For the fans, by the fans
Justin will be featured on an episode of “My Life on MTV” on MTV airing July 3rd. His episode will be shared with Jennifer Lopez.
*NSYNC will be featured on the same show, airing July 17th. They will share an episode with Britney.
“My Life on MTV” will feature clips of performances and appearances of artists on MTV. Check local listings for times.
Hi *NSYNC fans! We wanted to share some cool new *NSYNC related content with all of you.
Soundfly, an online music education hub that creates unique and highly-effective online music courses in a variety of subjects has created one about our favorite subject — boybands. It is called The Music of Boybands. It explores this pseudo-genre of music from analytical and practical angles and empowers aspiring songwriters, producers, and ultimate fans alike, with some of the foundational tools for creating songs in this hodge podge of pop-oriented styles. The course includes heavy breakdowns of *NSYNC hits as well as songs by other artists throughout the era of boy bands, including Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, BTS, the Jonas Brothers, and more. The course is also a celebration of the hybrid experience of taking music seriously and embracing the overwhelming fun in it.
I will be taking this course next week and give you all my full review, but in the mean time I wanted to share the course trailer and some exclusive content!
Check it out and let me know your thoughts! I look forward to hearing if you take part in this awesome course.
As they were the aforementioned biggest band in the country, I jumped at the chance to work with them, and it was one of the most pleasurable experiences I’ve ever had in my career. All five of the guys were gracious, focused, and kind.
But one thing that was immediately obvious was the incredible talent in Justin. It was clear even then that he was going to be a megastar the likes of which we rarely see. He had a fire in his belly that would not be tamed. He was constantly working on song ideas, arrangement ideas, vocal parts. It was really inspiring to even me, who’d been in the business fifteen years at that point and worked with all levels of talented and creative people. Everyone around him knew he was something special.
Making records is a blast for me, but for some it can be tedious work. There would be chunks of time while I was recording with one of the guys in the group and the other four guys would have that time to kill. Video games were already huge, and the lounge in the studio outside the control room had been outfitted with a big-screen TV and a video game console, where the guys would play against each other during their recording breaks. Not Justin, though. Instead of playing, any time he wasn’t needed to record something, he would ask me, “How long ’til you need me again?”
Have you checked out Lance, Joey and Chris in “The Ad Where Nothing Happens” with Flo from Progressive?
Twenty years ago this month, *NSYNC released their history-making second album No Strings Attached. On its cover Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Lance Bass appeared as five puppets on strings, but at the time, the group was at the peak of its cultural control. They shifted 2.4 million copies of the album in its first week of sales alone (a record only since topped by Adele, 15 years later) and surpassed any other album released in the year 2000. It heralded their split from their disgraced former manager Lou Pearlman, and with its forward-thinking mix of funk, R&B, and electronic-pop, secured their standing as one of the biggest boybands to ever exist. Frontloaded with their signature hit “Bye Bye Bye” and the meme-inspiring “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the fivesome created memorable videos, choreography, and outfits to match the bombast of the songs. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick reminisced with Vulture about their halcyon days making dirty pop, picking the best and worst and most and least of *NSYNC.
Lance Bass: My favorite has always been “It Makes Me Ill.” Kandi Burruss wrote it and I freaking love her. [Ed. note: Ariana Grande last year interpolated the song on “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored”; Bass, Kirkpatrick, Chasez, and Fatone joined her onstage at Coachella 2019]. I knew the Ariana sample was happening because we have to approve them. We just had no idea what it was gonna sound like. It was so sexy. The fact she used a sample from my favorite song makes me love her even more!
Chris Kirkpatrick: “It’s Gonna Be Me.” Once we got to perform the song and rehearse choreography it was so much fun to do. The music video was all crazy puppetry. Nine hours of makeup. It was a 24-hour shoot and we didn’t sleep. It’s funny that “it’s gonna be May” caught on so much because when Justin was doing it, the producer was like, ‘Yeah I need you to say it more like mayyyy, like a meaner “me.”
Lance: Ah there’s so many contenders! When you first start out as a new band, especially when you’re teenagers, you don’t know what your sound is yet. We were an acapella group so the only sound we knew we loved was Boyz II Men or Az Yet. We were just playing around with different styles and songs we thought would be cool. We played around with a little techno in the late ’90s and it was never good. There was a song called “I Need Love” [“I need love, you need love, we all need love”]. We performed it on our first tour and I never felt right singing it. I don’t even think it made it to the first American album.
Chris: There’s a song called “Riddle” that’s absolutely horrible. It was on the European album — this big European dance song. We did it for the record label, not for us. It didn’t sit well with us. It had no harmonies. Nah.
Best Choreography
Lance: One of my favorites to perform was “Bye Bye Bye.” Any time a song has an iconic dance move in it like that it’s a beast. To this day, several times a day I hear someone walk by me and go “Bye Bye Bye” and do the hand motion! When I joined the group I was not a dancer. The other guys were incredible dancers. I was from a show-tune world and we were all about spirit fingers. So it was a lot of work for me. You had to adapt quickly; there was no other option.
Chris: My favorite routines were for awards shows. For the 2000 MTV Awards we had TV screens for “Bye Bye Bye.” That was really fun. There were a couple of other songs we did during it like “Just Got Paid” with this whole cartoon-y theme. I loved the award show dance routines because when we’d done “Bye Bye Bye,” “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and “Girlfriend” so many times [with the same choreography] it wasn’t fun with muscle memory.
Lance: There were a lot of dances that tested my patience and made me frustrated. One of my favorite choreographers was Marty [Kudelka]. He did “Girlfriend” and the last tour, and he had this different style that we hadn’t been doing. It was way more groovy and so much more smooth. It was the hardest for me to pick up even though it seemed like the simplest. And we were supposed to be perfectly in sync.
Chris: We had a routine where we had these canes, and we had a little ring connected to a fishing line and we had to throw the canes a couple times and they’d come back and we’d catch them. We had another one where we worked with staffs for the opening of one of our tours. We came out like Blue Man Group — these neon-looking people with these neon staffs. And there was a part where we all tossed the staffs to each other. If someone dropped the staff or you didn’t get a good throw to somebody else or you just lost your staff it would screw up the whole thing.
Lance: I love how JC moves. He’s such an incredible dancer and he can pick it up in two seconds. Joey’s great at picking up things. That’s how Joey got in *NSYNC!”
Chris: JC started working on back handsprings. Justin was a great dancer. Joey’s got moves that are really good, and Lance did cool stuff. It would be a toss-up between Justin and JC.
Lance: It’s hard to pick one that was the most fun. Most of them were very boring. Some I definitely wanna forget! I loved doing the “It’s Gonna Be Me” shoot but we spent way too many hours in makeup. It was a big day for me because it was the first day someone asked me if I was gay. Chris Kirkpatrick sat me down and said, “Hey dude are you gay?” No one had ever asked me that. I was super in the closet and way too young to even know or care what was happening. But I remember getting so freaked out on that set because he caught me so off guard. I’m sure at that point people were wondering — so why don’t you have a girlfriend? It was very blunt. It scared me. I said, “No, what are you talking about?” I wasn’t even telling myself. I definitely wasn’t gonna tell Chris.
Lance: The video for “Pop” was the hardest by far. We had not slept in days, we were rehearsing for a tour starting in three days, Joey was injured, we were filming this thing that was supposed to be 24 hours but now it’s 30 hours, 48… We were also shooting for MTV’s Making the Video so we had to be on the whole time. It got to us. We all voiced our concerns at that point about being overworked. We had just gone through that crazy Lou Pearlman situation [ Ed note: In 1999, the group sued Pearlman for unpaid royalities] and we were looking at everything in a different light. We weren’t kids saying “yes, we’ll do everything you ask.” We wanted to start looking out for ourselves and our health. I haven’t seen the “Pop” video in years. The one I see the most is “Bye Bye By”e because any bar you go into that’s playing. If a DJ sees me in a bar then they immediately play an *NSYNC song.
Chris: I had a tantrum at the “Pop” shoot. I was just really tired and over it, and they were like, “Alright Justin here’s a part where you’re gonna dance with these girls over here, Joey you’re gonna sit with all these girls over here, and JC you’re gonna be in the club with these girls over here, and Lance you’re gonna be in this club with these girls over here, and Chris get back up and stand at the turntable.” That sucked. I wanted to dance with girls.
Chris: For tour we were really hands on with everything. We did this song “The Game Is Over” and we had these cool costumes that they’d put glowsticks in, and we were all on treadmills, and I had motorcycle gloves on. I thought it was really cool. Looking back I go, what the heck were we wearing? The amount of FUBU jerseys that we wore? No wonder we were friends with those guys. Every color imaginable.
Lance: We had horrible fashion, especially at the beginning because we couldn’t afford anything. One of our first outfits were these oversized beekeeper outfits that were all white. We went go-kart riding and they gave us free go-kart helmets. So we would open our show like Storm Troopers and do this crazy Star Wars thing made up of clothes we got from the go-kart place. When we opened up for Janet Jackson on the Velvet Rope tour those outfits were pretty special. Some of them are hanging up in Hard Rock — these crushed velvet Asian inspired Kimono outfits. Each of us had our own color. I was green. We all had our own favorite colors. JC was always blue. Joey was always red. Justin always had to be baby blue.
Lance: We stood out with our hair. The best era for all of us was probably really No Strings Attached. I liked Joey with the bright red, Chris had short hair, JC was back short, and Justin had the famous curls.
Lance: When I joined the group I came straight from Mississippi. I did not know a thing about getting a haircut. I had the typical bowl cut with long shaggy hair, kinda gross. So they gave me this combover and also dyed my hair. They tried getting it blond but it was just orange. So the first two months I just had this greasy orange combover hair. Later I got the frosted tips. You know once I discovered frosted tips I never went back!
Chris: Are you really asking me about hair moments right now? Honestly the best and worst moments in *NSYNC hair were mine; I got both ends covered. I started out with the braids and it became a thing and then I got over it. I thought it was different. Something that nobody else was doing. I did it. It made me stand out. But sometimes … that’s not always a good thing.
Lance: Being with all the guys after the night we won all those 2000 VMAs for “Pop.” Michael Jackson performed with us, we won every award we were up for, and it was such a real moment. Every artist dreams of being that top artist. To do that was so overwhelming, knowing how hard it took us to get there. It was a beautiful moment.
Chris: The success. Not really an award as much as taking something that the five of us believed in and working really hard for it. No matter how tired we got we were all there to pick each other up. I put this band together. We were all friends. We’re brothers. We fight like brothers and we love each other like brothers. It’s crazy after all this time that we’re still all so close. We still have grudges against each other. There’s a few things that some of us get angry at each other for, but that’s what brothers do.
Following our Billboard staff-picked list of the 100 greatest songs of 2000, we’re writing this week about some of the stories and trends that defined the year for us. Here, we flash back to late March of that year, when one of the biggest groups in pop music released their much-anticipated sophomore album — and set a record-breaking mark for runaway success that stood for 15 years to come.
Twenty years ago, pop heartthrobs *NSYNC set an industry standard with their sophomore album, No Strings Attached. The LP sold a whopping 2.4 million copies in its first week in March 2000, doubling the record their boy band contemporaries the Backstreet Boys had set the year before with their own blockbuster sophomore effort, Millennium.
For *NSYNC, the timing of their second full-length release couldn’t have seemed more perfect: Big pop acts were beginning to take over the music industry, with the prior few years seeing the rise of boy bands, as well as teenage darlings Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. CD sales were at an all-time high, as artists of all genres (Dixie Chicks, Kid Rock, Santana) were reaching diamond status around the turn of the century; meanwhile, MTV’s Total Request Live was at its peak, giving those young stars a platform to connect with fans (and promote the hell out of whatever project was coming next).
But while the scene was set for *NSYNC, the new millennium marked a period of uncertainty for the group, as they were coming off of a highly publicized legal battle with their initial label, Trans Continental/RCA Records, and now-disgraced mogul Lou Pearlman. The fivesome — Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake — sued Pearlman for defrauding, nearly losing their group name (and $150 million) before a judge ruled in their favor in November 1999. The decision allowed *NSYNC to sign with Jive Records, an independent label that was home to Spears and, ironically, the Backstreet Boys.
The year 2000 was overwhelmingly riddled with classic pop albums, and the one that many pop purists find themselves revisiting is *NSYNC‘s No Strings Attached.
In celebration of the album’s 20th anniversary, the iconic boy band has once again partnered with Epic Rights for a merch collection that will bring longtime fans right back to the turn of the millennium.
The collection (which follows the band’s Dirty Pop-Up Shop in Los Angeles in 2018) is filled with various clothing and household items that feature designs from the No Strings Attached album, as well as nods to song titles.
“To celebrate this 20th anniversary, we worked in close collaboration with the band to ensure authenticity that reflects this incredible legacy,” Epic Rights exclusively tells Billboard. “Our focus was to bring out small details from the album that fans may have forgotten about, while also sharing a new point of view that pays homage to the early 2000’s.”
Highlights from the collection include: a limited-edition reissue of the original record on picture disc vinyl ($25), a “Just Shake It” snow globe pencil holder ($15), a pink-and-white tie-dye tour shirt ($35), a “Bye Bye Bye” hoodie (55), a 20th-anniversary pin set ($30), a pair of “Say I’m Trippin'” bright purple socks emblazoned with a clown design lifted from the original album art ($20) and a No Strings Attached Personalized RIAA Certification Plaque where fans can have their name engraved ($280).
Those eager to purchase can do so when the collection officially launches Saturday at 10 a.m. ET on *NSYNC’s official website. The merch will begin shipping April 20, while the vinyl reissue is set for July 17.
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment
*NSYNC’s No Strings Attached — released on March 21, 2000 — debuted atop the Billboard 200, selling a million copies in the first day. The album later made pop music history, selling a then-record-setting 2.4 million copies in its first week — a record that was broken 15 years later with Adele’s 25 in 2015. It birthed four singles: “Bye Bye Bye,” “This I Promise You,” “I’ll Never Stop” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.
While a reunion isn’t in the future, the members have been sharing memories from the album era. During his Ellen appearance on March 11, Justin Timberlake revealed he and Joey Fatone “accidentally broke into Alcatraz one time” while shooting the “This I Promise You” video.
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment
On an episode of Billboard‘s Pop Shop Podcast in January, Fatone didn’t quite rule out the idea of a reunion down the road. “It’s not a no, but it’s not a yes, because the thing is, we may come up with an idea that may not work for all of us,” he explained. “If I did do something like this, I think it’s just something that definitely we will wanna do maybe more music, but also have fun, do you know what I mean? … There’s not a lot of pressure anymore.”
Click here for more information on the new merch collection, and look out for Billboard‘s anniversary coverage throughout the week of March 23.
25 years ago, a group of five friends burst onto the music scene, marking the genesis of one of the world’s biggest boy bands – *NSYNC.
The boys had it all, from the hair to the fashion and dance moves – and they sold over 50 million records, tearing up hearts the world over.
Watch the full story above
Led by Justin Timberlake, the band quickly sought world domination – from fashion to toys and posters in every teenage girl’s bedroom.
But it was late recruit Lance Bass who fans developed a soft spot for.
Famous for his frosted tips and ‘shy guy’ persona, he remained one step ahead of his bandmates, leading to his own showbiz supremacy.
Now, 25 years on from his first audition, Lance is back behind the mic for a new project – but it’s his time as part of the world’s biggest boy band that will forever keep us all in sync.
“When we got together, we were all friends, and we decided we would start an a capella group and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Bass said.
“You didn’t even really have time to think about what the future would be, but I know it was definitely bigger than we all thought it could be.
“When I joined the group, I was the last to join the group. None of the guys thought that my mum would let me do it because I was 16-years-old. But somehow she let me do it.”
And with the 20th anniversary of *NSYNC’s second album, No Strings Attached fast approaching, Lance knows the fans are eager as ever for a reunion.
“If there’s any time to do a reunion, it would be now,” Bass said.
“Everyone loves the nostalgia of the 90s and the early 2000s. It’s something that we are actually discussing right now. I don’t know exactly what will happen, or if anything will happen, but we are talking about it right now.
“It definitely hasn’t happened in over a decade, but the reunion is certainly closer.”
After leaving the band, Lance went on to start his own management company – and now he’s co-hosting a new podcast called The Daily Popcast, and he’s got some big news for *NSYNC fans.
“This podcast format has been incredible,” Bass said.
“We started a couple of months ago, and we just have the best time going over all of the pop culture news of the day.
“Leading up to the No Strings Attached 20th anniversary, each of the *NSYNC guy will be sitting down with me one-on-one leading up to the anniversary.
“This is going to be the first time I get to interview Justin Timberlake. I’ve had the show for a number of years, but this is the first time we will have a sitdown – and I’m excited to really get into it with him.”
Source: here
Enjoy this article from Entertainment Weekly!
On Sept. 7, 2000, Lance Bass, J.C. Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Justin Timberlake of the beloved boy band NSYNC accepted the award for Best Pop Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Dressed in an array of early 2000s fashion — Leather trench coats! Double denim! Ultra-fitted turtlenecks! — the group gathered onstage as Timberlake thanked God for His blessings and their respective families for being behind them, “no matter what stupid stuff we did or wore or sang or whatever.”
Twenty years after the video’s release, on Jan. 11, 2000, it’s clear that — clothing aside — their fans found nothing stupid in what the guys did or sang. At the time of publication, the “Bye Bye Bye” music video has over 214 million views on YouTube. So in honor of its anniversary, we called up (most of) the group and a few of their collaborators to reminisce about the video’s making, its feature film-sized budget, the days of TRL (that’s MTV’s Total Request Live , for the youngins), and the story behind one of the most memorable dances of all time.
In the early 2000s, it wasn’t uncommon for music videos to resemble mini-action movies, with high-energy dance breaks, bizarre concepts (we all remember Britney in Mars for the “Oops!… I Did it Again” video, right?) and money to spare. The “Bye Bye Bye” video was no exception. Complete with speeding trains, car chases, rabid dogs, and synchronized choreography on strings, director Wayne Isham created a thrilling four-minute ride that — if you don’t overthink it too much — somehow fits with the lyrical theme of escaping an ex. “It was a fun time to make music videos,” Bass tells EW. “It was all about MTV and how can we outdo each other — but spending $1 million on a video? That was probably stupid.”
With the band’s input, Isham used the guys’ unique traits to come up with the concept. “We had a good run together,” says Isham, who later worked with the group on the “It’s Gonna Be Me” and “Pop” videos. “It definitely was a lot of fun because those guys all had a blast and took a lot of chances. They all have big personalities and we had to make sure we shined the light on everybody. Chris and Joey had the sense of fun, Justin has that smile, and J.C. and Lance had very wry humor about it all.”
The clip kicks off with the guys on strings, being controlled by an evil ex-girlfriend puppetress (played by Kim Smith, who later starred in the “It’s Gonna Be Me” video), before she cuts them loose, just to pursue them some more. “You kind of feel like an action hero for a second,” says Kirkpatrick, “Like, ‘This isn’t a video, this is real life!’ It was such a cool fantasy come true.”
If you don’t know the signature move to the “Bye Bye Bye” chorus, you’re too young to be reading this piece. “I feel like I’ve taught that dance to about 50 people this year alone,” says Bass, who remembers actually breaking his ankle while performing the routine on SNL shortly after shooting the video. “It’s funny how things come back to you so easily, but I guess if you did it, you know, five million times, it’s somewhere in your DNA.”
That unforgettable choreography was the brainchild of acclaimed choreographer (and creator of everyone’s favorite 2001 instructional dance VHS, Darrin’s Dance Grooves), Darrin Henson. Henson — whose résumé boasts names such as New Kids on the Block, Britney Spears, and the Spice Girls — was actually on the brink of quitting the industry after losing out on a VMA for his work on Jordan Knight’s “Give It to You” when he got the call from NSYNC manager Johnny Wright. Henson told Wright he was pursuing acting and no longer choreographing, but Wright wasn’t having it. “He was like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t understand; you gotta do this song,’” Henson recalls. “’This is going to be the pinnacle.’” So Henson hopped on a flight to Vegas where NSYNC was performing at the Billboard Awards so they could play him “Bye Bye Bye” for the first time. “I was like, ‘Man, this track is slamming!” he says.
Excited by the song and the fact that “those white boys could dance,” Henson got to work right then and there in his Vegas hotel room. “I turned the music up as loud as it could go,” says Henson. “I came up with the pumping hand — that’s the black power fist — and the hand going across the front during the ‘bye bye bye’ lyric is the ‘stop talking s—.’ I come from the Bronx, and in New York whenever somebody said something, you’d put your hand up in a talking manner, like open and close, meaning, ‘stop talking s—.’”
Back in L.A., the band convened at Alley Kat Studio to run through the moves. “I gave them the choreography over a few days and we rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed,” says Henson. “The guys were always good. J.C. had a lot of energy and Justin always had this laid back kinda cool attitude. Chris, and he’ll tell you this, was probably the one who had the biggest obstacles when learning and distributing the choreography. It was very, very difficult because I incorporated hip-hop, popping and locking, and really put Darrin into it. I put moves in there that other boy bands wouldn’t be able to mimic. That’s what was so special about NSYNC.”
Nailing the moves onstage was one thing, but for the music video, the guys were fastened to bungee cords and asked to dance as if puppets on strings. “It’s not easy, that’s for sure,” says Chasez. “The bungee is where it gets a bit challenging. We’re all supposed to be in sync and we’re fighting with these bungees to make sure our arms are all in the same place. When you’re doing the choreo on those things, it’s certainly challenging. But like anything, with a bit of repetition and a bit of practice, you settle in.”
Is anything harder than mastering moves mid-air? How about doing them in a spinning room? Interspersed throughout the girl-chasing-guys narrative of the video, are scenes of the band dancing in a rotating gimbal room. “The gimbal room goes back to Gene Kelly who did it originally in the ‘40s,” says Isham. “As a filmmaker, these are challenges I want to do. The guys were ready to accept, and Darrin was excited about doing something different.” But Isham didn’t factor in the group’s excitability until he got on set. “They started having fun by jumping around from one side to the other,” he recalls. “Containing their energy was always a challenge and trying to get them to focus on the dance routine when they were jumping from wall to wall to wall… Well, let’s just say that footage alone could’ve been its own video.”
While fun at the time, a couple of days later, Bass was suffering. “I don’t know if the other guys got motion sickness, but I had vertigo for a good two days after that,” he says. “What was crazy was that it didn’t even set in until about 48 hours later.” Adds Kirkpatrick, “I was nauseous before I got into it.”
If the five guys got so stoked about a rotating room, you can imagine how they responded when asked to race cars and run on speeding trains. “They never hesitated at all and did all their own stunts,” says Isham. “Today someone would totally raise a flag about insurance.” Cue Fatone and Kirkpatrick jumping from one moving train car to another (one Steadicam operator wasn’t nearly as comfortable with the risks and had to be replaced mid-scene).
“There was no green screen,” says Kirkpatrick. “Today it’d be like, ‘If Jackie Chan is not in this video, you are not doing your own stunts.’ It was funny because the train I think was going something like 20 miles per hour, but of course they made it look faster.”
The slow speed was probably for the best, since at one point, Kirkpatrick realized he was dangerously close to one of the train’s tires. “Before the train started, I’m sitting there and I realize we’re going to be kicking off the tire,” says Kirkpatrick. “So, if my wire fell off, I would’ve gotten sucked under the train. That made me a little more nervous.” Remembering the same scene, Isham adds, “Yeah, Joey turned to me and goes, ‘Um, there’s big steel wheels right underneath my feet.’ Thank goodness, knock on wood nothing bad happened.”
Back on the ground, Bass and Chasez found themselves contending with a different type of fast-moving vehicle: a red Dodge Viper RT/10. “When we were talking with Wayne in the planning stages, I had mentioned that my favorite car chase at that point in any movie ever was in the movie Ronin with Robert De Niro,” says Chasez. “When I showed up on set, it turned out that he had literally hired the guys that did the car chase scene from the movie to help stunt coordinate and teach us some of the driving. There were certainly one or two scary moments when the car got a little out of control, but it’s kind of controlled chaos. I’d be in the car and the guy with the camera would be like, ‘Go faster!’ and I’m like, ‘Okay!’”
Part of the scene saw Bass and Chasez drop into the car from above, as if landing there after being cut from their puppet strings. “There was an 18-wheeler behind us with his light pole and we were having to hang on to the pole and, as we’re moving, drop into the car,” recalls Bass. “The first time we did it, I missed the car and something on the roof of the car just cracked.” Fatone didn’t get off quite so lucky, sustaining an embarrassing injury he remembers to this day. “I ripped my pants — right in the crotch,” he says. “They had to duct tape them back together.”
As for Timberlake, well, comparatively, running from dogs suddenly didn’t seem so daunting. “J.C. and Lance jumped into a moving automobile, Chris and Joey are on top of a train running, so I think I got off easiest on the stunts,” he said during an interview with MTV’s Making the Videoat the time. “All I have to do is run, but I have to make it look good — I can’t look like a dork when I’m running. Gotta be cool.”
Twenty years later, the guys are philosophizing on why the video was so popular at the time. Whether a sign of the times or something more enigmatic, one thing they can all agree on — besides the fact that it can’t possibly be two decades since they shot the thing (“Are you sure it isn’t it the 75th anniversary?” jokes Kirkpatrick.) — is that its success, though initially surprising, took a lot of effort and is something they’re proud of.
“We were working hard to be at a very high level,” says Chasez. “It takes a miracle for it to actually work and we were lucky enough to be part of that miracle in that moment.” As for what he remembers most? “Looking back, it’s in the little moments,” he says. “When I blow on the CD or Justin looks up from landing on the ground and gives you that little laugh, that, to me, makes the video three-dimensional. We allowed our personalities to break the wall and we made a video that’s more than just the song. We made something that’s stretching into the next realm of entertainment, and that’s what I was proud of.”
https://ew.com/music/2020/01/11/making-of-nsync-bye-bye-bye-music-video/