Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7th, 1987, and is the brother of Nick Carter, he of the Backstreet Boys (see the recent Music Box entry). When 'the Boys' were at the peak of their boyband powers in the late nineties, somebody thought it would be good to launch Aaron (then just nine) onto an unsuspecting market. Aaron had already been in a local band "Dead End", since he was seven, and had a cover of the Jets "Crush on You" stashed away.

In 1997, Aaron's stints supporting the Backstreet Boys lead to a record deal. In December, he released debut album "Aaron Carter on Lou Pearlman's Trans Continental label, and went Gold in Norway. The next year he appeared on "Let The Music Heal Your Soul", a fund-raising effort credited to "Bravo All-Stars" and also featuring such musical heavyweights as The Moffatts and Gil.

Aaron's debut - one of the worst album covers of all time?

Aaron whiled away the next few years pulling hits off his album and appearing on various film soundtracks, including "Pokemon: The Movie", "Rugrats in Paris", "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" and "The Princess Diaries". Meanwhile his mother, Jane Elizabeth Spaulding Carter, sued Pearlman for unpaid royalties.

The 'growing up' Years

All this meant a re-invention in 2000 for the "Aaron's Party (Come and Get It)" album. Now 13, Aaron was pitched at a teenage world of roller-skates, sleepovers and homework dodging. Released on Jive, the record went triple-platinum in America, selling a million and a half copies. "Baby Carter" also now rapped, covering the huge drag factor that he couldn't actually sing. The next year, a third album "Oh Aaron" featured a suspiciously large vocal contribution from brother Nick, and was followed up by a concert DVD and merchandise galore. In April 2001, Aaron made his Broadway debut playing JoJo The Who in "Seussical the Musical". Lost!

Appealing to a different kind of audience?

In 2002, Aaron released "Another Earthquake", and promoted it during the "Rock, Rap and Retro" Tour. A "Most Requested Hits" collection followed, featuring all the singles post-Lou Pearlman and "One Better", a new track. Sniff the first co-writing credit for Aaron on that - he added a word, and took a third.

In December 2003, Aaron filed for legal emancipation from Jane Carter, claiming she stole up to $6,400,000 from him. The US press also blew the story of Aaron's involvement in drugs, shattering his "clean" image with a series of snaps showing him "puffing" with his posse.

Is that "waccy baccy" young man?

By around 2004, Aaron's career had run out of steam and he was earning negative press. He decided to date both Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan at the same time, leading to much public bitch-fighting. He also got thrown out of Hulk Hogan's house while chasing his daughter, Brooke.

In March 2005, now emancipated from Jane Carter, he released a fab single, "Saturday Night", with non-other than Lou Pearlman as executive producer, however he ran over a mattress on his way to make the video and was almost seriously injured. There was also a dodgy turn in his "Popstar" film, in which a make-up coated Aaron just about got away with playing a heart throb teenage pop star.

The "Popstar" movie. Good acting not pictured. Or, indeed, seen on screen.

In March 2006, Pearlman sued Carter for not producing an album (quite honesty, we see where he was coming from). However, Carter argued that his contract, signed in 2004, was null and void because he hadn't yet turned 18 at that point. Canny.

In October 2006, Nick Carter rounded up his siblings Aaron, Leslie, Angel and Bobbie Jean ("BJ") Carter for a reality show - all were evidently trying to relaunch careers of some description. Cue eight long episodes of topless Aaron, various Carter siblings screaming at each other, topless Aaron, Aaron noodling around in the home studio, topless Aaron and unattractive women throwing dog poo at each other.

Small corners of the internet quivered when he appeared to confess to "coming out" to Nick during a classic "House of Carters" row, but we fear simply too much pussy has been had for that to be true.

"House of Carters" - dog poo not pictured

However, more exciting were the clips of new material "aired" in the documentary, and new material is planned for Spring 2007 on Nick 'n' Aaron's own label, Carter Bros.

In September 2006, he announced his engagement on-stage to Playboy model Kari Ann Piniche. "Even though we only met seven days ago, I can feel a real connection," he claimed. But only eight weeks later the engagement was off, and Aaron was dating singer Kaci Brown (lost!).

Look at this cheap old thing: it's a ten track collection containing hits such as "I Would", "Iko Iko" and "Jump Jump". Even I've not heard of some of those.

Great cover shot there - it's like he's actually dead in there.

Aaron now, in "House of Carters". Sometimes, he put a top on. But not often.