Backstreet Boys, I Want It That Way | FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘

Reading Time: 3 min read

In the 31^st edition of FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘, we highlight “I Want It That Way” performed by Backstreet Boys.

[otw_shortcode_dropcap label=”B” size=”large” border_color_class=”otw-no-border-color” shadow=”shadow” square=”square”]ring on the bold, FIERCE tracks! FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 provides background information and insight into pop, rock, and metal songs that raise eyebrows and stir the pot. Featured records can be classic or brand new. In the 31^st edition of FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 (2023), we explore 🎵 “I Want It That Way” performed by 🎙 Backstreet Boys.[/otw_shortcode_dropcap]

“You are my fire / The one desire / Believe when I say / I want it that way.” WOO! Ah, those 🎙 Backstreet Boys were one of the biggest boy bands in the late 1990s. Bubblegum pop was all the rage, and BSB exemplified it, particularly on the 💿 Millennium (1999) highlight at hand, 🎵 “I Want It That Way”. This record is pop schmaltz at its best, with many characterizing or decoding the want – the desire – in NSFW ways. Do you think “I Want It That Way,” which spent 31 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at no. 6, is really about anal sex? Kat George of Bustle seems to think so, citing the lyrics, “But we are two worlds apart / Can’t reach to your heart / When you say / That I want it that way”:

“[It] might sound like some emo Romeo and Juliet melodrama to some people, but what it really sounds like to most of us is that someone doesn’t want to put it in the stinker after they were asked politely.”

Oh, snap 🫰! Perhaps if “I Want It That Way” were officially about pulling up to the bumper, it would be hella fierce. Ultimately, however, the fierceness of “I Want It That Way” relies on puppy dog love from good looking young men, haha. “Am I your fire? / Your one desire…” Well now… To be fair, the songwriting (🎼 ✍ Andreas Carlsson and Max Martin) is sus. The verses, in particularly, are odd.

Perhaps that’s why the outlandish assertion that this song is about anal is worth talking about 🤣. Ultimately, the tunefulness of the melody, and a catchy chorus helped make 🎵 “I Want It That Way” a 1990s classic. It was nominated for three Grammys (including Song of The Year), so, confusing, questionable lyrics or not, The Backstreet Boys and their songwriters 🎵 “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right”, 🎙 Billy Currington 😝!