Firstly because I just love all these songs, they have taken a hold me, I can't get enough and I knew there would be other fans like me. As I started to collect all the songs I began to find out interesting things about the artists: like I had no idea that Herbie was Herbie Crichlow or when I bought Nick Carter's cd I wondered who Per Aldeheim was and it was only when I bought Its Alive's "Earthquake Visions" that I found out and I thought that it might be interesting to others too. I also wanted to put myself in a position to learn about upcoming songs and people have been wonderful in emailing me to keep me up-to-date (other people know so much more than I do so it's great!) - a big thank-you to everyone who has emailed!

Also, I believe Max Martin is one of the greatest songwriters of our time and I just wanted to put together a site with the articles and information I had collected over the years just so that they wouldn't be lost.

Probably the best part of this site is the part that no one sees but me and that is the emails that I have received from people around the world who tell me about how much they love these songs too and what they mean to them. It's always such a pleasure to hear from other music fans. Of course now with the forum it's really fun to chat with people there too!

How I became a fan:

Well I always loved the early songs from Backstreet Boys ("Everybody Backstreet's Back", "As Long as You Love Me", "I Want It That Way" and "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely" etc) and the Britney songs "Baby One More Time", "Oops..", "Stronger" etc but I had not bought either of their albums. I wrongly thought that the other songs on their albums would not be any good! So I would just tape the singles from the radio and enjoy them that way. At that stage I did not know who wrote the songs.

Then in November 2000 Backstreet Boys released Black & Blue. As part of their worldwide promotion they came to Sydney. I went along to Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, mainly out of curiosity. The Backstreet Boys absolutely blew me away! They sang "Shape of My Heart" which I loved and I was so impressed that I bought Black & Blue as soon as it was released. And I loved it!

Then I bought an old compilation CD which had BSB's "I Want It That Way", Britney's "Oops I Did It Again" and Five's "Until The Time is Through". I looked at the songwriting credits and saw Max Martin for those 3 songs. I also noticed his name on the Black & Blue cd. Then I did a bit of research on the internet and found Max Martin and the songwriters at Cheiron had written all my favourite songs.

I ran out and bought all earlier Backstreet Boys, Britney, NSync, Five, Westlife, Robyn etc and became a big fan. Since then I have tried to collect every song.

I don't know what it is about the songs, I just love them.

Often I love the songs even before I know Max Martin has co-written them. When I first heard "Since U Been Gone" on the radio, I loved it, I had no idea who wrote it, just loved it and well I wasn't surprised when I found out!

Also when I first heard the song "4Ever" by The Veronicas, I immediately loved it but thought the songwriters were totally ripping off the 'Max Martin sound' and thought 'how dare they!' Then I found out it was written by Max and Luke Gottwald and then it made sense why it sounded like a Max Martin song - because it was!

I have not once become bored with any of these songs and I am always looking forward to more!!

Rebecca