AJ McLean

The Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian... Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys . In the following year, they released their second international album, Backstreet's Back and their debut album in the United States which continued the group's success worldwide. They rose to superstardom with their album Millennium and its follow-up album, Black & Blue . After a three-year hiatus, the band regrouped and have released their comeback album: Never Gone , as well as two further albums Unbreakable and This Is Us . Kevin Richardson left the group in 2006 to pursue other interests, but rejoined in 2012. The Backstreet Boys have sold over 130 million records worldwide. According to Billboard, they are the first group since Sade to have their first seven albums reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
more

Jive Records was an American record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South... African music and dance. Jive operated as an independently managed label until 2002 when Bertelsmann Music Group acquired the remainder of Zomba for US $2.74 billion, which was at the time the largest-ever acquisition of an independent label with major-label distribution. Their biggest hit maker to date is Britney Spears. Zomba, Jive's parent company, was formed in the mid seventies as a publishing and management company on Willesden Street in London and their first client was a young Mutt Lange. Initially, co-founders Ralph Simon and Clive Calder wanted to stay away from record labels, choosing to focus on their songwriters and producers while allowing other established labels to release the material. Later in the seventies, Zomba opened offices in the United States where Calder began a business relationship with Clive Davis, whose Arista Records began releasing material by Zomba artists.
more

Pop music is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The terms popular music and pop... music are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular , whilst the latter is a specific genre containing qualities of mass appeal. As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format , as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks. So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, features all these elements, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth.
more