There's always a price that has to be paid when fame and fortune are one's goals. Even a band like the Backstreet Boys, a group that come across as the hippest, the happiest and the most happenin' act around, have had to pay their dues in order to reach the current level of acclaim. One way or another Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, AJ McLean, Howie D and Brian Littrell have each sacrificed something in exchange for riding the magic musical carpet to internation acclaim. Maybe that price was a lost love, maybe it was a stable home life, maybe it was friends and family that had to be left behind. Whatever it was, the Backstreet Boys have each paid that price -- and they've reaped the benefits of their diligence towards their chosen craft.
With sales for their debut album now past the three million level world-wide, and talk that the disc may end up selling another three million before it's finished wreaking havoc on the international sales carts, the BSB have certainly gained a hard earned place in the pop pantheon. But what most of their fans want to know is how the band is really handling their new-found superstardom. Has it changed Nick? Has it turned AJ around? Has it gotten into Howie's head? Older, and perhaps wise performers beofre them have come face-to-face with the sweet taste of fame, and it has served to alter their perspectives on life and love. Could such a fate ever happen to the Boys?
"It's nice that we're still the same guys that we've always been," AJ said. "We still joke around and have the same attitude as before. Why would we change? We're doing what we love to do, and there are millions of people around the world who evidently love what we do. If that can't make you happy, what can?"
Of course, the loyal fans of the Backstreet Boys already knew that their heros would never change their style over a few bucks or a truckload of platinum albums. These guys are too cool for that! Perhaps the fact that they had to handle their fair share of adversity along their trip to the top has been the magic elixir that has allowed them to so adeptly avoid the pitfall of powerfully swollen egos and dangerously swollen heads. After all, at the exact same time that these incredibly handsome Florida residents were conquering distant shores from Japan to Germany, many in their home nation were turning their backs on them. For many State-side pop fans the Backstreet Boys simply didn't exist. No matter how much acclaim they were receiving overseas, it had to really hurt to realize that to your friends and family you were still just a musician struggling to make it in the biggest market on Earth.
Of couse, all that began to change earlier this year when The Backstreet Boys rocketed into the Top 10 of the US sales charts, and the band soon began popping up everywhere -- from MTV to a morning stint on Regis and Kathie Lee. (Of course, Regis took full credit for breaking the band in America, thank you very much!) Suddenly it seemed like you couldn't turn on a radio, flip on a TV or open a magazine without the smiling faces of the BSB beaming back at you. By March they were the bigget thing in the pop world, and by early summer, when their first full-scale US tour hit high gread, you couldn't beg, steal or borrow a ticket to one of their shows. To put it simply, the Backstreet Boys had arrived -- and they had arrived in style!!
"There's a real pop renaissance happening all over the world," a noted music industry insider revealed. "Hanson may have started it, but the Backstreet Boys are reall the ones who pushed it over the top all over the planet. By breaking in Asia and Europe first, they solidified their position as the Number One pop act in the world. Hanson may be bigger in thre US, but world-wide they can't touch the Backstreet Boys. They've done a brilliant job of marketing themselves -- and more importantly, they've got the talent and the drive to back it all up."