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The muted-strum guitar riff and the growled chorus that owned rock radio in the winter of 1995–96: a college band from Williamsburg, Virginia, named after a CHiPs call sign, with a song about a relationship gone heavy. It hit number one on Billboard's Album Rock chart and number 39 on the Hot 100, carried American Standard to platinum, and then, by the drummer's own account, became "a blessing and a curse."
The working Nickelodeon studio tucked inside Universal Studios Florida — the one with the giant Slime Geyser erupting green out front. Kids toured the soundstages, watched real game shows get taped, and dreamed of being the one pulled from the crowd to get slimed. For a 90s Nick fan, it was a pilgrimage.
The boy band America watched get built. O-Town was assembled on ABC's Making the Band in 2000, under Lou Pearlman, and for two years it delivered exactly what the show promised — "Liquid Dreams," "All or Nothing," a platinum album — before the label let them go in 2003.