The Backstreet Boys are apparently content to ride in the back seat for a while. 'N Sync might be permanently out of sync, with Justin Timberlake going solo.

But just when you might be tempted to write off all the boy bands to puberty, in comes B2K.

The group is younger and more playful than the others. It's arguably closer to R&B;'s roots - hey, they're black. And when B2K's album debuted eight months ago, it came roaring out with record sales and radio play.

A Christmas album, Santa Hooked Me Up, came out in October. A new disc of non-holiday tunes, called Pandemonium, was released Tuesday.

It's not over-saturation, insist group members, when the public's demanding it.

"We have a real, real strong fan base," says Lil Fizz, 17. "As long as they're requesting it, we're definitely going to give them B2K."

Its road shows give B2K the chance to work out some of the new material in front of a crowd.

And with this disc, the bandmates crave the public's acceptance more than ever. They wrote 10 of the 16 songs - compared to the one they contributed to the debut.

"The music, it's basically us," Fizz said. "It really wasn't hard."

"Realistically, nowadays it's like maybe three, four good albums and it's time for something new," said fellow vocalist Razz B. "When you give the fans too much then you start to lose them. It's overexposure."

They're not worried about three albums in nine months leading to the same fate for them. "This is our first year being out - we needed as much exposure as possible," said Fizz, who noted the 20-plus million albums the more famous boy bands could move in their prime, compared to the million or so their debut moved.

"Once we reach that number of people, it's time to relax and maybe get some mystique."

Hailing from Los Angeles and dubbed an urban boy band, B2K scored a monster hit with its debut single, "Uh Huh." Its current single, "Bump, Bump, Bump!" with P. Diddy, gets heavy airplay on Baltimore radio stations.