and the last two with their cover of the Bangles' "Eternal Flame."
In addition, their album Right Now went straight to the top of the UK album charts, debuting at #1. It's also hit top 10 in a number of other European countries. This is actually the album's second release. The record came out in 2000 and didn't do well, so the girls put out some singles, saw some success, and then re-released the album once they were superstars.
Like the American boy bands, Atomic Kitten is a bit manufactured. The group was put together by Andy McCluskey (formerly of 80's popsters Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark). He found three Liverpool teenagers -- Kerry Katona, Liz McLarnon, and Natasha Hamilton -- wrote their songs, produced them, and helped make them famous.
Very early on, the group ran into its Behind the Music moment, as Katona announced in September 2000 that she was expecting a child with another teen popster, Westlife's Bryan McFaden. They got engaged and Katona left the group. She was replaced by Jenny Frost, an older (mid-twenties) refugee from a failed girl group competitor, Precious. This didn't hold Atomic Kitten back, as the band's following singles were even bigger than what had come before. They already have a commercial deal with Pepsi, just like Britney.
Last week, Atomic Kitten received as many searches on Lycos as Gary Condit or Russell Crowe. Musicwise, they are bigger online than Pearl Jam or Justin Timberlake. Their searches have gone up to four times what they were at the beginning of the year.
We're going to be spending a long time watching Atomic Kitten before they have a chance to explode on the U.S. scene. Their album isn't scheduled for release on this side of the pond until 2002. That's when Atomic Kitten will bring their cute-and-sexy teen queen thing to America, like a group of three Britneys ready to rush onto U.S. shores.
But British pop groups, from Take That to Boyzone, have a history of not reaching the heights of popularity in America that they have reached at home. Will Atomic Kitten be a hit on TRL, or will they go the way of their British compatriots like Robbie Williams and Westlife? We'll have to wait until next year to find out.
In the meantime, check out the video for their song "Right Now" at Lycos Music.
TOMORROW: The Internet's top airlines.
