I'll put it this way.
Some of their songs are written well. Even the haters know most of the radio tunes and their lyrics by memory (although could in part be a result of having it shoved down our throats in every retail space for two decades). When the song sticks, you can't call those songs entirely poor in concept, because it is succeeding at one of its goals. Something forgettable is certainly doing worse.
I think it's entirely on the delivery and sound of said songs produced by the band. Being that "hard" sounding while delivering sappy, melodramatic lyrics doesn't sit well with a number of people because of its contradictory sound in relation to what's written (kind of like what rubs some people the wrong way about new country, but dialed up to 11). Then when NB put out its "harder" lyrical songs like animal and whatever that other one was, it sounded like they were trying too hard to be bad boys now, but you couldn't unhear the other stuff that was their signature sound, so it was more cringe rather than cool. It also didn't help that image-wise they gave the impression of the backstreet boys if they came out of an alberta trailer park and posed as rockers. I honestly think that if they even presented themselves differently, people wouldn't be as hard on them.
But perhaps even more unfortunate for them, the Backstreet Boys have become cool in a nostalgic way over time, but the hate for NB has endured pretty well.
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