Backstreet Boys

• 1. Introduction

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  Orlando's Backstreet Market was an outdoor flea market near International Drive, and local teenagers treated it as a hangout. That market lent its name to the Backstreet Boys, an American vocal group that has sold over 130 million records worldwide. Those sales make them the best-selling boy band of all time. The group began in 1993 with five young men: Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and the cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. How did a newspaper advertisement grow into a career on that scale? Why did a group with hit records end up suing the man who assembled it? And how did the five recover from a two-year hiatus and the departure of one of their own?

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• 2. Casting Call

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  In 1992, a man named Lou Pearlman placed an ad in the Orlando Sentinel. He wanted a vocal group with the "New Kids on the Block" look and a "Boyz II Men Sound". AJ McLean was the first to audition, in Pearlman's living room, and so became the group's first member. Howie Dorough was also an Orlando native. He had met McLean through a mutual vocal coach, and the two found Nick Carter through auditions.

  Between late 1992 and March 1993, hundreds of young performers auditioned at Pearlman's blimp hangar in Kissimmee, Florida. Carter, Dorough, and Kevin Richardson were the ones selected. Richardson came from Lexington, Kentucky, and had moved to Orlando in 1990. He worked at Walt Disney World by day and concentrated on music at night.

  Richardson then phoned his cousin Brian Littrell, who also sang in Lexington. A day later, on the 20th of April 1993, Littrell flew to Orlando to formally join. That date became the group's anniversary.

  The first show took place at SeaWorld Orlando on the 8th of May 1993. Through the summer they played shopping malls, restaurants, and a high-profile charity gala in Fort Lauderdale. After a change of management in the fall, they toured schools across the United States, building a fan base while hunting for a record deal.

  Mercury Records nearly signed them in 1993. The deal collapsed at the last minute because the label's longtime artist John Mellencamp threatened to leave if it entered the boy band business. In February 1994, Jeff Fenster of Zomba/JIVE Records and David Renzer of Zomba Music Publishing watched the group perform at a high school in Cleveland. They signed the five to their first record deal, and the first songs the group cut under it were recorded abroad.

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• 3. Europe Before America

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  At the end of December 1994, the group flew to Sweden to record with Max Martin and Denniz PoP. They finished that work in January 1995. One of the songs, "We've Got It Goin' On," became their first single, going to radio in August 1995 and appearing as a physical single on the 5th of September 1995.

  It was a Montreal station, Mix 96, that broke the group in North America, after its programmers heard the song on the radio in Europe. In the United States the single peaked at only number 69 by December 1995. In Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and the Netherlands it entered the top 5. That response sent the group on a European summer tour and moved most of their promotion across the Atlantic.

  Their debut album, Backstreet Boys, was released internationally on the 6th of May 1996, excluding the U.S. and Canada. Canada received it in October 1996. In Germany, the single "I'll Never Break Your Heart" reached Gold status by selling 250,000 copies. German voters named them the top international group of 1996. The debut album earned a first platinum record there for 500,000 sales, and the Viva Comet Awards gave them the Durchstarter prize for best newcomers.

  The United States caught up in 1997. "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)" reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum for over 1,000,000 copies. The second album, Backstreet's Back, came out internationally on the 11th of August 1997. A day later, a self-titled U.S. album gathered songs from both earlier releases. It peaked at number 4 on the U.S. album chart and eventually sold 14 million copies.

  Backstreet's Back reached number 1 in Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. It sold well over five million copies in Europe alone. The two self-titled albums together passed 28 million copies worldwide. Standout singles included "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and "As Long As You Love Me."

  In November 1997, doctors found that a congenital hole in Littrell's heart had grown to a dangerous size. He postponed open-heart surgery to keep his touring commitments. The operation finally happened on the 8th of May 1998, in the middle of the Backstreet's Back Tour. The group paused the tour until July 1998 so he could recover.

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• 4. Millennium Fever

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  On the 18th of May 1999, the Backstreet Boys made a heavily publicized appearance on MTV's Total Request Live. It was the day their third studio album, Millennium, went on sale. Anticipation had been building around the single "I Want It That Way," which topped singles charts in over 25 countries.

  Millennium entered the Billboard 200 at number 1 and sold 1,134,000 copies in its first week. It became the best-selling album of 1999 in the United States, with 9,445,732 copies sold. It also holds the record for most shipments in a single year, at 11 million. The album stayed on the Billboard chart for 93 weeks and earned 13 times platinum certification. As of 2013, it ranked as the fourth-best selling album of the SoundScan era in the U.S.

  Four singles came from it: "I Want It That Way," "Larger than Life," "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely," and "The One." The first of these is widely regarded as one of the greatest pop songs of all time.

  The Into the Millennium Tour began on the 2nd of June 1999. It comprised 115 sold-out shows in 84 cities, with extra dates added because of demand. The second leg sold out on the 14th of August, its first day of sales, and broke sales records. The concert at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta was the 5th-most attended concert in American history. It was also the most attended concert ever by a pop artist.

  In May 2000, the members traveled to the Bahamas to write songs for a fourth album. Recording began on the 1st of July 2000 in Stockholm and wrapped up in September. Black & Blue arrived on the 21st of November 2000 and set a record for the best international sales in one week, with over 5 million copies. In the United States it sold 1.6 million discs in its first week. That made the group the first act since The Beatles to post back-to-back first weeks above a million.

  To promote the release, they flew around the world in 100 hours, stopping in Stockholm, Tokyo, Sydney, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, and New York City. Fifty-five hours went to travel and 45 to public appearances. A DVD called Around the World followed in 2001.

  On the 28th of January 2001, they sang the American national anthem at Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, Florida. A week earlier they had started the Black & Blue Tour, which would play shows on five continents.

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• 5. Money and Management

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  Between 1993 and 1997, according to the lawsuit that followed, Pearlman and his company took about $10 million in revenue. The band received only $300,000. In 1998, Brian Littrell sued Pearlman and his company, Trans Continental, claiming Pearlman had not been truthful about the group's earnings. In the following year, McLean, Richardson, and Dorough joined the suit, which eventually produced several settlements. The group began recording Millennium in the middle of this fight.

  By October 1999, the group turned its attention to its record label. It declared its existing JIVE contract null and void. It then struck one of the largest record deals ever, valued at $60 million, with the same label.

  In 2002, the group expressed a strong wish to leave its management company, The Firm. Nick Carter chose to stay with The Firm to manage his solo career. Soon afterward, the other four began recording their next album without him.

  Relations with JIVE worsened too. The four filed a lawsuit worth $75-100 million against Zomba Music Group, JIVE's parent company, claiming breach of contract. Their complaint was that the label had promoted Carter's solo album Now or Never at the group's expense. It would be almost two years before all five stood together in public again.

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• 6. Strain and Absence

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  In July 2001, the Black & Blue Tour stopped when it was reported that AJ McLean had entered rehab for alcoholism and depression. Kevin Richardson had held an intervention for him at a hotel in Boston. The tour resumed in August and concluded in November. The compilation The Hits - Chapter One arrived on the 23rd of October 2001 with a new song, "Drowning," and had sold almost six million copies by 2002.

  In November 2003, McLean went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to speak publicly about his addiction to alcohol and drugs. His bandmates surprised him by walking out to support him in person. The group then began to reconcile, and in January 2004 they started on their fifth studio album.

  The single "Incomplete" went to radio on the 28th of March 2005. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top 10 in 13 countries. In Australia it debuted at number 1, their first chart-topper there. The album Never Gone followed on the 14th of June 2005, debuting at number 3 in the U.S. with first-week sales of 291,000. It was a drastic change of style, and Rolling Stone responded with negative criticism. The Never Gone Tour opened in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the 22nd of July 2005 and closed in Melbourne, Australia, on the 2nd of February 2006.

  On the 23rd of June 2006, it was announced that Richardson had left to pursue other interests. The group said the parting was amicable. They turned down an offer to star in a reality show to find a replacement and said they had no plan to replace him. Two days after the announcement, the remaining four entered the studio. Their album Unbreakable came out on the 30th of October 2007 and reached number 7 on the Billboard 200. In Japan it debuted at number 1.

  Richardson rejoined them on stage at the Palladium in Hollywood on the 23rd of November 2008, for the last North American stop of the Unbreakable Tour. This Is Us followed on the 6th of October 2009. A day earlier, Littrell had contracted swine flu, forcing the cancellation of a signing in New York.

  In May 2011, the group left JIVE Records. That same month they began a joint tour with New Kids on the Block, billed as NKOTBSB. It earned over $40 million from 51 shows in 2011 and ran until June 2012 across 80 shows. During the July 2011 show at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Richardson walked out and joined the group once more.

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• 7. Independent Again

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  At a show in London on the 29th of April 2012, the Backstreet Boys announced that Richardson had rejoined them permanently. In July 2012, the five moved into a house together to start writing with the producer Martin Terefe in London. Their first single with Richardson's vocals in six years was a Christmas song, "It's Christmas Time Again." It reached number 1 on Billboard's Holiday Digital Songs chart.

  The group's 20th anniversary fell on the 20th of April 2013, and they marked it with a fan event in Hollywood. Two days later they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the city declared the 22nd of April 2013 Backstreet Boys Day. Their eighth studio album, In a World Like This, appeared on the 30th of July 2013 on their own label, K-BAHN. It reached the top 5 in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, and Japan.

  The tour behind it lasted over two years and covered over 170 shows on six continents. In 2014, it ranked as the 44th highest-grossing worldwide tour, with a gross of $32.8 million. A cameo in the film This Is the End, where they performed "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" as fictional versions of themselves, won them Best Musical Moment at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. Their documentary, Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of, reached theaters and online on the 30th of January 2015.

  On the 1st of March 2017, the group began a Las Vegas residency called Larger Than Life. It ran for 80 shows until the 27th of April 2019. Their ninth album, DNA, was released on the 25th of January 2019 and debuted at number 1. That came nineteen years after their last chart-topper in 2000. It also made them the first boy band in three decades to top the U.S. album charts.

  The DNA World Tour began on the 11th of May 2019. On the 15th of March 2020, they postponed it because of the coronavirus pandemic. It resumed in April 2022 and finished in May 2023 in South Africa.

  In October 2022 they released their first holiday album, A Very Backstreet Christmas. It reached number 17 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Billboard Holiday charts. After sexual assault allegations against Nick Carter, several appearances and publicity campaigns for the release were canceled, including a planned ABC television special. Carter has since filed a defamation lawsuit for $2.5 million.

  On the 12th of February 2025, the group announced a residency called Into the Millennium at Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley. Nine more dates were later added, for a total of 21 shows. On the 11th of July 2025, they released Millennium 2.0, a remastered edition of their third album with thirteen bonus tracks. A homecoming run in Germany was scheduled from the 25th of September to the 2nd of October 2026.

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• 8. Sound and Sponsors

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  "We looked at ourselves as Shai, Jodeci, and Boyz II Men, the true vocal groups," Brian Littrell said in 2011. He was answering the assumption that the group was modeled on New Kids on the Block. In the early days, the Backstreet Boys tried to fight both the boy band stereotype and the backlash from the lip-sync scandal of New Kids on the Block. Their method was to sing a cappella at every chance they could.

  The group often uses polyphonic harmony. Littrell, Carter, and McLean usually carry the melody in the choruses. Dorough harmonizes above, and Richardson covers the bass. While Richardson was away, McLean and Carter shared his chorus parts and Dorough took his solos. McLean sang Richardson's verse on "Drowning."

  Their sound shifted over the years. The first two albums mixed R&B, dance club pop, new jack balladry, and hip-hop. Millennium and Black & Blue moved toward pop and pop rock. Never Gone was an adult contemporary record with only live instruments. This Is Us returned to dance-pop and electropop beats. DNA combined harmony-driven pop with R&B, country, funk, and EDM.

  The numbers back up the harmonies. They are the first group since Led Zeppelin to have their first ten albums reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200, and the only boy band to do it. Backstreet Boys and Millennium both went diamond with the Recording Industry Association of America. As of 2019 the group had nine Grammy Award nominations, five of them in 2000.

  Sponsors found them early. In 1999, Sears built a worldwide marketing campaign around the group, with a 30-second advertisement. A sweepstakes offered five fans a $2,000 shopping spree with a favorite member. In January 2000, a Burger King deal produced a compilation sold only at its restaurants, led by the song "It's True."

  Nick Carter, a comic fan, pitched Stan Lee a six-issue series in which the members were superheroes called "Cyber Crusaders." They settled on a single issue, titled Backstreet Project, sold at concerts in 2000.

  Old Navy used the group in 2012, and a Swedish company, NetOnNet, got a remake called "Lager Than Life" in 2014. A Doritos spot with Chance the Rapper during Super Bowl LIII was poorly received, and Rolling Stone called it "unwatchable." On the 24th of June 2022, a Lincoln-sponsored virtual concert from Philadelphia drew 44.2 million viewers on WeChat, according to Tencent.

  The group has supported charities including Children's Miracle Network, City of Hope, and Lupus LA. On the 6th of April 2022, they gave $25,000 to a young band called First Day of School, so it could pass the money to its three favorite charities.

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