Dream Street

Dream Street (often incorrectly spelled 'Dreamstreet' due to its similarity to Backstreet Boys) is a boyband composed of Chris Trousdale, Greg Raposo, Jesse McCartney, Matt Ballinger and Frankie J. Galasso. Despite being unaffiliated officially with popslash, Dream Street was the third most popular Music RPF category on Fanfiction.net until RPF was banned in September 2002. It was notable for the young age of its members: McCartney was 11 years old at the time of the group's founding with eldest member Galasso aged 13; when the group dissolved, McCartney was 15 and Galasso 17.
==In Fandom==
Because of the young ages of the band's members, Dream Street was largely ignored by popslash fandom and instead cultivated a fandom referred to as teenipop or bubblegum pop, associated heavily with Disney Channel and Nickelodeon (as opposed to MTV or TRL). Closely associated acts were 3rd Faze, Aaron Carter, Play, Jump5, O-Town, B2K, Lil Romeo, Katie Cassidy, and Solange Knowles. Dream Street performed on Nickelodeon's Slime Time Live, the teenipop equivalent to TRL, in October 2002. Their primary single, "It Happens Every Time," peaked at #1 on the RadioDisney Top 30 chart in 2001.
Aside from Fanfiction.net, most Dream Street RPF was posted on individual Angelfire and GeoCities fansites or private domains. 
BNFs for Dream Street were V. Arrow (as Hayley), Kimberly Kaplan, Kelly Carey, and Danielle Manning (who later went on to marry band member Matt Ballinger). ShineOn Media began as a fansite for teenipop and was named for the Dream Street song "Dream On."
From One Bare Shoulder by V. Arrow in 2008: 
===Fanfiction Archives===
* Dream Street on Fanfiction.net, prior to the RPF ban.
* ~*ALl I EvER WaNTeD DReaM StrEeT*~ MSN Fanfiction Board
* BB (Blue-eyed Boys) Fanfics: Jesse McCartney & Matt Ballinger Open Roles
* DODS Fanfiction
* Dream Street Fan Fiction Fanfiction Archive
* The Dream Street Fanfictionary, (dead link)
* Dream Street Reality Fanfiction
* Dream Street Sheep Fanfiction Archive
* DreamStreetFan.com Fanfiction, archived 2002.
* DS Queenz MSN Fanfiction Board
* DSLD Fanfiction, DSLD Archived Fanfiction
* Every Star in the Sky
* FANtasizing About DS FANfiction
* Out Of Reach MSN Fanfiction Board
* Sweet Dreams Fanfiction, which contains one of the only Dream Street slash fics (Chris/Male OC].
* Taking Me Over Fanfiction
* WiLDNCRaZY4DS MSN Fanfiction Board
===Sugar Rush Zine===
* Issue #1, archived 2004.
* Issue #2, archived 2004.
* Issue #3, archived 2004.
* Issue #4, archived 2004.
* Issue #5, archived 2003.
* Issue #6, archived 2004.
===The Best Thing Zine===
Run by Laurie.
===Anything But Ordinary Zine===
A Dream Street/Play zine run by Kendall.
===The Sweetest Thing Fanfic Awards===
The Sweetest Thing Fanfic Awards were hosted in 2003, after all of the Dream Street fanfiction on Fanfiction.net was lost in its RPF purge. Therefore, it is not truly representative of the most popular or highly-read Dream Street fic in the long run.
* Homepage, archived 2004.
===Fanlistings===
* Dream Street (Album) Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Dream Street Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Dream Street Fanfiction Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Chris Trousdale Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Frankie J. Galasso Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Jesse McCartney Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* Greg Raposo Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* 'The Biggest Fan' Fanlisting, archived 2004.
* "It Happens Every Time" (Song) Fanlisting, archived 2005.
===Role-Playing Games (RPs)===
Dream Street, along with other teenipop acts such as Aaron Carter, Play, Dream, No Secrets, Jump5, etc., were very popular to RP on Xanga and LiveJournal. As of January 2021, one of the only RPs of the time that is still accessible online (although inactive) is LJp0serz.
==Band Members==
===Chris Trousdale===
Chris Trousdale was the most popular member of Dream Street and portrayed The Heartthrob boy band archetype. His career began on Broadway when he performed as Gavroche in Les Miserables in the same production in which Ashley Tisdale portrayed Cosette. He was the first boy cast in Dream Street in 1999 when his neighbor, band producer Brian Lukow, heard Trousdale singing in the shower through their shared apartment wall. As the centerpiece of the band, Trousdale starred in the vanity film The Biggest Fan in 2002. Subsequently, Dream Street disbanded. Trousdale featured on two teenipop singles in 2002 and 2003: "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" by Play and "You're The One That I Want" by Nikki Cleary. Trousdale auditioned for The Voice in 2014. Trousdale died of COVID-19 on June 2, 2020, days before his 35th birthday. In honor of his passing, the remaining members of Dream Street reunited to sing an acapella version of "It Happens Every Time."
===Frankie J. Galasso===
===Greg Raposo===
===Jesse McCartney===
===Matt Ballinger===
Ballinger started his career on Broadway, where he most notably played Kurt Von Trapp in the 1998 revival of The Sound of Music (featuring Rebecca Luker as Maria Von Trapp). He was the second-eldest in Dream Street and portrayed the All-American boy band archetype, frequently wearing football jerseys from the cities at which the band was performing. After Dream Street, he attended Tufts University and formed a band called The Juice. After college, he returned to Manhattan and was the lead vocalist of Open Till Midnight, which achieved minor local chart success in New York City. The Open Till Midnight street team was run by Jess Bianchini and V. Arrow (as Hayley). In 2014, Ballinger married Dream Street BNF and fansite webmistress Danielle Manning. They have two children.
==Discography==
===Albums===
* Dream Street (2000)
* The Biggest Fan (2002)
===Singles===
* "It Happens Every Time" (2000) - (#48, U.S. Sales-Chart only)[Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002]
* "I Say Yeah" (2001)
* "Sugar Rush" (Valentine's Day Limited Edition - 2001)
* "With All My Heart" (2002)
===Compilations===
* Pokémon: The Movie 2000 soundtrack (2000)
* The Little Vampire soundtrack (2000)
* Radio Disney Jams Vol. 4 (2001)
* The Biggest Fan soundtrack (2002)
* Radio Disney Jams Vol. 5 (2002)
===Videos===
*Dream Street LIVE [Video/DVD] (2001)
*Dream Street Live at Criterion Theatre [Video/DVD] (1999)
===Movies===
* The Biggest Fan (2002)
==Links & Resources==
* Fanfiction.net - As of August 2, 2002, Dream Street was the third-biggest fandom in the music category, with 1637 fics. (RPF was banned in September 2002.)
* Down on Dream Street Dot Com (Archived December 2003) was the original Dream Street fansite and its news/updates page is an impressive chronology of the band. Kimberly Kaplan was its webmaster and the original president of the Official Dream Street Fan Club. In 2003, Popstar Magazine ranked DODS as its "#1 Fansite Of All Time For Anything."
* UnofficialDreamStreetFans.net (Archived December 2004) was the largest and most active fansite for Dream Street. V. Arrow (as Hayley) ran this website. In 2003, Popstar Magazine ranked DODS as its "#3 Fansite Of All Time For Anything." The "Encyclopedia Dreamstreetica" was the largest resource of canon information about the band, including stats and facts from interviews, script pages from TV appearances, lyrics, etc.
* Billboard: 30 Best Boy Bands of the Past 30 Years In July 2020, Billboard Magazine ranked Dream Street #29 in the Best 30 Boy Bands of the Past 30 Years.
* One Bare Shoulder: The Effect of Dream Street on the Sexual Identity of the Teenipopper
==References==
Category:Dream Street
Category:Disney Channel