"I Want It That Way" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys. It was released on April 12, 1999, as the lead single from their third studio album, Millennium. It was written by Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson, while Martin and Kristian Lundin produced it. The pop ballad tells of a romantic relationship strained by emotional or physical distance.
Critically, the song was met with a positive reception, with many critics commending its catchiness and calling it the pop ballad of the year. The song was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song and Record of the Year, and has been included in lists by Blender, MTV, Rolling Stone and VH1. In 2021, "I Want It That Way" was placed at number 240 on the revised list of Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
"I Want It That Way" is the Backstreet Boys' signature song, and commercially it reached the number-one spot in more than 25 countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The single topped the Eurochart Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks. In the United States, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight non-consecutive weeks, while it topped the Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Top 40 charts.
The song has been widely covered and parodied by a range of artists, including other boy bands such as JLS and One Direction. Likewise, its music video, directed by Wayne Isham, received many parodies, most notably by Blink-182 in their music video for "All the Small Things". The original music video received four VMA nominations, winning Viewer's Choice. In 2021, "I Want It That Way" became the group's first music video to reach one billion views on YouTube.
Background and history After the success of their first two albums, Backstreet Boys (1996) and Backstreet's Back (1997), the band recorded their third studio album during 1998 and 1999. When the members of the Backstreet Boys came to Stockholm in November 1998 for a two-week recording engagement, they were eventually presented with the demo of "I Want It That Way," which at the time only consisted of the main chorus. Upon leaving Sweden on November 16 for a November 17 Oprah taping, vocals for the song had been completed in two days.
Originally, "Larger Than Life" was intended to be the lead single, following the similar formula of their first two albums, having an upbeat lead single. However, after hearing the final version of "I Want It That Way," the group wanted to move more maturely by utilizing a mid-tempo track as the lead single. Zomba Recording executives had to be convinced to approve of the song as the first single because they cited that the group could "alienate fans" with a mid-tempo song that had a vague lyrical meaning. In the end, press information in the form of snippets was authorized for release to radio stations in March 1999 to precede the song's release to radio in April.
Censorship On August 19, 2011, China's Ministry of Culture released a list of 100 songs, including the then twelve-year-old "I Want It That Way", that were required to be removed from the Internet. This purge occurred because the ministry claimed that these songs had been released without first being subjected to a mandatory screening process by ministry officials as per official government policy. Media sites were given until September 15 to delete the named songs or face unspecified penalties. The Chinese government claims that such measures are necessary for national security purposes.
Writing and inspiration
"I Want It That Way" was written by Andreas Carlsson and Max Martin, while Martin and Kristian Lundin produced the track. The acoustic-guitar arpeggio riff, which forms the song's intro and reiterates throughout the verses, was written at the very end of the recording sessions and was, according to Carlsson, inspired by "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. The song is written in the key of A major until approximately the 2-minute, 25-second point of the song, at which point the key modulates to B major. It follows a chord progression of Fm–D–A with a tempo of 99 beats per minute, and is set in the time signature of common time. The group members' vocals span from E3 to B4.
Alternate version An alternate version of the song with different lyrics was written and recorded by the band in January 1999. The version was included in some early demo presses of the album. In the alternate version, the song has the opposite message ("I love it when I hear you say, I want it that way"). The alternative lyrics were written by Martin and Carlsson in collaboration with Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The alternate version was leaked on the internet via Napster and other methods in the early 2000s and was also played infrequently on some radio stations. It was eventually included on Millennium 2.0 (a 25th anniversary reissue of Millennium) in 2025.
According to a member of the Boys' backing band, Tommy Smith, the album version is the "original version"; the alternate version was recorded because the chorus of the album version did not make sense.. BSB Band.com. Retrieved April 11, 2009. In an interview with HitQuarters, Andreas Carlsson confessed that the song was a play with words. He said, "When Max came up with the original idea for the song, it already had the line 'you are my fire, the one desire.' We tried a million different variations on the second verse, and finally, we had to go back to what was sounding so great, 'you are my fire, the one desire.' And then we changed it to 'am I your fire, your one desire,' which made no sense in combination with the chorus – but everybody loved it!""Interview With Andreas Carlsson", HitQuarters, July 27, 2009.
Lyrical interpretation Many critics over the years have questioned the song's lyrical meaning, mainly the line, "I want it that way." Ben Westhoff of LA Weekly dissected the song, writing that its lyrical content "makes zero sense." For Westhoff, "Mainly, the meaning of 'that' is at issue." While analyzing the lyrics, Westhoff perceived that "None of the sentiments in the chorus seem to go with any of the other ones. Even worse, no further explanation is given for what 'that' is." The critic assumed that in the song, "someone simply doesn't like it when his lover expresses preferences, never wanting to hear when his girlfriend says she wants things in particular ways."
Andrew Unterberger of PopDust also questioned the song's lyrics, writing that "the song doesn't make a whole lot of sense" and noting "the odd phrasing of the title and certain other key lyrics." Unterberger also stated, "The phrase 'I want it that way' is similarly devoid of inherent meaning, but it's used recurringly as a kind of conclusive phrase, always calling back to those first two lines, as the song gets gradually more despairing in nature." Unterberger also found out that "The chorus would appear to be in direct opposition to the rest of the song."
Unterberger concluded that the song "is about a relationship that's troubled by matters of emotional and/or physical distance, but that the singer feels strongly enough about to keep it going just the same…until the chorus, at which point he decides that it's not worth the trouble. No, it doesn't make sense, but it's still stirring, beautiful in its own weird way, and undeniably unforgettable. And frankly, we wouldn't want it any other way." Kevin Richardson, a member of the band, explained in an interview that, "Ultimately, the song really doesn't make much sense." Richardson also wrote that co-writer Max Martin's knowledge of English was limited at the time. "There are a lot of songs out there like that don't make sense but make you feel good when you sing along to them, and that's one of them," Richardson commented in an interview.
In 2018, the band seemed to reverse course regarding the depth of the song's lyrical content, at least in part. In response to Chrissy Teigen on Twitter, the official Backstreet Boys Twitter account attempted to clarify the song's meaning of "it," among other points of confusion: "Don't wanna hear you say that you want heartaches and mistakes... or to be 2 worlds apart. We don't want you to want "it" that way - that's the way we want it... for you to not want it that way."
Critical reception "I Want It That Way" was met with positive reception from most music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic picked the song as a highlight on Millennium, calling it an "infectious song that will be enough to satisfy anyone craving more, more, more". In a review of the compilation The Hits – Chapter One (2001), Erlewine further declared that the song "transcend[ed] their era." Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the track "ranks as the bubblegum ballad of the year. It's so likable, it doesn't matter that the group's voices are the sonic equivalent of warm milk."
In a 2024 retrospective review, Jon O'Brien of Billboard considered it the best track from Millennium, saying "...semantics aside, Millennium’s lead single remains a masterclass in boy band balladry. ‘I Want It That Way’ boasts an earworm chorus which feels like it's always been part of pop's fabric, multi-layered harmonies (the “you are” crescendo is particularly glorious) that would put any classic vocal troupe to shame and an iconic airport-based video that perfectly encapsulates the mania the group inspired".
Legacy "I Want It That Way" became one of the Backstreet Boys' signature songs and one of the most praised songs by the group. Rolling Stone listed Backstreet Boys at number one on their Readers' Poll: The Best Boy Bands of All Time, writing that "the five-piece scored several huge hits, but their 1999 smash 'I Want It That Way' is a genre-transcending classic". While listing the 10 biggest boy bands from 1987 until 2012, Billboard placed the band at number two, writing, "They tallied up six Hot 100 top 10 hits including well-loved tunes like 'I Want It That Way' and 'Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)'. "I Want It That Way" was also placed at number two on Complex list of The 30 Best Boy Band Songs.
The song was listed at the top of many lists that included the band's best songs. Bill Lamb of About.com ranked the song at the top of the list, writing that "Even Backstreet Boys detractors sometimes admit this single is a gorgeous pop ballad. The quintet's pure singing skills often set them apart from pretenders to the boy band throne." Emily Exton of VH1 chose the song, among twenty, as the best Backstreet Boys song, writing that, "It doesn't take weeks of phoning Carson Daly to know that this the 1999 monster smash is the quintessential modern pop ballad, propelling the genre and the state of the boy band into the 21st century. There's call and response, human emotion, and allusions to fire even Charli XCX can't resist." Danielle Sweeney of TheCelebrityCafe.com also listed "I Want It That Way" at number one, calling it "Quite possibly the greatest pop song of all time. If not, it's at least BSB's greatest song of all time." The song was ranked number 10 on MTV/Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs of All Time" in 2000. VH1 listed the song at number three on "The 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s", and number 61 on 100 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years in June 2003. Blender ranked at number 16 on their 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born list. In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history". In 2021, Rolling Stone listed the song at number 240 in its revised list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In November 2021, the music video reached one billion views on YouTube, joining Guns N' Roses "November Rain", Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?", The Cranberries' "Zombie", and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" as a small handful of 1990s songs to surpass that mark.