You may have been wondering about all the excitement about the Backstreet Boys on Dirrrty Pop lately. Surely they’re just an old ballad-singing boyband? Well yes they are, but they’re also pretty special and if their almost non-stop play on at least one of the music channels today seems to suggest I’m not the only one who’s missed them.
The main reason for my Backstreet Boys fandom is that they have released some of the best pop songs of the last decade. They make ballads that couldn’t be further from boring (Westlife, please take note) and can also carry off catchy upbeat songs like Larger Than Life (my all-time fave song for a year or so) and The Call. I Want It That Way and Larger Than Life will always be two of my favourite songs, and Quit Playing Games and Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) also hold special places in my heart (which sounds like a BSBs song itself!).
The second big reason why I still *heart* the Backstreet Boys is because they were my first favourite band that I chose to love all for myself. I’d had several favourite bands before them but they’d always been groups I’d loved because everyone else did – there were the Spice Girls and Aqua, All Saints and Steps, B*Witched and S Club 7 – I got through them like a bag of pick’n’mix, but the Backstreet Boys were the first band to really stick, and the first band I chose to love despite no-one else I knew liking them. In fact, my best friend at the time despised them and I had to hide my Backstreet fandom from her for years! Their music also reminds me of so many good times – I listened to them so much and was so excited when they had new albums out, that when I think of them now I automatically smile. And you know you really love a band when you start saying things as cheesy as that!