Sixteen years ago today, November 21, 2000, the Backstreet Boys released their fourth album (third in the U.S.), “Black and Blue.” This was the album after the phenom known as “Millennium.”
I, being in college, what should have been my sophomore year, but I started over, for the second time, went by Walmart early, early that morning to get the album. We didn’t have any 24 hour stores at the time and I couldn’t be at the store that night at midnight. Hell, I don’t think the stores were open.
So there I was, about 8:30 a.m. in the morning, walking into Walmart and head to the electronics. I was all ready for this album.
And they didn’t have it out.
“Black and Blue” wasn’t out on the shelves.
Not only did this mean that I, Karah, would not get the album before class, but also that this could hurt their album sales. Because yes, one Walmart in Georgia would determine whether the Backstreet Boys were going to beat the ‘NSync “No Strings Attached” sales record that beat “Millennium.”
I demanded to see the manager, who wasn’t there yet.
I demanded to see someone else in charge, and the only person there was some older lady who looked like she smoked a pack of cigarettes before walking into work and smelled like it, too.
And when I explained that the album was released at midnight and it should have been on the shelf as soon as the doors opened, I was told that if I wanted the album out, do it myself.
When I told her to point me in direction of the boxes, she yelled at me, telling me she would call security.
In in return yelled, “HOW ABOUT YOU DO YOUR JOB AND PUT THE ALBUM OUT OR I’LL CALL CORPORATE!”
To say the least, I had the album in my hands thirty minutes later and I headed to class.
Happy anniversary “Black & Blue.” <3