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Backstreet singer goes solo with safe, rebellious image
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Date: Nov 19, 2002 By ISAAC GUZMAN NEW YORK -- Backstreet Boy Nick Carter spent the last decade of his life as the dream date for millions of American girls. With his puppy-dog eyes, shaggy blond hair and goofy sense of humor, he was the very embodiment of the teen-pop phenomenon -- pretty, happy and bland. Now Carter, 22, has momentarily stepped away from the Backstreet fold and, of all things, he's decided he wants to be a rock star. Clad in a T-shirt, scruffy jeans and some vaguely punkish leather wristbands, he's taken on all the accoutrements of faux rebellion and released his first solo album, Now or Never, Oct. 29. While he still manages to croon a few syrupy power ballads, several of Carter's new songs have a harder-rocking edge. But don't expect to hear anything in the vein of Korn or even Pearl Jam. Carter takes his cues from more "classic" sources, such as Bryan Adams, Journey and Bon Jovi. "I went retro, big time, on some of the songs," Carter says. "I grew up with a lot of that stuff. Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Journey. I'm always full of energy and I wanted something that could express that." The song that stands out the most is Girls in the U.S.A., a hard-rock anthem that recalls late-'80s hair metal bands, such as Poison and Warrant. Elsewhere, Carter makes his declaration of independence with the guitardriven I Stand For You, on which he sings, "I'm free to do what I want, free to do it my way." It wasn't a big secret that Carter was chafing in his role as the No. 1 cutie in Backstreet Boys, the group that reinvented teen pop in the late '90s. Several years younger than his bandmates, he wanted to get wild while the others -- with the exception of party guy A.J. McLean, who went through rehab last year -- began to settle down. But Carter's decision to embark on a solo career wasn't terribly popular in the Backstreet camp. Brian Littrel and Kevin Richardson are notoriously competitive about Backstreet's position in the pop charts and, after trailing rivals 'N Sync for the last few years, they felt Carter's going solo might hurt the group, especially since he is widely considered Backstreet's star member. "Nick is obviously the frontman, the idol," says Cara Lynn Shultz, associate entertainment editor at Teen People. "He was the one that girls daydreamed about, the one that made girls write 'I heart Nick Carter' on their notebook. He's cute and he's charming and he takes a hell of a photo." Intra-band conflict over Carter's solo plans got even worse when he announced that his career would be managed by The Firm, an outfit that Backstreet had just fired. So as Carter promotes Now or Never, his bandmates are busy recording demos and laying plans for a new record without him. But Carter will be there when Backstreet begins recording its next album. "There were a lot of emotional feelings in the beginning," Carter says. "But the fact was that they understood a lot of it afterwards, because it is that personal to me. Because with them, they want to get married and they want to start families, and I just want to rock out and sing and play music and have fun. "And they see that it's helping me," he says. "It's making me a better person." Part of Carter's recent personal development came with a few headlines attached. In January, he was arrested outside Pop City, a nightclub near his Tampa-area home. He was charged with resisting arrest and ultimately pleaded guilty and agreed to perform community service. The incident was minor, but Carter says it taught him that he might not have been choosing his friends so wisely. Since then, he's tried to take on more responsibility, especially since embarking on his solo project. He's tried to tone down his normally hyperactive personality and to focus. And he's aware that he won't have his bandmates to fall back on if the album falters. "I feel like it's all riding on me, big time," he says. "If I mess up, it's my fault. If things go bad, it's my fault." Carter was the first member of Backstreet or 'N Sync to go solo, but not by much. On Nov. 5, Justin Timberlake issued Justified, which is already shaping up to be a major success. It's inevitable that the two most recognizable members of the two best-selling bands in recent history will have their sales and successes linked to one another. But Carter downplays their connection. "I don't even compare myself with him," says Carter, who has not yet heard Timberlake's album. "I just do my own thing and I feel like I'm in my own little category. I'm doing rock. He's doing R&B. I support what he does. I hope he's successful." While Carter may brush aside analogies to Timberlake, music-business insiders have already begun handicapping the race between the two young men. While Timberlake's first single, Like I Love You, is the nation's sixth most-played song on radio, Carter's Help Me peaked at 36 and recently slipped to 38. Even on Backstreet-friendly MTV, Carter's clip for Help Me languishes in the low 20s, while Timberlake's is a top 5 favorite. If Carter wants his next single to stay in rotation, it'll quickly have to gain the attention of young fans. Otherwise, it'll fall prey to a Backstreet backlash, says Sean Ross, editor of Airplay Monitor. "To some extent, the airplay that these acts are getting is almost despite their success from a couple of years ago," Ross says. "Top 40 program directors certainly had an attitude about these acts, even when they were playing them. So a couple of years after the epicenter of teen-pop mania, any record that these artists put out can expect to get some initial airplay, but it can't expect the benefit of the doubt." With Carter, Timberlake and Christina Aguilera all releasing albums, this fall will widely be considered a litmus test for whether teen-pop stars can reinvent themselves for older audiences. Carter sees it as a challenge, but mostly he's just glad to be on his own for a while. "You never know: There may be some people who may not like you as an individual, so you're just taking a chance," he says. "But I like it because I'm a kind of dangerous guy in a way. I like excitement. I like adventure. But I really think that this is just a lot of fun."
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