I definitely think that Backstreet Boys worked harder than One Direction have done. Both bands were manufactured but Backstreet Boys didn't have a hugely famous reality tv show to work off the back off. I don't think it's One Directions fault and I absolutely don't deny the guys their success, but it's a world today where it's a lot easier to be famous. You can be famous for almost anything these days and a lot of people are famous for no reason, reality TV tends to do that to you. I mean One Direction basically began their career on the X-Factor and already had a huge fanbase, they had to in order to have come third, but Backstreet Boys didn't have this. Backstreet Boys worked from a time where no one knew their name, they were put together from an ad in a newspaper and, like I said, no one in America paid any attention to them for two or three years of their early career. One Direction haven't had this struggle, they went straight in with huge success and pretty much on the release of their first single/album they were popular all over the world.
Now I know some people will argue that X-Factor is paying your dues and working hard week after week and yeah, it's difficult, but Backstreet Boys were performing every week to tiny crowds just to get some sort of recognition, they didn't have millions of people watching them every week to catapult their career at an alarming rate.
Music is subjective, nothing is better than anything else. But, for me anyway, One Direction always seem a bit detached from their music. It's not like they really have much input on it (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here) whereas Backstreet Boys argued contracts, co-wrote songs and came up with ideas for music videos from a very early stage.
I'll tell you something that has really changed my opinion of One Direction over the years (I used to love them), Twitter. The way I've seen One Direction (and The Wanted to be honest) behave on Twitter is absolutely disgusting. A lot of young celebs use Twitter all the time but the way they come across as if they have a right to be famous and they have a right to say what they want to say. One Direction should be role models because their fanbase is so young, but instead they are just throwing profanities at other bands (not saying The Wanted aren't to blame too) at each other on a public forum where everyone can see it.
This is, of course, just how I see One Direction and a lot of it isn't their fault, a lot of it is the media changing around them and them all being quite young. Backstreet Boys were all different ages and there is nine years between Kevin and Nick which I think helped everyone in that band grow up a bit quicker and there was a different kind of bond, they weren't friends but they were brothers. (Yeah cheesy I know).
