The landscape of popular music changed forever on May 18, 1999 – 15 years ago tomorrow.
The Backstreet Boys released their second U.S. release (third worldwide) on Jive Records. The album, “Millennium,” featured the first single “I Want It That Way”. In the first week alone, it sold 1,134,000 copies in its first week of release, breaking the previous Nielsen SoundScan record held by Garth Brooks for single-week record sales.
“Millennium” became the best-selling album of 1999, selling 9,445,732 albums and as of January 2013. As of January 2013, the album was the fourth best selling album of the SoundScan era with 12,209,000 units sold in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 30 million copies.
For promotion, the boys each had commercials that aired. (Video below)
A few days before the release of the album, the boys had a 2 hour special on MTV with Carson Daly. (A playlist of videos from the show are below)
And now some videos of the songs from the album. Some are the actual music videos and some are performances. It’s kind of rare today to see an artist who has performed every song on an album live, but with the Backstreet Boys, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.
“I Want It That Way”“Larger Than Life”“Don’t Want You Back“Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely”“It’s Gotta Be You“I Need You Tonight”“Don’t Wanna Lose You Now”“The One”“Back To Your Heart” (my own personal video)“Spanish Eyes”“No One Else Comes Close“The Perfect Fan”HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BOYS!What is your favorite song from Millennium?
