The Backstreet Boys are a Grammy-nominated American pop group. They were the first group launched by fallen boy band mogul Lou Pearlman. They have had 13 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and have approximately sold 100 million records,the best selling boy band of all time, and World's Biggest Money Makers (Concerts and Album Sales) 1997-2005: #1 ($533.1 million). Two of their albums Millennium and Backstreet Boys are listed #13 and #27 respectively,[4] in the list of 150 Best Selling Albums.
The Backstreet Boys Story
The Backstreet Boys had been one of the first major pop groups to hit the musical scene, coming out of Orlando in the mid 1990's. Like N Sync, they began in Europe, and had to experience the disconnect of being world famous and yet unknown in the US
They sold over eleven million records worldwide, had four Top Ten singles, and sold out concert venues around the world. They won award after award in Europe and Asia, but remained pretty much an unknown group in the US market.
It wasn't until 1997 that America heard its first Backstreet Boys album -- two years after the rest of the world -- and the band launched a tour in an effort to conquer their own country.
Like N Sync, the band got their start in Orlando, Florida, in the early 1990s, and like N Sync Disney played a role in the start. The presence of Walt Disney World acted to make Orlando a rich resource for musical talent as performers came to where the work was. This meant that a large number of talent auditions, music shows and the like also occurred in Orlando.
Three young performers named A. J. McLean (born 1/9/78), Howie Dorough (born 8/22/73) and Nick Carter (born 1/28/80) started running into each other at these auditions. As they got to know each other they decided to form a group, but felt they needed were two more voices to add range and depth to their sound. Through a friend they discovered Kevin Richardson (born 10/3/71), who was singing in a show at Disney World. Richardson brought in his cousin, Brian Littrell (born 2/20/75), who was living in Kentucky.
The group was named Backstreet Boys, after Orlando's Backstreet Market, a popular hang out for the city's teens. The foundation for this new group was a man named Lou Pearlman. Lou had made a fortune in customizing airplanes and had seen the money to be made in pop music, so he decided to put together a group. He found BSB, and it seemed to be a perfect marriage, a group in need of support and a financer in need of a group.
They began by performing wherever they could, covering groups like Boyz II Men and other R&B style groups. They got their first break when Pearlman brought in veteran management team Johnny and Donna Wright.
They developed a strategy to help the Backstreet Boys perfect their showmanship and musicianship while raising visibility among potential fans. They booked them at junior high and high schools as well as at theme parks. Then the group moved up to opening for performers with a "family" audience, expanding beyond the teen base. Unfortunately the musical scene was not with them. The early 90's were known for punk and Seattle based grunge, not soft pop.
Finally in 1994 they were signed to Jive Records, one of the major companies in the music market. Their first single called "We've Got It Goin' On," first released in 1995, did not live up to expectations in the United States, but it swept the charts throughout Europe. The "boy group" craze already had a foothold in Europe, providing Backstreet Boys with a ready made audience. They brought a unique something extra -- they were American, and that was exciting for the fans.
Yet success eluded them in the US market, foreign fans would wait outside the apartment house where the Backstreet Boys lived hoping for autographs while the neighbors were unable to comprehend why anyone would care about these unknown people.
But the music scene was beginning to shift in the right direction so in early 1997, the group returned to Orlando, where they began collaborating on putting together a new CD for US release.
Released August 12, 1997, the self-titled album included all the international hits plus new songs. The debut album struck the U.S. like an avalanche, sweeping off record store shelves and setting new records of success.
Since the release of their 1997 debut album, they have been redefining the meaning of pop music success, the US debut CD has been in the Billboard album chart's Top Twenty since it's release.
