Their advent signalled the beginning of a new era in pop, one which brought together the success of boys in R&B – think Boyz II Men – and the heart-fluttering appeal of New Kids on the Block. In fact, the Backstreet Boys never really wanted to be called a boy band they preferred to be called a vocal harmony group, and this is evident in their singing – they regularly employ polyphonic harmony, which distinguishes them from many other vocals-based outfits. The boys perform ‘Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely’ from their album ‘Millennium’ If anything, the only other group of boys who have really defined the boy band genre with their own stamp, one that no other has been able to replicate, is BTS. The Backstreet Boys walked so that the likes of NSync, One Direction and The Jonas Brothers could run. And even though they weren’t really the first ever boy band – the names New Edition and New Kids on The Block would come to mind first – it can safely be said that they invented the boy band game: the ‘guilty pleasure’ music acts that few would own up to having loved, but who have, nevertheless, been some of the most successful musicians in history. Their first, eponymously-titled album had been released in Europe and Asia, and for Indian pre-teens and teenagers living through the ‘golden era’ of music television in the late 1990s, Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) hitting the airwaves and our screens proved to be a gamechanger in our introduction to bubblegum pop, along with the Spice Girls. I was 10 or 11 when I heard the Backstreet Boys for the first time. I was sure that the only way they’d ever return was if they were on a mega tour of the world (the actual world, not just Europe and North America).Īnd then, in May 2023, that happened: the Backstreet Boys – all five of them – came to India to perform as part of their DNA World Tour. They had played in Delhi in 2010, but that was sans Kevin Richardson – my favourite – who had taken a sabbatical from the band in 2006.
This is also part of the reason why I always believed that I’d never get to see the pop icons of my childhood live in India, least of all the Backstreet Boys.
The show itself was tight, and watching Bono live was surreal, but everything else – from the less-than-ideal management to a turnout that was lower than expected – stuck out like a sore thumb. Thus, even though the likes of the Rolling Stones, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, Megadeth and U2 have performed in India, these shows are few and far between – and, having been at the U2 gig myself in 2019, it is not difficult to see why. The Backstreet Boys perform in Gurgaon on their DNA World Tour Photos: Nayantara Mazumder This immediately affects their inclination to play here. In India, several factors contribute to this: a paucity of good venues, sky-high entertainment taxes that translate to steep ticket prices, India’s reputation for poor management at such events (who remembers the disastrous Metallica concert-that-never-happened in Gurgaon in October 2011?), and, interestingly, the widespread assumption among Western musicians that turnouts at gigs in India will be low. Beyonce is, indeed, unlikely to come to India to perform, much like other genre-defining musicians and bands who often give Asia (and most certainly South Asia) a miss on their ‘world tours’. This is a common, and not inaccurate, refrain among music lovers in the country. “But I also feel sad that she’ll never come to India.” He had, of course, been following the updates already. I shared them with a friend who is a Beyoncé loyalist. Video: Nayantara Mazumder Editing: Somak SarkarĪ few days ago, I saw updates on a popular Instagram page about Beyoncé’s ongoing Renaissance world tour, specifically her concert in Brussels.
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