Backstreet's Back With 'Black & Blue' Today

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Nov 22, 2000 Source: Music.com Submitted By: Gina The Backstreet Boys' highly anticipated new album Black & Blue arrives in stores today (November 21), and the group is expected to arrive in New York City's Times Square at 12:30 p.m. ET for a press conference and a brief performance, which will bring to a close the worldwide promotional tour the group embarked upon last week. At 2:30 p.m. ET, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, A.J. McLean, Nick Carter, and Howie Dorough will make their way over to the nearby Times Square Virgin Megastore for an autograph-signing session that will include an a cappella performance of their current single, "Shape Of My Heart." The Backstreet Boys set a new record (at the time) with their second album, Millennium, by selling more than 1.1 million copies in its first week of release in May 1999, surpassing the mark set by Garth Brooks' 1998 album Double Live. We asked Littrell if his group felt any pressure to compete with 2.4 million first-week album sales record set earlier this year by Jive Records labelmates 'N Sync. Littrell he and the rest of the group are not really concerned about first-week sales when it comes to Black & Blue, especially since they were the group that sparked the industry's sudden focus on single-week sales: "I think if you get caught up in numbers then there would be a competition especially if you just focus on numbers and how many somebody sold in the first week. We actually put ourselves in the situation because we started the whole thing with breaking Garth Brooks's record, and then 'N Sync came along and they broke our record. I mean, records are made to be broken." In order to promote Black & Blue, Jive Records and the Backstreet Boys enlisted the help of a marketing firm, which established a Backstreet Boys Official Online Street Team, or BSB-OOST. The team boasts a strictly volunteer army of 15,000-plus Backstreet Boys fans "with the common goal of boosting album sales for the new album Black & Blue," according to a statement in the group's online newsletter from BSB-OOST director Vanessa Daffron: "We are simply organizing and helping fans do what they would already be doing anyway: promoting the album release." The Backstreet Boys may just be on to something: With the fans happily and willingly doing a large chunk of the album's promotion, the group was able to spend more time focusing on the job of creating good music. Said Littrell: "What we want to make adamant, and known to our fans and to the public, is that we want to focus on good music, and I think the numbers will follow. I don't think we're really trying to go out and break the record. It's not really a goal of ours as a group, other than just making good-quality music, and just let the music speak for itself and let the album speak for itself? However, the group didn't leave promotion of Black & Blue only to their fans. A huge promo push came from their six-continent/six-city tour, which they completed in an astonishing, exhausting two days! Littrell admitted to us that the group would indeed enjoy breaking the first-week sales record set by 'N Sync: "Of course, it would be nice, but we can't really ask for everything. I mean, we've accomplished so much in the past and up until now, and we've had a wonderful career. Hopefully we'll have many more albums to come and more success to kind of stay where we are, and that's what we're kind of working for and planning for the future." Litrell maintains that as long as the Backstreet Boys keep trying to better themselves as musicians, they can maintain their success: "I think if you're not trying to better yourself or better your career,then you're stagnant, so to say. And if you're not going anywhere, then you're not doing yourself any justice. You always have to try to better yourself, not necessarily top yourself. I wouldn't say we think we're going to come out and top what we've done, because if you start to focus on that then you lose sight of the important stuff. But I think it's always better for the future to work on your songwriting ability and work on your producing ability and just better yourself." Litrell's cousin and bandmate Kevin Richardson believes the Backstreet Boys have set an example for every vocal-harmony group that follows: "I think in a way it's flattering that we've kind of, I guess, launched this whole new genre of music, with all the groups coming out after us. I think it's kind of flattering. At the same time, it really lets the public know, as well as us, just how record companies think because as soon as one record company gets something that's successful, all of the other record companies want something just like that." If you just can't get enough of the Backstreet Boys, check out the exclusive features, music videos, and updates from the Backstreet Boys' New York City press conference today on LAUNCH.com. Comment on this item. Next Item: Off the Record Charts Prev Item: Taking Back The Streets