‘N Sync is an American boy band that entered the music scene in 1995. The band was forged by Lou Pearlman and Trans Continental Records in Orlando, Florida and consisted of five members: Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass. This was the second boy band stared by Lou Pearlman, the first being the Backstreet Boys.
The group was first popular in Europe with their release of “I Want You Back”, followed by “Tearin’ Up My Heart” and “Here We Go”. These songs hit the top 10 charts throughout Europe. The group was discovered by Vincent DeGiorgio, an A&R rep for RCA records, after performing in Budapest and was eventually signed to RCA in 1998. It was this big break that brought ‘N Sync into the American music scene.
The group’s first American single, “I want you back”, was released on January 20, 1998 and eventually reached Number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. ‘N Sync released another album in 1998, Home For Christmas, that reached Number 7 on the Billboard top 10 with 2 million copies sold. This was an incredible feat for a group to have two albums on the Billboard Top 10 at the same time.
In 1998, ‘N Sync and Lou Pearlman began a very public legal battle and the group sued both Pearlman and his record company, Trans Continental, for taking more that fifty percent of the group’s earnings, rather than receiving the promised one sixth of the profits. ‘N Sync left the record company, a out-of-court settlement was made, and the group soon signed with Jive Records.
The hit single, “Bye Bye Bye”, was released in January 2000. The single quickly became part of the top 5 songs in the Hot 100 list and “Bye Bye Bye” is widely considered as the group’s signature song. No Strings Attached was the accompanying album that was released on March 21, 2000 and sold a record of 2.42 million records in its first week and 9.9 million copies by the end of the year. This makes No Strings Attached the best selling album of 2000 and the top selling album of the decade.
The second single, “Its Gonna Be Me”, took the number one spot in the charts for the first time and the third and final single, “This I promise You”, reached the Top-5 on the Billboard Top 100. The group released their third album, Celebrity, on July 24, 2001 and followed up with a four month tour titled the PopOdyssey Tour. It was after this tour, in April 2002, that the group began to break apart for reasons still unknown. The group members, specifically Lance Bass in his 2007 autobiography, Out of Sync, alludes to Justin Timberlake’s desire for a solo career as one of the main reasons for the group’s break-up.
Fun Facts About ‘N Sync
The name of the group, ‘N Sync, came from Justin Timberlake’s mother who commented on how ‘in sync’ the group sounded when they sang together. The name is also a play on all of the band members’ names: JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, JasoN, and JC.
Both Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez were Mousketeers on the Mickey Mouse Show.
The group was so popular they sold over 50 million albums during their career (1995-2002).
‘N Sync performed at the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic Games