Aaron Carter
The Backstreet Boy's little brother, who opened for the band at nine, sold three million copies of Aaron's Party in the United States, and rapped about beating Shaquille O'Neal one-on-one while Shaq himself played along in the video. For a few years around 2000 he was the biggest pop star in the fourth grade.
Aaron Carter was born in Tampa on December 7, 1987, the younger brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. He was singing in a band called Dead End at seven, and at nine he made his first solo appearance, opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997 with a cover of the Jets' "Crush on You." A record deal followed, his self-titled debut came out that December, and it went gold in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Spain before it even reached the United States in June 1998.
The real hit was Aaron's Party (Come Get It), released on Jive Records on September 26, 2000. It sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified triple platinum, carried by the singles "I Want Candy," "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," "Bounce" and "That's How I Beat Shaq," whose videos were in heavy rotation on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. The Shaq song was true, in a way. O'Neal had known the Carter family since the early 1990s, and Aaron had beaten him at a game of H-O-R-S-E on a visit. "And then, he came back and said, 'I want to do a song,'" O'Neal recalled. "And I said sure." He appeared in the video. Carter opened for the Backstreet Boys and for Britney Spears's Oops!... I Did It Again tour, guest-starred on Lizzie McGuire in March 2001, where he sang "I Want Candy," and made his Broadway debut that April as JoJo in Seussical.
Oh Aaron, released in August 2001, went platinum and included his first duet with Nick; Play Along Toys made an Aaron Carter doll to go with it. Another Earthquake! followed in 2002 and a Most Requested Hits collection in 2003, by which point the teen-pop wave that had carried him was receding. In the years after, he competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2009, finishing fifth, and starred off-Broadway in The Fantasticks in 2011. He died at his home in Lancaster, California, on November 5, 2022, at 34.
Similar items
Backstreet Boys
Orlando's harmonizing five-piece formed the template for late-90s teen-pop dominance. The Backstreet Boys' matching choreography and Lou Pearlman's boy-band machinery made them a TRL staple, an arena-tour juggernaut, and the answer to every teen magazine's "Who's your favorite Backstreet Boy?" quiz.
NSYNC
'Bye Bye Bye' and its jerky-dancing video were inescapable on TRL, announcing that five boys from Orlando could rival the Backstreet Boys. NSYNC was teen pop's other empire during the late 90s, built by the same producer and fueled by a rivalry that defined a generation.
Britney Spears
A former Mickey Mouse Club kid whose debut single '...Baby One More Time' (September 1998) and January 1999 album catapulted her to megastardom as the defining pop voice of the millennium. TRL countdown staple, Rolling Stone covers, Pepsi deals, and cultural omnipresence through the early 2000s with 'Oops!... I Did It Again' (2000) and 'Toxic' (2003–04).
Lizzie McGuire
Disney Channel's '00s tween sensation starring Hilary Duff as awkward Lizzie, with an animated cartoon version of Lizzie voicing her inner thoughts. The relatable humor and heart made it a cornerstone of early-2000s children's television and rocketed Hilary Duff to stardom, leading to the 2003 theatrical movie and a music career.