This is, to quote Papa Roach, our last resort. To speak for both Christy and I, it's gone too far.
We like Backstreet and *NSYNC. We think both bands are beyond talented. We love both group's music. We think that guys in both groups are hot.
But half of the O-Town Ten (as we affectionally call them) has sticks wedged up their asses. We're not sure if its all of them, but there's an indefinate amout of blantant animosity directed at *NSYNC via BSB.
Okay, let's reflect on this for awhile. The Backstreet Boys came into existance in 1993. They all met, responded to the ad that Lou Pearlman placed, and were signed to Transcon. Lou, wanting to strike pop gold again, decides to get another pop act.
About this time, in 1995, Chris Kirkpatrick is fed up with his dreams of stardom, and he decides to form a band. After rounding up JC, Justin, Joey, and Lance, this new group, who would be christened *NSYNC, reported to Pearlman and joined Transcon.
It's a well-known fact that BSB didn't strike it hot Stateside until '97. I would remember-that was the year that I became a fan. So, while *NSYNC is getting started up, there's no other group around. BSB was in Europe, winning the audiences over there. Even Justin admits that for awhile he and the other guys didn't know about the Backstreet Boys.
In 1997, BSB decides that they wanna get a fanbase in the US. So they return to the States. At this time, *NSYNC is over in Europe, doing exactly what BSB was doing before them: getting an audience over there. In 1998, *NSYNC was introduced to North America.
That's when the whole Backstreet/*NSYNC fan rivalry started.
My first taste of it came when some Backstreet fan wrote to a magazine called Girls' Life critizing the *NSYNC article they printed. She said that the guys were posers because the bass line in "I Want You Back" sounded just like the one in "Everybody". I doubted this, and I played the singles to those songs back and listened soley to the bass line. Yeah, there was a slight difference, but hey, Max Martin wrote both songs, of course there's gonna be a simularity. For the longest time I passed it off only as a fan thing.
Until this year.
As we all know, BSB and *NSYNC both had portions in their live show where they would fly over the audience. But Backstreet got a little pissed that *NSYNC did this, and they claimed that they took the idea from them. Then came the line from Kevin that will live in infamy:
"It's more frustrating on the creative side, like, who you choose to write music with, who you choose to work with and produce your record, who you choose to direct your videos. I mean, it's like, 'Find your own identity.'"
--Kevin Richardson
Oooh. Someone stuck a large stick up Kevin's arse.
Little ol' me, being an ardent admirer of both, thought that both groups had a little bit of a friendly rivalry goin' down, and a thing called r-e-s-p-e-c-t that went on between them.
But noooooo.... BSB, with their big ass record sales record, feelin' all high and mighty thinks that just because they fly in concert right after *NSYNC's been doin' this (since when, January of '99 ?) for months now that they're copying them. And just because *NSYNC's now on Jive, away from their legal woes (that they once faced themselves), they're posers.
Oh HELL no. *NSYNC is one of the most original, innovative groups I've seen in my fourteen years, and for Kevin, Brian, AJ, and Nick (Howie had no comments on this issue) to say that *NSYNC was copying them was quite unfair.
Despite this, I *still* stood by BSB and *NSYNC. I bought NSA on day one, not to beat the Backstreet record (Backstreet fans, please stop bitching... records are meant to be broken, if *NSYNC didn't do it, then someone would have!) but because I couldn't wait to finally get the CD.
Honestly, how was I to know that the CD would beat BSB's record? I had no clue that this ever fazed the minds of the die-hard, *NSYNC-rules-BSB-sucks-and-Nick-and-Howie-are-gay fans. This started a whole new level of bitching between the fans.
Okay, and I thought this thing would die down a little. BSB wasn't constantly mentioning "competition", AJ wasn't saying that the NSA record would go "bye bye bye" anymore. And in Teen People's December/January issue Kevin claimed that the guys didn't care about breaking the record. (and, might I note that *NSYNC has said little-if any-about BSB. I know Lance made that "no accounting for taste" remark, but that's mild compared to what BSB has said about them.)
Then I watched TRL today. (November 16th) When asked what song he wished he could never hear again, Kevin responded with "Bye Bye Bye".
And I-along with Christy-snapped.
I may be overreacting, I may be reading this the wrong way, (maybe Kevin feels the song was overplayed...) but my mind interprets it this way. Black and Blue comes out on Tuesday. You can think about the rest.
For quite awhile I've asked myself if I wanted to get this CD on the first day. Now, more than anything, I've decided I won't. Oh, don't get me wrong, I still like BSB's music. I don't like their attitudes.
So, basically, this site's gonna go through a few changes. We're not ditching all of the Backstreet stuff, but we're gonna focus a little more on *NSYNC. At least they're being mature and not acting like they're in grade school. This is ridiculus. If BSB wants to be taken seriously, I would think that their behavior towards *NSYNC lately would prove that they shouldn't.
And to show this, Christy and I aren't buying Black and Blue anytime soon. If they're gonna be like that, they don't deserve our money.
(steps off soapbox)