Ronan Keating survives the demise of Boyzone

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the cut-throat competition of today's music industry, only a handful of pop singers manage to survive, let alone evolve after leaving the groups that have made them big.

Where are the candy boys from New Kids on the Block, Mark Owen or Jason Orange of the group Take That or Bryan Abrams of Colour Me Badd. Where are they now?

The list of the forgotten pop bands will be long if we consider the likes of Backstreet Boys, O-Town and A-1 all to be in the ante-chamber of perdition. In the realm of manufactured pop music where there is a constant demand for new faces, competition is really tough.

Ronan Keating is probably an exception to the rule. He, not only survived the break-up of the first Irish boyband, Boyzone, but has managed to retain stardom status and is still going strong.

In the aftermath of Boyzone's dissolution, Ronan made convincing efforts to become a Ronan Keating, an individual with a talent for singing and making songs.

He apparently tries hard to shed the boyband's image to the point that he refuses to be dictated on the costums he has to wear in his videos.

In a press conference at the Hilton Hotel Jakarta, Ronan said he had had enough being in the boyband where the personel should wear a uniform.

"I am the one in the video so I want to look that I really mean it," Ronan said.

Ronan is going to throw out a concert today (Sunday), which is his fourth performance in Indonesia, at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) to promote his second solo album Destinations.

If Boyzone mattered only for a handful of hits which were remakes of other people's songs such as Cat Stevens' Father and Son, The Osmonds' Love Me For A Reason and a revamp of the Detroit Spinners Working My Way Back To You, Ronan penned songs for his two solo records, Ronan and Destination.

When You Say Nothing At All, the single from his first album, was a complete and beautiful summary for the romantic flick Notting Hill.

The second single, Life Is A Roller Coaster brought Ronan to the second peak in his career after Boyzone as it was sold 4.4 million copies around the world.

As for Destination, he made it a mission statement saying that he had freed himself from Boyzone. Ronan said he was content with the records as he feels that they reflect his true self.

In a bid to gain wider acceptance in the pop industry and to have an equal standing in songwriting with stars before his time, Ronan has asked some noted singers to co-write some songs in both albums.

In Ronan, he invited Bryan Adams for the ballad The Way You Make me Feel, and Gregg Alexander, singer/songwriter/producer of the now-disbanded New Radicals in his sophomore Destination. Both have brought a rock approach to his music.

Apart from adding a taste of rock in his new music, Ronan, to rid himself of the boyband image, also models himself on heroes of the past.

In an interview with Guardian News Service, he said that if he had another life to live, he would choose Steve McQueen in the 1960s when motorbikes and Jack Daniels were the hallmark of coolness.

And it is with this new posturing, Ronan Keating tries to make his mark in the transient world of pop music.