BROTHERLY LOVE BACKSTREET BOY NICK MAY HAVE INSPIRED HIS YOUNGER SIBLING, BUT AARON CARTER ISN'T RIDING ANY COATTAILS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Aaron Carter doesn't remember when he decided to become a performer but knows it had a lot to do with his big brother Nick - as in Nick of the Backstreet Boys.

``When he started singing, I was kind of bored,'' Aaron says. ``I wanted to be doing what Nick was doing because I was jealous. You know how little brothers like to be like their big brothers?

``I wanted to be exactly like Nick, so Nick got me into the business.''

Aaron has a ways to go before even coming close to the popularity of the Backstreet Boys. But good looks, talent and a driving ambition are clearly helping the 12-year-old boy from Florida.

``If you look at him, he's something all kids would like to be,'' says Robin Jones, senior director of operations at Radio Disney. ``He can dance, he can sing, and he's cool. Everybody wants to be Aaron.''

No doubt. Aaron has been exciting kids in most every country in the world since the release of his 1998 debut album. It was certified gold in a dozen nations, platinum in Japan and produced a record-breaking four top-40 singles in the UK.

With the September release of the new album ``Aaron's Party (Come Get It),'' whose first single has since gone gold, he is now setting his sights on his home turf for the first time ever.

``I've always wanted to be released in the States,'' Aaron says, ``but the record company that I was with was German, so they mostly focused on Europe.''

Aaron's new album was released by Jive, the youth-oriented powerhouse behind Britney Spears, 'N Sync and his brother's famous group the Backstreet Boys. The label's gone to great lengths to promote its rising young star.

The title of the album best describes the mood. On the album are songs that meld pop and hip-hop into pre-teeny-bop ditties like ``My Internet Girl'' and ``The Clapping Song,'' as well as classics like ``I Want Candy'' and ``Iko Iko.'' And all of the songs are woven together by brief spoken interludes that feature, among others, Aaron's famous brother.

A music video collection, which like the single is also certified gold, accompanied the release of the album. He also has a biography out, penned by his mom, called ``Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop.''

Over the summer, Aaron toured the United States and Europe with Spears. He traveled to Japan and Europe to hype his new endeavors. Last month, he wrapped up the Wal-Mart tour on the East Coast.

He made TV appearances on Nickelodeon and Fox, and was a presenter at the Teen Choice Awards - and he's not even a teen, yet. Later this month, Aaron performs at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City and appears on ``Good Morning America.''

Then he's off to headline a tour on the East Coast.

Right now, Aaron's in Australia doing promotions. It's a busy schedule for a boy who admittedly loves sports but doesn't always get a chance to play. ``If we stop somewhere, I'll just grab a football and start tossing it around,'' he says.

He's on the road so much that Aaron sees his family one week a month, travels with a tutor and never gets to spend time with kids his own age. ``I don't really have any friends,'' he says. ``But I'm fine with it.''

In fact, Aaron says he's quite happy. This is exactly what he's always wanted - to be a pop star.

``We have a videotape of me when I was about 2 years old dancing and spinning in circles on the couch,'' Aaron says. ``It's very funny.

``Then the next day I drowned,'' he says, matter-of-factly. ``I was dead for, like, two minutes and then my dad gave me CPR and I lived ... I think God wanted me to be who I am, you know? I think he's got a plan for me.''

Aaron started his music career as lead singer of an alternative rock group called Dead End when he was just 7. Two years later, he called it quits with the rockers to pursue pop.

It was in 1997, during a performance at a Backstreet Boys concert in Berlin, that Aaron got his big break thanks to the German-based Edel Records. The label released his self-titled debut album, which was a success overseas and even managed to sell 100,000 copies in the United States.

His popularity has since boomed. Aaron has a really big core following thanks to the Internet. He has more than 300 fan-based Web sites including his own (aaroncarter.com).

Although he had a hit with the song ``(Have Some) Fun With the Funk'' on last year's ``Pokemon'' soundtrack, it's his new music that's getting him lots of attention from fans as old as 18. The average age of his fans - both girls and boys - ranges from 8 to 14 years old.

Radio Disney is one of the only stations in the United States currently playing the single ``Aaron's Party (Come Get It)'' - as well as ``I Want Candy.''

Jones says the reaction to Aaron has been phenomenal. Many of the 500,000 calls from kids that come in every week are for his music. His songs are consistently in the top 10 requests, and this week in the top five.

He is the prize in an upcoming contest that Radio Disney will be holding around the holidays, with a lucky listener winning a pizza party with Aaron.

``Aaron is definitely striking a chord with kids out there,'' Jones says. ``I have a 6-year-old, and Aaron is not Nick's little brother - Nick is Aaron's big brother. He's developing a whole new fan base that sees him as the forerunner and Nick as the follower.''

Album sales are so high (more than 210,000 copies in the United States in four weeks) that this week the song sits at No. 7 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales chart and at No. 55 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for air play.

That's all fine and dandy, according to Rob Durkee, a musicologist and author of ``American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century,'' but if Aaron wants longevity, he's going to have to do more.

``The next step for Aaron is getting something out there that will cross over to top 40 and then maybe a ballad,'' Durkee says. ``And then everyone will know him.''

``I think it's way too soon for Aaron to do something like that,'' says Kim Kaiman, director of marketing at Jive. ``Again, he's 12 years old. I don't think it's necessary.''

Kaiman points to groups like the Jackson 5, the Osmonds, the Partridge Family - groups that appealed strictly to the younger audience for a long time before crossing over into adult land.

Jive is in the process of taking ``Aaron's Party (Come Get It)'' to top 40 radio.

``I think some stations are quizzical and some stations are extremely positive and banking on the fact that Aaron does have this fan base,'' Kaiman says. ``And not necessarily because of his affiliation with his brother. This is really about Aaron Carter at this point.''

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