Following in the footsteps of earlier boy band successes like New Kids on the Block and Color Me Badd, the Backstreet Boys took the world by storm in the late 1990s. Teen pop sensations had started to emerge on the music scene and dominate the charts; the Backstreet Boys were some of the most successful purveyors of bubblegum pop.

The group came together when member A.J. MacLean and Howie Dorough attended the same auditions and started singing a cappella together. They recruited Nick Carter with hopes of starting a trio but at the advice of a manager also welcomed Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell to their lineup. In the beginning, they performed around Orlando, charming audiences with their smooth harmonies and hip-hop beats. A record contract soon followed in 1995 and their first, self-titled album was released in Europe, which had an insatiable appetite for boy bands. After hits like “Get Down (You’re the One for Me)” and “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” conquered Europe, the Boys released their album in America. Aided by the group’s appearance on popular shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Saturday Night Live, the album became a Top 5 hit.

The smash hit “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” reached the #2 spot in America’s charts in 1997, followed by other chart toppers like “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and “As Long As You Love Me.” The group earned a few awards as well, including the MTV Music Video Awards, the American Music Awards and the European MTV Awards. Backstreet Boys was the best selling album of 1998 with 9 million copies sold.

Their sophomore album, Millennium, came out in 1999 and topped the charts in America and abroad. It included many hit singles, including “I Want It That Way” and “Larger Than Life.” When they embarked on a tour that year, tickets sold like the proverbial hotcakes. Adoring, screaming fans flocked to the band during every public appearance and the Boys even got their own comic book.

The new millennium brought another album, Black & Blue, which performed as successfully as their previous records. It also produced a number of hit singles like “Shape of My Heart,” which made the Top 5 in charts around the world. After this album, the group had a three-year long hiatus, returning in force in 2005 with Never Gone, an aptly named album that debuted in the #3 spot and went platinum. Another album, Unbreakable, followed two years later but did not enjoy the success to which the Boys were accustomed.

The Backstreet Boys continue to tour and record—sans Richardson, who left the band to pursue solo projects—now into the second decade of their career.