Born Aaron Charles Carter, 7 December 1987, Tampa, Florida, USA. The younger brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, Aaron first burst onto the charts as a precocious 10-year-old in 1997. The next three years saw his shrill bubblegum pop winning an increasingly large slice of the lucrative pre-teen market. Carter attended music school in Tampa where, at the age of seven, he joined other students in the band Dead End. He went solo in 1996, and the following March was spotted by an Edel Records' executive singing at the Backstreet Boys' Berlin concert. Carter's first two singles, "Crush On You" and "Crazy Little Party Girl", were big hits in the teen-pop orientated European and Japanese markets. Both songs entered the UK Top 10, and when the two follow-up singles (one of which was a truly awful cover version of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA") also broke into the Top 30 Carter became the youngest artist ever to achieve four hit singles. He subsequently sang "(Have Some) Fun With The Funk" on the Pokemon movie soundtrack, but his breakthrough in his homeland came about when he signed a recording contract with Jive Records and released Aaron's Party (Come Get It). Reprising the format of his self-titled debut with a combination of weak cover versions of lame bubblegum pop ("Iko Iko", "I Want Candy") and formulaic new material ("My Internet Girl", "That's How I Met Shaq"), the album was predictably gobbled up by the pre-teen market. Among the glut of glossy biographies that followed was one written by his mother and manager, Jane Carter. Shortly after his sophomore album's release Carter entered his teenage years. It will be interesting to see how long he both maintains his present career path and wishes to continue to stomach the kind of bad reviews generated by his third release, Oh Aaron.
Discography:
Aaron Carter (Edel America/Ultra Pop 1998)**, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (Jive 2000)***, Oh Aaron (Jive 2001)**, Another Earthquake (Jive 2002)**.
Videography:
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) - The Videos (BMG 2000), Aaron's Party ... Live In Concert! (Jive Video 2001).
Bibliography:
Backstreet Boys/Aaron Carter: An Unauthorized Biography, Matt Netter. Backstreet Brother: Aaron Carter, Corey Barnes. Aaron Carter: The Little Prince Of Pop, Jane Carter with Margaret Sagarese. Pop People: Aaron Carter, Michael-Anne Johns. Aaron Carter: Come Get It!, J.J. Fisher.
Music Albums
Aaron Carter
Edel America Records
06/16/1998
Surfin' U.S.A. [EP]
Edel America Records
03/23/1999
Aaron's Party (Come Get It)
Jive Records
09/26/2000
Oh Aaron
Jive Records
08/07/2001
Another Earthquake!
Jive Records
09/03/2002
Most Requested Hits *
Jive Records
11/18/2003
Oh Aaron
BMG Special Products
10/15/2004
Source: Encyclopedia of Popular Music
