Backstreet’s Back… ALRIGHT!!!
C’mon, admit you sung that in your head as soon as you read the title. I’m doing it as we speak. I am a 90s kid, and so knowing each and ever song that a boy or girl band out there sang comes with the territory. The Backstreet Boys were high level; Brian, Nick, AJ, Kevin (my favorite), and Howie could sing and dance their asses off. Plus, compared to rival group NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys were harder, able to make music lean more into the R&B and Hip Hop side while still retaining that Pop style. I loved the Backstreet Boys, but they had one song that cemented their place in my heart forever: 1997’s Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).
The word “Everybody” alone entices the audience to come in and join. The baseline going lower and lower — as if it were on a set of stairs leading to a dungeon below — gives us the feeling that this is not the typical pop song; it’s a funky beat meant for partying. That, plus the organ-mimicking strings in the background chills our spines and preps us for a spooky jamboree. Any time a pop song has minor chords, I’m in!
But that’s not the part that does it for me: it’s the music video. Everybody is Thriller for Millennials.
A whole-ass story wrapped into a music video, the Backstreet Boys find themselves with a broken-down tour bus, their only hope for help would be found inside of a decrepit old mansion. They go inside, but soon are transformed into various monsters. Then they have a dance party.
Everybody takes classic monsters (AJ as The Phantom, Nick as a mummy, Brian as a werewolf, Howie as probably-Dracula, and Kevin as some sort of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde person) and makes them completely their own, each with their own story and personality. Hell, even the bus driver turns into a zombie by the end. The house is its own presence as well, with cobweb-laden crypts, haunted libraries, dark and stormy hallways, and of course a giant ballroom for choregraphed numbers.
My childhood friend, Brittany, had the VHS making-of tape, which is where I first saw this music video. And man, we would watch this tape every day. I loved everything about it: the music, the video (duh), Kevin (duh again). That first Halloween after seeing the video, I had done up half of my face in green paint and went as Kevin’s character; no one really got the reference, but I was still happy. Even if you weren’t a super HalloGeek like me, you were still jamming to the music.
Even today, singing out “Backstreet’s Back” is sure to get you an enthusiastic “ALRIGHT!” or two. It’s just as catchy and memorable as “Every-body clap yo hands!” For me, it marks a time in my life where I realized Halloween truly could fit into any part of life. Halloween and horror isn’t just for goths and Satanists; it’s for the 40 year old moms picking up their kids from school, or the HBCU basketball star on his way home from practice, or my friend Brittany who probably likes PSLs more than Halloween but still loves the aesthetic the Backstreet Boys were sporting. The Backstreet Boys really did do something here with Everybody (Backstreet’s Back); they made a piece of horror history, something palatable to everyone. It’s nice to get shout outs to horror where you don’t expect to find any. Everybody has a special place in my heart, not only for the nostalgia it brings me every time I hear it, but for the plain awesomeness that it is — making Halloween an every day occurrence that people can sing and jump and get pumped to.
What do you think of the Backstreet Boys’ Everybody? Let us know in the comments!
