The fact that Aaron Carter was ever popular is kind of bizarre.
A number of cultural currents had to converge to make a hit out of “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)”: the prominence of boy bands, the wider cultural acceptance of rap and the seemingly complete disappearance of irony for a brief period in the early 2000’s.
Seriously, this kid made a song about beating Shaquille O’Neal at basketball and somehow it wasn’t the end of his career.
Actually, it kind of was. “That’s How I Beat Shaq” was Aaron’s last song to chart in the U.S., and even then just barely.
Afterwards he released two more albums and handful of singles.
One of them (“Oh Aaron”) tried to replicate the story-rap of his biggest hits with little success, and several of them have featured his better-known brother, Nick Carter.
All cultural and historical curiosities aside, Nick is the reason why Aaron has any sort of career.
Aaron’s popularity definitely wasn’t based on ability—believe me, his early-career cover of “Surfin’ USA” more than proves that.
Aaron was popular because he was the cute little brother of one of the Backstreet Boys.
If you were a fan of BSB, you were probably closer to Aaron’s age than to Nick’s, so, in a weird way, Aaron was the more approachable of the two.
He was just like you! He threw parties and got into trouble with his parents, he fantasized about being really good at sports, he had nation-wide tour with the A-Teens… you know, just normal tween stuff.
When Aaron was searching for that elusive second hit, he leaned on his brother for support.
“Oh Aaron” features an extended cameo from Nick; in fact, the entire plot revolves around him. Aaron mentions to his friends that his brother is in the Backstreet Boys—which seems like something they would already know—and they immediately begin hounding him for tickets. It’s kind of sad, actually. You get the impression that these people are only interested in Aaron if he can get them backstage to meet Nick.
Even sadder is Aaron’s fourth album, Another Earthquake!
There are three notable things about Earthquake: the weirdly patriotic single “America A.O” and its refrain “troubled times bring about troubled rhymes”, which I’m just going to ignore because I’m a nice person, the song “Summertime,” which holds the distinction for being the only time the Baha Men have ever made anything better, and the final track: a sneak preview of Nick Carter’s upcoming solo record.
Just seeing it on the track listing made my heart sink a little.
Aaron Carter wanted to be a serious musician, but in order to get people to buy his record he had to tack on snippets of his brother’s new album. It’s even at the end of the album, as if that will convince people to listen through the other songs, at least once, maybe even by accident. Who knows?
Maybe someone will forget which track the sneak-peak is on and they’ll hear the first few seconds of “2 Good 2 Be True” and… oh, it’s too sad to even think about.
After that public humiliation, Aaron has only released a couple of singles.
Rumblings of a comeback started in 2009 when he released “Dance With Me”, a mediocre auto-tuned song that is saddled with a thoroughly sub-average Flo-Rida verse.
But really, Aaron’s biggest contribution to the pop-culture landscape in recent years was his appearance on House of Carters.
House of Carters ran on E! for eight episodes in 2006 before being immediately and rightfully forgotten.
The premise is simple: Nick Carter is recording a new Backstreet Boys album, so he moves out to L.A. and gets his siblings to live with him because… well, because someone thought it would be good television.
It isn’t, though.
The show follows the format of a trashy celeb-reality show but without any of the entertaining parts. There were no meme-inspiring quotes, no hilariously over-the-top fights, no breakout characters… in fact, I’m guessing that many of you didn’t know that Aaron and Nick had three sisters until you read this sentence.
Of course, I didn’t watch House of Carters to see the three Carter sisters fight with each other, break up with their boyfriends and occasionally try to model. I wanted to get a closer look at Aaron Carter, who was 18 at the time the show was filmed, and see how he dealt with the transition into adulthood.
It’s a cliché that all child stars are stuck in arrested development, but it’s an understandable one, and sometimes it’s true.
As presented by House of Carters, Aaron Carter is little more than a child in the body of a lanky, chin-bearded adult. He spends most of his day lying around the house without a shirt on, and at night he produces music of questionable quality. Over the course of the show, it is revealed that Aaron doesn’t know how to do laundry.
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| No worries, bro…I can teach laundry. |
Whenever anyone criticizes him in anyway, he responds by shouting at him or her in his squeaky voice.
One episode opens with Nick, dressed in a suit, yelling at his brother for being late to a business meeting. Clad in a white t-shirt and yellow smiley-face boxers, Aaron responds to Nick with the old “you’re-just-making-me-later-by-yelling-at-me”.
If that sounds more like an interaction between a father and a son than one between two siblings, you’re not far off. Apparently, the Carters come from a troubled household, and because of this, Nick has taken on some of the responsibilities of a father. You can tell he’s a father figure to Aaron because he’s always telling him that he doesn’t want to be a father figure.
There’s even an episode where Nick, having apparently never heard Aaron’s signature song, leaves his little brother in charge of the house while he’s gone.
Nick returns to find Aaron, his sisters and several friends drunkenly carrying on by the pool. Nick and Aaron then go grocery shopping, where Aaron stumbles around the store before having to be carried through the parking lot on his brother’s back. On the way home, Aaron throws up in the car while his brother chastises him the way you would a teenager.
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| I call “next” |
Like all reality-show families, the Carters argue non-stop.
During one particularly nasty fight, Nick reveals that after he and Paris Hilton broke up, Aaron took her out on a date.
This is weird for several reasons, one of which being that, in 2005, Aaron and Nick released a duet called “She Wants Me,” in which they argue over a girl.
This fight ends like all the Nick/Aaron fights end on the show—the two bros hug it out.
In these moments of reconciliation, Aaron shows a more mature and humble side of his personality.
He admits to Nick that he was wrong and talks about how thankful he is for what Nick has done for him.
These moments are surprisingly sweet, particularly for a television show so manufactured and trashy.
Today, Aaron Carter has an active presence online and continues to hype up his forthcoming album.
I don’t think he’ll ever be able to escape the fact that his two biggest songs are novelty hits, but then again, you never know.
Maybe his next single will hit at just the right time to capitalize on a number of cultural trends, sending him to the top of the charts and to the forefront of our nation’s consciousness.
What’s that saying, after all? “Lightning always strikes the same place twice?”
No?
Well, it’s something like that, anyway.
