By Parry Gettelman
Sentinel Popular Music Critic
Published: 11/26/99

SHOW IS SOLD OUT

You may think of cyberspace as a place populated by techies, e-commerce moguls, day-traders, Gen-X game designers and shadowy hackers.

Wrong.

All of those folks are out there, but if you do a simple search on the phrase "Backstreet Boys," you'll soon come to believe their kind is, in fact, vastly outnumbered by teenage girls who have turned the World Wide Web into one big shrine to the Orlando pop group.

Follow the links from one Backstreet Boys Web site to the next, and you'll get utterly lost in an alternate universe that revolves around Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson. A happier universe, where there is no war, no disease and everybody ends up married to her favorite Backstreet Boy -- except I heard Nick had a girlfriend, but that is so not true, and anyway, I heard he broke up with her.

Sorry. I think I have been spending a little too much time in the alternate universe. But where else would one pass the last few agonizing days until the Backstreet Boys return to the Orlando Arena Wednesday with their Into the Millennium tour?

OK, so you feel you already know enough about the Backstreet Boys -- formed by Trans Continental honcho Louis J. Pearlman in 1993, paid dues in Europe before finally hitting the jackpot here with 1997's Backstreet Boys, sold more than 12 million copies of Millennium since its release last May, yadda yadda yadda. But the year 2000 is rapidly approaching, and how will you be able to cope with the challenges of that if you don't have at least a passing familiarity with the vastness that is the Backstreet Boys' cyberempire? So pay attention.

Some sample Web site names

Howie D Heaven

Backstreet Boys Bliss!

Backstreet Boys CyberFunky Realm

Backstreet Utopia

Bloc Party with the Backstreet Boys (not sure if this has anything to do with the former Soviet Union or its satellites)

BSB Eye Candy

When Hanson and the BsB Collide!

4 Seasons of Carterness

Typical disclaimers by Web site creators

I DO NOT KNOW THEM AND I HAVE NEVER MET THEM. I AM NOT THE BACKSTREET BOYS! I'M JUST ANOTHER BSB FAN LIKE YOU, SO DO NOT SEND ME ANY E-MAILS SAYING, "I LOVE YOU NICK!" OR "YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!" BECAUSE I'M NOT THEM!

This site contains material that may be inappropriate for Hanson fans!

We are not in ANY way shape or form associated with Hanson or the Backstreet Boys!! Please don't send us letters for them!! We can pretend to know them as much as the next person but it is NOT true.

Message from the creator of Web pages dedicated to the Backstreet Boys' girlfriends

Leave BSB's girlfriends alone. Give them back their lives! (Of course, this does not extend to the Web site owner, who posts photos of putative girlfriends.)

Important facts!!!! (Don't ask me if any of these are true -- if it's on the Internet, it must be right, right?)

Nick's head is approximately 22 inches (52 centimeters).

Nick hasn't "done" those thing you know what is it (sic).

Nick's sister, BJ, is a modle (sic).

Shhh! Don't tell a soul, but when Howie doesn't want to be recognized, he wears a baseball cap!

Kevin was engadged (sic) when he was 19.

Strangest request on a memorabilia trading page

I am looking for the Nick-shaped CD.

Sample plot lines from fiction by fans

The Backstreet Boys date me and my four sisters.

I am in a pop group and the Backstreet Boys are my fans.

My friends and I run into the Backstreet Boys on vacation in Spain.

Nick is my brother and Brian falls in love with me.

A girl dies when a car hits her and tries to become an angel but falls in love with AJ.

A girl's brother is the president of MTV and she gets to meet Nick.

Sample prose from a fan's
story

"Hey you're awake," Howie said, smiling a little.

"Yeah, how are you doing?" Jamie asked as the last thing she knew her and Howie were kissing.

More prose

Nick's mouth dropped when he saw her. She had long blond hair and entrancing green eyes. Her complexion was pale, yet tan.

To begin your own explorations of the Backstreet Boys' cyber realm:

www.worlds.net/hotlinks/
BackstreetBoys.html

An annotated guide to fan fiction:

www.angelfire.com/nj/brok
sterfan/ffhost.html

You can reach Parry Gettelman by e-mail at pgettelman
@orlandosentinel.com. Her column is online at calen
dar.orlandosentinel.com

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