More Than That
© 5/22/2001

Jen and I had flown out to New York for the Fourth of July holiday 
week. The Backstreet Boys were going to be performing for the Today 
Show on Monday and since we had already made arrangements to be in New 
York, we decided to stop by. On Monday at one in the morning, we headed 
over to where the summer concert was to take place. We weren't the only 
ones there, there were about fifty others camped out. Some people 
talked, others slept. We claimed our spot near the front and dozed off 
until about six in the morning. We woke up and found ourselves 
surrounded by fans. Jen placed a hand on my shoulder and we waited 
patiently for the Boys to appear. The fans in the vicinity were going 
crazy screaming almost to point of exhaustion. Jen and I just stood 
there, talking as best we could, ignoring all the idiot people around 
us. When the Backstreet Boys finally did take the stage, they performed 
a couple of songs and we waved and sang right along with the crowd. Jen 
and I started blowing kisses at them and Brian saw us. He blew a kiss 
in our direction. We looked at each other and sighed. It had happened 
again. Brian had seen us!

After the mini-concert in the street, people started to leave. We also 
left and decided to go head over to MTV. We shopped in the stores 
surrounding the studio and headed out to stand out front about one in 
the afternoon. Around two, more people started showing up. At three, 
cameramen started showing up and one of the producers came and picked 
people to sit in the audience. Jen and I were picked. We got to go 
upstairs and hang with Carson Daly. "Do we have to?" Jen groaned in my 
ear as we were led upstairs.

"I know how you're feeling," I told her.

The show started promptly at four with the cameras panning the in-
studio-audience. Jen and I waved and hollered at the camera like the 
rest of the fans there, but in the end felt really bored, and felt like 
we were the oldest people there. When they broke for commercial at some 
point one of the producers came up to us. "Would you two wanna do a 
request for BSB?" she asked us.

I looked at Jen, confused as to why they asked us to do it. Jen was 
wearing her Howie pin. I was wearing every Brian pin I had, as well as 
had the key chains dangling from my belt loops. Jen shrugged her 
shoulders and I did the same. "Sure," I told her.

"Great! Well, here's a mic, we'll point to you when we need you. Please 
practice as much as possible before hand, okay?"

"Sure," we replied. And then started talking amongst ourselves trying 
to decide what to say.

The video was playing and we were pointed at. Jen and I leaned 
together, myself holding the mic and I said, "I'm Becca."

"And I'm Jennifer," Jen said into the mic.

"And we're from California," we said together. "We requested Backstreet 
Boys' 'More Than That' because the video sucks and we wish they could 
have done 'More Than That' to it!"

Jen stopped talking and I added. "Keep the Backstreet pride alive! 
Woooooohooooooo!!!!!!"

The camera stopped rolling on us and the fans around stared, unable to 
think of a thing to say. The producers as well as Carson stared at us 
and then shook their heads. I knew they were thinking that this was 
going in the "Best of TRL" archives.

When the video ended, meaning they stopped playing it and went back to 
Carson, he looked at us. "So you really don't like the video?" he asked 
us.

"Yes! It sucks!" we said together.

"Given the chance, I'd make them do it over," Jen commented into the 
microphone that we still had in our hands.

"Yeah. They flunked that video!" I added. "Ruin a perfectly good song."

"We'll I've got a little surprise for you," he said.

"They're gonna re-do it?" Jen asked.

"And we get to help?" I added.

The people around us laughed. "Nope," Carson said. The word had just 
escaped his lips when we heard movement behind us. In a matter of 
seconds the five Backstreet Boys were standing in front of us. The 
whole audience was silent. No one, not even us, was expecting that.

"So you really don't like our video?" Nick asked, choking on the words 
into the microphone.

"Finally a sucky video!" AJ commented hitting his knees before us. "Oh 
wait, it's our video that sucks."

"Just like we said," Jen told them. "It sucks! What was the purpose of 
this thing being in the desert? Metaphorically speaking, the desert 
could represent the desolate feelings that the person is having, but 
you're not portraying the emotion that's behind the song. Basically 
you're a group of guys walking through a desert. Everyone walks. Are 
you searching for something? A joy ride? Like you riding around in 
cars? Everyone rides in cars. Woohoo. You obviously found it in the 
hanger. But don't get me started there. What is with AJ singing in 
front of a jukebox? Okay? And Brian singing in front of a silver 
trailer? And the junk car with the 'for sale' sign on it. And what's 
with Kevin all in black? Symbolically speaking, is Kevin a bad guy in 
the video? What happened to the white suits you wore in the concert? 
Weren't you all good guys then? Come on guys, you could have done 
better." She paused. "There is one good thing about it. This is Nick's 
song. No matter what anyone says. He's the one who put the most emotion 
into it." She paused again, but not long. "Even the choreographed 
dancing in 'I'll Never Break Your Heart' was better than this."

She paused again and then turned towards me. "Becca, what's wrong with 
you? You're five feet from Brian and you're not crying." I just stood 
there and stared. At any other time, I would have been utterly 
humiliated, but this time, I wasn't.

That was when I got up the nerve to open my mouth. "Since she mentioned 
the white suits," I started, "the concert also sucked." The five men's 
mouths fell open. "Let me explain. The opening was cool and so was the 
ending. The stuff on the mini-stage was cool too, but some of the stuff 
in the middle, I was bored with. You could have done better. But then 
again, you did spend half the night blinding me with the lights so that 
I couldn't see anything. And you came to Cali in the middle of a power 
crisis!"

Around us the fans booed and jeered us. But that was when Kevin said, 
"Hey, don't be hard on them. They're being honest."

"That's right Kevin," I said. "We're older fans and we expect more than 
sugar-coated, teeny-bop pop songs. I almost slugged a guy in San Diego 
for saying all fans were teeny-boppers. And I am being honest. You guys 
are letting us down! We've been there practically since the demise of 
New Kids and I refuse to let the younger generation get suckered into 
put-together acts who can't really sing or dance. You guys are better 
than that."

"We're not like most fans out there," Jen said practically getting in 
AJ's face. "We don't just tell you our sugar-coated, nice fake 
opinions. We tell you the truth, to you face!"

"That you do," Brian said softly. "Thank you."

Both Jen and I were caught off guard by his soft comment. We looked at 
each other before saying, "You're welcome."