Backstreet Boys’ ‘democratic’ business

Backstreet Boys have a "democratic way of doing business" where they all vote on which songs they will put out.
The pop boy band – made up of AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell – were unanimous in their decision to make ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ their latest single, agreeing the tune would "be a smash".
Brian said: "We run a democratic way of doing business where we all vote on things and we kind of just knew.
"When we all heard the song, this is one of those moments where you have five guys that hear the same thing and they all agree that it’s a smash.
"It’s been a long time that we’ve been in this business, so you kind of just know what you can pull off."
Brian has teased fans they can expect "a little bit of edge to" the group’s upcoming new album, and while the band are still being well received by their die-hard fans, their supporters are more like entrepreneurs than 10-year-old kids nowadays.
He said: "Today is not so fanatical as it was 20 years ago or 15 years ago.
"That’s because all of our fans that were 10 to 14 years old are all grown up now. They’re running businesses, they’re tax payers, they’re the shot callers.
"But the reaction is very similar to the way it was many years ago. Just everyone is older now.
"It doesn’t matter how old we get, it’s still going to sound like us five singing together and that’s a good thing."
Brian says the ‘I Want It That Way’ hitmakers – whose last album was 2013’s ‘In a World Like This’ – are "blessed" to still be able to release new music.
He added to PEOPLE: "We’re blessed to still be doing this for so long and be so prosperous for so many years. The fans have really done it for us."
Last week, Howie hinted the group could make a country album at some point.
He said: "We’ve had a lot of love from the country world lately, so we definitely explored that and at one point even talked about doing a straight-up country record.
"Not to say that isn’t still on the table and something we’ll consider down the line, but we kept coming back to the fact that our roots remain in the pop world. And, with all the nostalgia of everything right now, we know we’re essentially a pop band."