'N Sync (often stylised *NSYNC) is an American boy band that is widely regarded as one of the most successful pop acts of the late '90s and early 2000s,
selling over 56 million records worldwide.[1] Formed in Orlando, Florida in 1995, the group consists of Lance
Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Justin Timberlake. After heavily
publicized legal battles with their former manager Lou Pearlman and Sony BMG, the group's 2000 album No
Strings Attached sold 1.1 million copies in one day and 2.4 million copies in one week, giving it the highest first
week album sales in music history. Their 2001 album, Celebrity, holds the record for the second-highest first full week of sales, trumped only by the
group's previous record.[2]
In addition to a host of Grammy nominations, *NSYNC has performed at the
Academy Awards, the Super Bowl and the
Olympics, and sang or recorded duets with the likes of Michael Jackson, The Jackson Five, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan and Stevie Wonder. The group also appeared as themselves on The
Simpsons, in an episode which aired on February 25, 2001.
The group went on an extended hiatus in spring 2002, and only Timberlake and Chasez have gone on to release solo albums.
History
Formation and International Success: 1995-1997
The group was formed in 1995. The idea for the group allegedly came from Chris Kirkpatrick, who
then started it on the way to success. The band's name reportedly comes from a comment that Justin Timberlake's mother made after the boys first met and harmonized together; she was impressed by
how "in sync" their voices were. The name is also commonly reported to have come from the last letter of each member's name:
JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, JasoN (soon replaced by Lance-steN) and JC ("Lansten" was a
nickname made up for Lance to continue the last letter motif once he replaced Jason.) The group first was sent over-seas, where
Pop music was more accepted. After finding major success, the group came back to America
Debut success in the United States: 1997-1999
NSYNC's big break came after taking up an offer to do a Disney Channel Concert special. After the concert was shown in the
summer of 1998, C.D and tour sales took off. Their self-titled debut in 1998 sold over ten million copies with four number one hits: "I
Want You Back", "Tearin' Up My Heart", "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You" and "I Drive Myself Crazy". The group also recorded a Christmas
album, Home For Christmas, which was released on
November 10, 1998.
Legal Battles: 1999
In 1999, after their American breakthrough, 'N Sync fought a court battle against former manager
Lou Pearlman's management company, TransCon, citing illicit business practices on
Pearlman's part. After the lawsuit, 'N Sync found a new manager, Johnny Wright of Wright
Entertainment Group, broke their record contract, and signed to Jive Records, home of
another famous boy band, Backstreet Boys (ironically, another Pearlman creation).
No Strings Attached Era: 1999-2000
As legal battles went on, *NSYNC began to sing the song, Bye Bye Bye, at the end of 1999. It became an instant hit even months
before its official release. The group was saying bye to one label, and to further push the idea, in the video, the group is
portrayed as marionettes, being controlled, but finally set free. It's considered by many to be the groups signature dance and
song.
The highly anticipated No Strings Attached, released on March 21, 2000, sold 2.4 million copies in its first week of release—the highest
first week album sales in music history (1.1 million of which was attributed to the first day of release).
The group then began the No Strings Attached World Tour. Tickets for the first leg sold an amazing 1 million in the first day
on sale, and all venues except one stadium sold out the first day. The stage was a third bigger than their previous tour, and
featured a moving platform to allow the group to get closer to the crowd. The adventures of preparing for the tour were featured
on an MTV special "Making the Tour". The tour was than featured on a HBO special, that aired the same week the group's song "It's
Gonna Be Me" hit #1 on the charts. The group then went on the second leg of the tour in the fall and performed one last show in
2001 for the Rock in Rio concert.
Celebrity and Dirty Pop: 2001-2002
The group's third album, Celebrity, released on July 24, 2001, holds the record for the second-highest first full week of
sales[2]. All
four of the band's albums have been boosted by a number of successful single releases, including "I Want You Back" and "Tearin' Up My Heart"
from *NSYNC; "Music of My Heart" recorded with Gloria Estefan for the movie Music of the Heart; and
"Bye Bye Bye", "It's Gonna Be
Me" and "This I Promise You" from No
Strings Attached. More hits such as "Gone", "Pop" and "Girlfriend" from the album Celebrity
expanded the group's influence and fan base into the R&B community as well.
To help support the Celebrity album, the group embarked on a four month stadium tour, the Pop Odyssey Tour, starting in May,
two months before the CD's release. It was the largest tour in the history of the music business, take over 90 trucks to haul all
the pieces. The stage took three days to put together, so the group had three sets of steel stages, so crews could put that
together while the group was performing at another venue. Together, they could have two full stages set up. The stage featured a
catwalk which led to a second, satellite stage, in the middle of the stadium. The stage also featured many other trapped doors,
stair cases coming out of the video screens, harnesses to allow the guys to fly over the audience and many other features. It was
also the group's first tour to feature dancers. Over two million fans attended the concerts, and the tour grossed over 90 million
US dollars.
Marketing
The group was a marketing dream. Many different items were sold using the group's likeness, such as board games, microphones,
lip balm, dolls, books, key chains, bedding, clothing, and various other articles. The group also had a deal alongside
Britney Spears with McDonald's, which included
commercials featuring the group and Spears, along with a CD and a video that featured behind-the-scenes footage from the making
of NSYNC's music video. The vocal group also had a deal with Chili's Grill & Bar in which
the members appeared in commercials for the restaurant, while Chili's helped sponsor the group's tour.
Award shows
NSYNC was a huge hit at award shows. The most talked about performance being at the 2000 VMAs, during which the group danced behind television screens. Timberlake is quoted as
once saying "The Backstreet Boys couldn't touch us after this," referring to the 2000 performance. In addition to other VMA
performances in 1999 and 2001, the group also performed at the
Grammy's, American Music Awards,
Billboard Music Awards, Latin Grammy
Awards, the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, Radio Music Awards and various other award shows between the years of 1999 and 2003. The groups last
award show was the 2003 Grammy's. The group was always known to put on a well-received show, including innovative and creative
aspects into the performances.
'N Sync's last public appearance together, at the seventh annual Challenge For The Children in 2005.
Developments since hiatus
The group went on an extended hiatus in 2002, as two of its members released solo albums –
Justin Timberlake released Justified
on November 4, 2002 and JC
Chasez released Schizophrenic, on February 24, 2004. Timberlake
released his second album, FutureSex/LoveSounds on September 12, 2006. Chasez has a follow-up
album in the works.
Kirkpatrick closed his clothing business, FuManSkeeto, and has become involved with
several indie/punk rock bands on a business level,
including Hawaii-based National Product. He has also
recorded as a solo artist as well as with his other band, Nigels 11. He has also done voice work for the Nickelodeon show The Fairly Oddparents,
as teen heart-throb Chip Skylark. Chris' latest project is
involvement in a reality television show named "Mission: Man Band" aired on
VH1. The show features a cast of former boy band members which includes Rich Cronin of LFO, Jeff
Timmons of 98 Degrees and Bryan Abrams of Color Me
Badd. The premise of the show: to form a boyband with various members of successful pop
acts from the past. The four named their group Sureshot and are currently shopping around for a
record deal, and a possible second season of the show.
Bass became a NASA-certified cosmonaut[3] after
months of training in Russia in 2002, but has yet to realize his goal of heading into outer space
due to lack of funding from financial backers. He opened a film production company, Bacon and Eggs, which produced several
films including 2007's Lovewrecked. He also starred in his own movie,
On the Line, with fellow bandmember Joey
Fatone. In 2006, after months of media speculation, Bass confirmed that he is
gay in a front page cover story for People magazine.[4]
Following the revelation, Bass's love life has become fodder for many American blogs and
tabloids. In 2007, he took over the role of Corny Collins in the Broadway musical Hairspray. His autobiography,
Out of Sync, is set to be released on October 23,
2007.
Fatone has been filling up his résumé with acting gigs in movies, with notable work in
the family comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Cooler, an experimental musical version of Red Riding
Hood, and Homie Spumoni. On Broadway, Fatone starred in
Rent and Little Shop Of
Horrors. In September 2004, Fatone married his long-time girlfriend, Kelly Baldwin, at a chateau on Long Island. The couple has a daughter together named Briahna. He was the 2007 runner-up on
Dancing with the Stars[5], and is currently hosting NBC's The Singing
Bee.
Plans for future albums
Plans for the group to work on their fifth album have been discussed, but details remain uncertain. Rumors circulating that
Timberlake has quit the group have added to the uncertainty over the group's
future.[citation needed] Also, 2006 was the first year in which the group did not reunite for its annual charity event, Challenge for the
Children. The group did not appear at the 2007 CFTC charity event, either.
In 2006, Timberlake was interviewed on an episode of MTV's All
Eyes On series and inadvertently admitted that he was responsible for 'N Sync's extended break. He also mentioned that even
if the band were to re-unite now, he was unsure of what they would be able to accomplish, as the music they were once famous for
has since decreased in popularity: Hip hop music, especially snap music, R&B, and alternative rock have seemed to replace bubblegum pop music (or "dirty pop," as the group called it) as
the genre of choice for the pre-teen to young adult demographic that formed the vast
majority of NSYNC's fanbase.
Although there are currently no plans set for a reunion in the near future, members of the group have continued to work
together on occasion. On August 31, 2006, Justin Timberlake reunited with former bandmate JC Chasez on his
SexyBack tour at the Roseland Ballroom. JC Chasez
performed "Until Yesterday", the new single off his upcoming album due out in early 2007.[6]
According to Jive Records, 'N Sync signed a contract guaranteeing a minimum of five albums. So far they have delivered only
two (No Strings Attached and Celebrity), and a Greatest Hits album (though with no input from the group itself).
This means there should be at least two more albums on the way, though there is no specific deadline on when they must be
delivered. Bass once stated that it may be a year from now, it may be five years from now, but the group will definitely do
another album. "We will never be done", he claimed.[7]
Kirkpatrick did an interview on Friday, September 7, 2007,
with WIHT (HOT 99.5), when asked "Any chance that 'N Sync will ever get back together?"
Kirkpatrick responded "I'm sure..I mean we're all friends. We didn't officially
ever "break-up", you know, and there will always be room for it. As much as a lot of people are gonna hate that, it'll be great!
To the people that hate it, we'll be like, 'Hahaha! There ya go! Back again! We told you it was coming back!'" [8]
Fatone told Extra on Thursday, September 13,
2007, "Everyone is still doing their own thing…it’s a matter of getting the five of us together.
You never know. Once everyone has a break from all the stuff they are doing, it’s always a possibility, maybe two or three years
down the road." [9]
Discography
-
Albums
- *NSYNC, German release - May 26,
1997.
- *NSYNC - March 24, 1998
- Home For Christmas - November 10, 1998
- The Winter Album - November 17,
1998 (released only in Europe; equivalent of half of the Home For Christmas album released
in U.S. and the songs that were released first in their U.S. debut like "I Drive Myself Crazy", etc.)
- No Strings Attached - March 21,
2000
- Celebrity - July 24, 2001
- Greatest Hits - October 25,
2005
See also
References
- ^ <http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-mpearlman2807jan28,0,7354100.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange">
- ^ a b The Lycos Daily Report. Lycos (September 28
2007). Retrieved on 2006-07-26.
- ^ Hairspray Cast Bios - Lance Bass. Hairspray the Musical. Retrieved on August 14, 2007.
- ^ Lance Bass: I'm Gay.
People (magazine) (July 26, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-07-26.
- ^ http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C05%5C25%5Cstory_25-5-2007_pg9_2
- ^ (see Love sexy ; A sexy single and Prince-influenced album send ex-'N
Sync hottie Justin Timberlake back to No. 1. Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minn.: September
17, 2006. pg. 6)
- ^ (see 'N Sync fight the CD pirates, BBC News, Wednesday, 3 October, 2001,
14:38 GMT 15:38 UK).
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
6. "The Group/History". http://www.nsync.com/content/group/history.aspx
External links
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