Backstreet Boys - Classic or Dud?

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I didn't see this one in the archives but if it's there kindly provide a link and even a rude remark if you like and I'll thank you.

― J*hn D*hl*m, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I only know their radio hits but I highly doubt that matters here. I say dud because "Shape of My Heart" is the only song that does anything for me (sounds kinda like ABBA I think).

― J*hn D*hl*m, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I Want It That Way" will live 4-evah

― Keiko, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Robert Christgau to thread!

― J Blount, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Definitely a total dud, and an inordinately feeble one at that.

I mean, most boy bands have made at least one good single (Take that, Back for good. E17, Deep. New Kids, Hanging tough. Osmonds, Crazy horses, etc,etc)

But to these ears at least, all their singles have been unutterably poor and from what I've heard of the albums (I've got a 9 year old daughter) there's nothing in there that bucks the trend.

― Kris England, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Best of the ballad specialist boy bands, but their finest moment isn't a slowie - "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)". I'll buy the hits album when I see it cheap enough.

― Tom, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Even though it makes absolutely no sense--and not just nonsense, more like negative sense--"I Want It That Way" is perhaps the killer pop tune to emerge from the whole teen-dream movement. The Boys themselves are dead and don't know it, but that tune will probably live forever.

― Lee G, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

backdoor boys.

― Chris, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I Want It That Way" is perhaps the killer pop tune to emerge from the whole teen-dream movement.

Tell me why-eee.

― Daver, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Total classic. That is all.

― Nicole, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Backstreet in the BK Lounge
All they do is beg and they scrounge

― Nate Patrin, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I sorta prefer "Larger Than Life" when it comes to robot-dance Backstreet, but that's just me. Yay Max Martin!

"I Want It That Way" is pretty damn unimpeachable, I have to say.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I Want It That Way" is pretty damn unimpeachable, I have to say.

OH! Tell me why-eee.

― Daver, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Just As Long As You Love Me" doesn't get the respect it deserves. They are masters of the smooth jam; as much as it pains me to say it, Boys II Men could take a few cues from them. (ie, STOP YELPING ON YOUR RECORDS AND SING THE TUNE, YOU COCKFARMERS!)

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Classic!

― jel --, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I only have time for "Backstreet's Back" to be honest. Boy bands should do more jumping and less ballads.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorta agreed. First time I heard "Bye Bye Bye" I thought the same thing. But that's the only one I really like (also the only NSync song I like I believe).

― J*hn D*hl*m, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

dud. i don't like their clothes, their music is far too MEGA, actually everything about them is too mega... completely rococco and over the top - they're the aural equivalent of those silk versace shirts or the hermes scarves with the anchors and gold tassels all over them. it's everything-all-at-once-ness, multi-platinum and leopard prints and tropical cocktails in a casino in winter.

― minna, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

but they are no more over-the-top than, say, radiohead.

'n sync = free jazz

― geeta, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

whoa, easy... i'm not brave enough to diss backstreet AND defend radiohead all in one ilm thread... i don't like radiohead's more bohemian rhapsody moments anyway. but yeah, i realise that over-the- topness is not in itself reason enough to put a band in the dud pile. it can indeed be a distinct virtue in some cases (eg. umm... parliament funkadelic).

it's funny, because i like "bye bye bye" (and other spiky upbeat boy band songs), but not "everybody", even though it's very much a template for the others. i guess "bye bye bye" took the robotic, jerky qualities of 'the boy band dance song' to an extreme, and so is more focussed... the synthesised orchestral stabs become more a signal of conscious artifice than an announcement of grandeur (in backstreet songs they seem to me like horns heralding a royal procession).

but i still haven't come up with another reason for not liking them, so maybe i need to go and download a few tunes and actually listen to them.

― minna, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"their music is far too MEGA, actually everything about them is too mega... completely rococco and over the top - they're the aural equivalent of those silk versace shirts or the hermes scarves with the anchors and gold tassels all over them. it's everything-all-at-once-ness, multi-platinum and leopard prints and tropical cocktails in a casino in winter."

Er... so that's why their CLASSIC, right?

Where are all the bootlegs using "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"?

― Tim, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i fukkin love the backstreet boys, search backstreets back, as long as you love me, my love is all i have to give, i want it that way, and that catchy one about cheating on yr girlfriend.

― queenoftheharpies, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

five years pass...

"I Want It That Way" will live 4-evah

-- Keiko, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

^^^this

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 4 February 2008 20:22 (sixteen years ago) link

The Call is a batshit gothic pop masterpiece.

― chap, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 11:54 (sixteen years ago) link

I also vote "I Want It That Way," cuz you KNOW they do.

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link

That Neptunes remix of "The Call" is fantastic.

― HI DERE, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 15:00 (sixteen years ago) link

'n sync = free jazz

-- geeta, Thursday, June 6, 2002 12:00 AM

what could this possibly mean

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 21:34 (sixteen years ago) link

Dud. Music hasn't aged well at all.

― The Brainwasher, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link

NSYNC was always better anyway.

― The Brainwasher, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link

a couple of the young new orleans brass bands do a pretty sick version of "everybody (backstreet's back)". :> that tune has a pretty sick bassline and the video is werewolf bar mitzvah-esque, so it gets my vote.

― Jordan, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link

nine years pass...

I’m sure there were a lot of beverages consumed back in the day. It’s one of those kind of things... Everybody at that age—especially Nick (Carter)—was constantly passing gas, just being young 20-year-old guys doing guy locker room kind of stuff. And coincidentally, I got in the booth, was breathing in really heavily singing my part, and I guess some extra air kind of came out. It made everybody laugh, and Max decided to take that and sample it to turn it into the “dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun.”
http://www.avclub.com/article/old-backstreet-boys-single-built-around-sample-how-259435

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 12:57 (six years ago) link

this is so funny to me. somehow the gap between Scott Walker and the Backstreet Boys is shrinking

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:51 (six years ago) link

idk what's funnier, if that story's true or if they just made it up

"The Call" is such a great tune btw, the "MY BATTERY IS LOW!!" part is so much fun to sing along to in your most anguished voice

― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:55 (six years ago) link

nine months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SuMbFuKDf8

look whats trending

actually kinda good

― frogbs, Thursday, 17 May 2018 21:41 (five years ago) link

Nice moves.. but we all knew that already

― skip, Friday, 18 May 2018 07:02 (five years ago) link

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