Tell Me Why: a thematic analysis of Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way”

In addition to being a karaoke classic, The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” is a veritable smorgasbord of allusive genius. The song abounds in philosophical and literary references, drawing from the deep well of human culture to tell a timeless story about the journey of love.

Closer to divinity

The song opens with a solo guitar playing in a minor key. The first verse, sung by Brian Littrell, establishes the song’s thesis.

You are my fire
The one desire
Believe when I say
I want it that way

The opening of this enigmatic quatrain recalls the Greek myth of Prometheus. According to this tale, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and brought it to humanity. In doing so, he helped human beings to grow one step closer to being gods themselves. Similarly, Littrell is suggesting that his Promethean sweetheart has brought him nearer to divinity.

As the verse continues, Littrell urges: “Believe when I say”. But whom is he urging? One interpretation is that he is urging his listener to take his words at face value. However, Littrell is in fact speaking to himself in an act of self-persuasion. He wants to believe that he wants it “that way”: this verse is being sung as much to himself as to any external audience.

Of course, this alludes to the To Be or Not To Be soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In both cases we have a protagonist, driven mad by conflicting emotions, attempting to make sense of opposing desires. As Hamlet weighed up the respective merits of being or not being, Littrell agonises over whether he wants it “that way” or, perhaps, this way.

The trap of language

The second verse introduces Nick Carter along with a rock beat as the song steps up a notch. This increase in musical intensity runs parallel to an increase in the emotional intensity of the lyrics.

But we are two worlds apart
Can’t reach to your heart
When you say
That I want it that way

Again, the Backstreet Boys’ cannot hide their ongoing dialogue with Shakespeare’s canon. In this case, the archetypal tale of Romeo and Juliet is referenced with “two worlds apart”. However, while Romeo and Juliet were “star-crossed lovers”, separated only by an inter-family feud, the lovers in I Want It That Way are so distant that Carter cannot reach even “to your heart”. While Romeo could imagine a shared future for Juliet and himself, Carter is reckoning with a future spent alone.

The second verse also deepens the ambiguity of the phrase “I want it that way”. It was already unclear what precisely “it” referred to or what “that way” was; in the second verse this verbal prestidigitation is compounded. Does “I” refer to the song’s singer, or their romantic counterpart? Our uncertainty as a listener mirrors the uncertainty of the anguished protagonist.

As a further note, this opacity has occasionally been explained as the result of songwriters, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson, who spoke English as a second language. But this dismissal is mere sophistry.

It is in fact likely that the Northern European songsmiths were nodding to Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein’s later work in particular extols the view that words lack intrinsic meaning, with only context serving to make a word meaningful. This idea is at the heart of I Want It That Way: the ambiguous lyrics highlight Wittgenstein’s point about the difficulty of interpreting a word without supportive context.

A taste of confusion and pain

We then reach the chorus with its timeless antiphony. Carter continues to sing, answered at each point by the rest of the Backstreet Boys.

Tell me why (Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache)
Tell me why (Ain’t nothin’ but a mistake)
Tell me why (I never want to hear you say)
I want it that way

Clearly enjoying themselves, Martin and Carlsson are almost showing off here as they nod to Shakespeare once more. Just as Macbeth’s Macduff pleads with the heavens to offer him an explanation for the death of his children (“Did heaven look on,| And would not take their part?”), Carter is a Macduffian figure, pleading for help to make sense of his loss. Embedding this theme musically, the first two “why”s rise a major second as they are sung. The final “why” does not, suggesting that the questioner has given up on petitioning the heavens.

Carter receives no response to his pleas — only equivocation. The other Backstreet Boys become the Chorus of classical Greek theatre, explaining the drama for the benefit of the audience. In doing so, they establish a dramatic irony: we can see what is coming, but the protagonist remains unaware.

However, this irony is cunningly counterpointed by the inherent ambivalence of the double negative (“Ain’t nothin’ but a mistake”). Is it a mistake? Or is it not a mistake? The Chorus plays with both Carter and with us, breaking the fourth wall and giving us a taste of the confusion and pain that Carter himself is experiencing.

Interruption and fracture

Next we reach verse three, performed by AJ McLean and Littrell.

Am I, your fire?
Your one, desire
Yes I know, it’s too late
But I want it that way

This verse shifts the tenor of the performance. Verses one and two were a declaration of love and a recognition of its loss. Yet in verse three, McLean addresses questions to his inamorata, indicating a Quixotic hope that the possibility of love remains.

However, McLean then answers his own questions. He concedes awareness of how things have changed and reflects on how this contrasts (“but”) with his lingering desire for the relationship to continue. McLean has moved from hope for a romantic rebirth to resignation to a romance manqué. Elegantly, this resignation is also realised musically. The final line, “I want it that way”, has been sung legato in previous verses. Now, McLean sings it staccato, suggesting interruption and fracture.

Bridge and the 20th century novel

Following the second chorus, we come to the bridge, led by Kevin Richardson with harmonies from McLean.

Now I can see that we’ve fallen apart
From the way that it used to be, yeah
No matter the distance I want you to know
That deep down inside of me

The tale of a spurned lover for whom a flame still burns is as old as time, and the Backstreet Boys are aware that they stand on the shoulders of giants as they explore this theme. Their depiction of lovers who have “fallen apart” pays homage to commedia dell’arte, in which Pierrot’s lover, Columbine, left him for Harlequin. Playfully, the image of “fallen apart” evokes marionettes who, abandoned by their puppeteers, fall away from each other.

But Martin and Carlsson know they also owe a debt to artists of the twentieth century. Hearing the phrase “no matter the distance”, one is reminded of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, on his West End lawn, pining for his lost love. Gatsby “lived for the green light”, haunted by memories of his love even as life went on around him. Similarly, Richardson nourishes a glowing ember, the faint remain of a love that once blazed like an inferno.

A return home

The topic is then taken up by Howie (Howard Dorough), returning to the construction of the first verse.

You are my fire
The one desire
You are (you are, you are, you are)

This is an example of the “hero’s journey”, a common structure in film and literature but a rarer one in pop ballads. In verse one, our hero has set out (“You are my fire, the one desire”). Through the other verses and chorus, the hero has grown and changed (“It’s too late”). Now, with Howie, we return to the instrumental sparseness of our starting point.

But the hero is no longer the same person. Howie’s lyricism suggests a newfound peace with this unreciprocated love. No longer is the singer dwelling on the challenges (“can’t reach to your heart”) or pleading for affection (“Am I your fire?”) — they have now realised that simply to love at all is the most precious thing.

With this homecoming, the Backstreet Boys are tipping their hat to the oldest known example of oral culture, Homer’s The Odyssey. Just as Odysseus returned home a changed man after wandering the sea, our love-lorn protagonist has ended their song where they began — and they have been changed forever.

This inner growth is on display as the song closes with a reiteration of the chorus. The lyrics are no longer equivocal or foreboding, and the song itself changes key upwards and embeds a major-key tonality. The words are now sung as a joy in themselves, almost as if the performer is verbally reliving their memories and cherishing each and every one. In 1807, Wordsworth wrote “[that inward eye] is the bliss of solitude”; here the Backstreet Boys, at peace with solitude, cast their gaze inward and treasure the memories of this now-defunct love.

It is no mean feat to write a work so rich in meaning and layered with complexity. With this song, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson have a magnum opus to rank alongside T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland or James Joyce’ Ulysses. But they’ve gone one better. I Want It That Way is not only an irresistible reflection on the growth that occurs through unrequited love and a tribute to millennia of human culture, it is also a downright banger and a staple of any karaoke night.