Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life

Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas

I did not plan to create this post but due to the Backstreet Boys getting a residency in Las Vegas, I believe I need to create one, something to celebrate their success, to cherish whatever memories I have of the world's best selling boy band, to relieve the greatness of '90s music. The title of the post is so fitting as it is the banner of their residency run at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino which is scheduled to start next year. So if you are planning to visit the world's gambling capital in 2017, make sure you don't miss out their performance.

It all started in 2001

It was in 2001 when I first learned about the Backstreet Boys, when my brother was humming to "Shape of My Heart". I was a new listener to Westlife then and "If I Let You Go" was my first ever LSS. I remember telling him not to sing that song in the house. I did not listen to the boys from Orlando until a few months later.

At my high school's intramurals, the faction I belonged to field in a dance team to compete for the modern dance competition. Their music: "We've Got It Goin' On" by Backstreet Boys. The other two factions dance to A1 songs.

One second-degree relative lend me her Millennium

cassette tape. I was grateful for her for introducing me to many Backstreet Boys songs. Later she would lend A1's The A List album.

Around the Halloween period, I went with my cousin to his place to pay some relatives a visit. There he played Backstreet Boys music in their Sony bookshelf CD player. It was euphoria.

At Christmas, my mother would gift me a cassette tape of the band's compilation album Greatest Hits – Chapter One. My sister received Westlife's World of Our Own.

That time then, my favorite Backstreet songs were "Larger Than Life", "Get Down", and "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely". I used to dislike their hit "I Want It That Way", which is now one of my four most favorite songs from the group.

Next year (2002), an ex-classmate would give me an old music magazine, which featured an interview of the Backstreet Boys on their then upcoming magnum opus Millennium. And in summer of that year, mother returned home with the year's edition of the Guinness World Records, which included the band as record holder of the best-selling boy band album.

From 2002 to 2004 I heard nothing of them. No new material. Then in the summer of 2005, I was surprised to hear them with a new song, titled "Incomplete", but was shocked at their musical shift, gravitating to a more pop rock sound. That song was in the VCD given to me by my former college crush who turned down my offer of love. It was the first of two gifts she gave to me.

One morning in 2007, my sister tuned in to an urban station that played "Inconsolable", a song that highlighted the Backstreet Boys' return to pop. They were minus one member.

In 2009, I stumbled on Channel V the music video to "Straight Through My Heart". It was one of the best songs I heard in my first year in the city.

In 2013, just weeks into my new job, the Backstreet Boys returned as a five-piece band with a new single "In a World Like This". The sun dawned on me, telling me music will return to how it was then.

Forward, Backstreet Boys

I am happy to hear about musicians from the glorious past still playing music to fans who will never forget them. Some bands and soloists have called it quits, but the Backstreet Boys is just one of those who decide to keep playing and defer disbandment or retirement to a far later time. God knows what happen when they disband.

Whatever, my memory of the Backstreet Boys will live on.