A Screaming Sensation -- Bubble-Gum Heartthrobs The Backstreet Boys Create A Tidal Wave Of Teen Dreams With Barely A Media Ripple

--------------------- New Boys on the block ---------------------

The image-conscious Backstreet Boys would rather be compared to their idols, Boyz II Men, than the chirpy New Kids on the Block. But they do have something in common with the latter: The Boys' manager, Johnny Wright, was road manager for the New Kids for four years.

--------------- CONCERT PREVIEW ---------------

Backstreet Boys 8 p.m. tomorrow, KeyArena, Seattle Center; $27.50, 206-628-0888.

NEW YORK - Flash back to Aug. 12, 1997 - D-Day for the release of the Backstreet Boys' self-titled debut LP. But in reality, it's the final phase of their worldwide plan to drive every teenage girl on the planet mad with puppy love.

The place: the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. And it's packed with young, screaming, pigtailed girls.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" gasps 12-year-old Kim Caroli of Bayonne, N.J. "I'm so excited, I'm going to die!"

Maybe we all are - but not for the reason she thinks. A massive crush of yelping kids - and me! - press toward the store's fourth-floor Plexiglas barrier, threatening to burst through and plunge everybody 100 feet down. Luckily, Virgin and the band's bodyguards thought to employ more security people than normally shield the president - and a lemming-like descent into mass death is averted.

In the year since this key moment in pop, the Backstreet Boys' brand of bubble-gum R&B, as played on their debut LP, has outsold the Spice Girls' second album by some 700,000 copies - but without equivalent media hysteria. "The Backstreet Boys" has become one of the biggest-selling albums of the year, with three Top Five hits: "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)," "As Long As You Love Me" and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)."

Does the mainstream press take notice? Hardly. But the Backstreet kids are too polite, or too well coached, to complain. In fact, they say they prefer their relatively low-key road to success.

"I think it's kinda cool, our way," says 18-year-old Nick Carter, the blondest, youngest, girliest - and therefore, most popular - member of the fivesome. "This is like an underground thing, sneaking up on you. When the Spice Girls came over, it was like, boom! Big single, TV, everything."

"We're more mysterious," adds Alexander James "A.J." McLean, 21, the group's designated wild man, sex machine and quasi-home Boy. "We're not trying to be one of these super-merchandised groups. We may have the occasional key chain on the market, but not dolls and pillows."

In fact, the group does have pillows, up for sale right on the back cover of their LP - "100% cotton, poly-filled, approximately 13" square, $12.98" - along with 10 kinds of T-shirts, hats, bandannas, key chains and posters.

The group started in 1993 when Howie Dorough, 24 (alias Howie D. or Sweet D), met Nick and A.J. while they were all trying out for a local Florida kids-TV show. Kevin Richardson, 26, and his well-chiseled cousin, 22-year-old Brian "B-Rok" Litrell, joined later.

While the group did manage to land a record deal with Jive, the label wisely decided to seed the group in Europe first. Soon, the band had become a hit in Germany, Holland and England, where their singles took off in '96 and '97.

Now, thanks to the spending power of 12-year-old girls, the Boys are becoming just as popular here as the Spice Girls or Hanson - but with more sex appeal. In their video for "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)," the group appeared with alluringly unbuttoned shirts. "I was a little leery of that," Kevin confesses. "In Europe, that was our fourth single. In America, it was our first, so that's the first impression people got of us. We didn't want to be pigeonholed as just beefcake."

The group got a titanic reaction from the song, enough to change their lives forever - or at least for the next few years. Fans started turning up everywhere. "Sometimes it's a little scary," A.J. admits.

It's not just the fans who give them trouble. Nick won't elaborate, but he hints at a frustrating encounter with arch-competitor Hanson.

"One time we did a show with them," Nick begins. "I don't know whether they were busy or whatever but . . . well, I was brought up to be nice to everyone."

The Boys always present themselves as polite and accessible. They're always careful to tell the fan mags that what they really look for in a girl is a kind heart and a good personality. "I wouldn't say no to (dating) a fan," Kevin says. "You never know who you're going to meet."

It's enough to make you scream.