Backstreet's debut

Backstreet's debut is filled with funky pop and balladry. This album is this start of teen pop in the late 1990s. This album has been certified 14x Platinum.

The album that started the boy band trend

I still think that Backstreet Boys' US debut is still a solid pop debut. The Max Martin-dominated songs like Quit Playing Games, As Long as you Love Me and others are still superb pop songs. There are some funky numbers like Hey Mr. DJ and We've Got It Going On. I still love the breezy ballad Darlin

with its lush landscapes and bridges. It was smart that they added Everybody to the album in early '98--made the album have more energy to it! This helped start the boy band trend of nearly identical male groups, even a rival group which I won't say here. The singing's very good, as AJ McLean and Nick Carter's twin leads along with Brian Littrell's inclusions make the songs entertaining. Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough provide good background singing. I still love Good Girl/Bad Boy and its rocking closing to the album! It has that AC/DC type feel to it with its naughtiness. This is a landmark album of many proportions!

The Boys at their funkiest best

This album was released stateside in 1996, but I first heard the Backstreet Boys' "We've Got it Going On" during a trip to London in 1995. While America was still in the waning years of grunge, London had taken the lead in jumping on the boy band bandwagon with Take That, so they were the first to embrace the Backstreet Boys. When the Boys finally brokethrough in the states, I was thrilled. As a Teen Pop fan from the 70's and 80's, I was glad to see it return.



On this album, the Boys' youthful exhuberance shines through. The songs are full of energy and are still fun to listen to all these years later. As with most artists, their time in the spotlight has apparently come and gone. But who knows, these boys had talent and we may hear more from them yet. Whoever thought Jordan Knight or Joey McIntire from New Kids on the Block would make solo comebacks.



A word of caution, this is an enhanced CD, which can sometimes be a pain if you want to listen to the CD on your computer without disturbing other programs you have running. The problem with these enhanced CD's is that the information becomes out of date and useless. My advice is when you first put it in your CD drive and the Boys come up on your screen, click Exit so you can just play the music without all the other unnecessary programs running.