Season 1 Episode 1 - From Puppets to Masters

00:00 (Drum 'n bass beatboxing noises)
00:23 The strings were cut, the puppets were free to become masters, and the entire world was watching.
00:30 That's the feeling of 2000 for *NSYNC, a year of relentless spectacle, defiance, and creative confidence from the moment they dropped the Bye Bye Bye video.
00:40 They made it clear their debut album was the warm up.
00:45 No Strings attached was the main event.
00:48 I'm your host Nicole Raposo and welcome to Unsynchronized, the podcast where we dive into how *NSYNC got out of sync and eventually called it quits.
00:58 This episode is 'From Puppets to Masters'.
01:02 We're diving into the chronological journey of the year 2000 and looking at how the members handled sudden, overwhelming control.
01:09 We'll give a nod to prior legal wins, and then we'll pivot to the commercial dominance and the cultural ubiquity that solidified their status as masters of their own destiny.
01:19 Over the next 35 minutes, we'll see how this momentum was built, how it was sustained, and how it was leveraged.
01:26 Let's turn the calendar back to the dawn of the Millennium.
01:31 (Transition Sound) For *NSYNC, 2000 started with a high note.
01:33 Within the past couple of months, they had settled their high stakes legal battle with the Bertelsmann Group and also Lou Pearlman. (Layered booing sounds)
01:40 It was a lawsuit that it threatened to block the group from releasing new music and possibly could have even taken away the group's name, but that was all squared away, they were free agents, and they signed with Jive Records.
1:49 On January 5th, their debut album was officially certified Diamond by the RIAA.
01:57 That means 10 million copies sold in the US. That's a pretty rare achievement, or at least it was at the time,
02:05 And that placed them in elite company.
02:08 So that was definitely something, uh, that was cause for celebration.
02:12 The name of their upcoming album? Well, that would be No Strings Attached. And the title was clever and symbolic.
02:20 It represented *NSYNC, declaring independence and making it known that they weren't under corporate control any more.
02:27 The guys themselves confirmed this shift in an AOL chat on January 20th. According to the transcript I found, JC Chasez said
02:36 "Everything was very hands on with us on this album and we did everything ourselves. So it's a very personal album and it's a very liberating album."
02:46 Lance Bass echoed the same sentiment, stating "it just feels like our first real album." 02:53 At the time of the chat, *NSYNC was still recording tracks for No Strings Attached even as the lead single was already rolling out.
03:01 They had filmed the Bye Bye Bye music video just a few days earlier, and had only seen the rough cut of the video about an hour before going live with AOL.
03:11 They were just doing things "at lightning speed", in their own words, referencing how quickly the single art had been chosen and how quickly the single had been pressed and shipped, the pace didn't just reflect the group's creative momentum, it also reflected their level of control when it came to the production and the rollout.
03:34 On January 17th, *NSYNC dropped the lead single from their second album which, as I already mentioned, was Bye Bye Bye.
03:42 The sound was very sharp and defiant, it was a very high energy song and a big break away from their debut album.
03:50 The music video premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on January 26th and it launched straight to #1 on the Countdown the next day.
03:59 The video was pure spectacle. We had stunts. We had puppet strings, we had dance routines. Overall, it signaled that *NSYNC was back with a bang.
04:07 Right at the end of January, Lance Bass made a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo on 7th Heaven.
04:15 He was playing the character Rick Palmer, Lucy Camden's date, and a double date subplot with her older sister Mary and Mary's boyfriend.
04:24 The episode aired on January 31st and it's peak WB-era corniness. If you've never seen it, or if you have seen it and just want to relive the cringe, you can find clips of it online.
04:38 So from January into February, *NSYNC was riding high. And all of this energy came right as they were preparing for their first ever Grammy nominations.
04:48 Things were moving fast, and *NSYNC was riding a wave that looked like it would lead to unstoppable success.
04:55 The sheer momentum from that first single gave *NSYNC really high visibility at the time, and that was only amplified by their appearances overseas.
05:05 In early February you could see the group on popular television shows in Europe like VIVA Interaktiv, which was a German program.
05:14 But later in the month, during Grammy week, something quieter kind of made its way into the spotlight, and I think that was the industry's focus on solo careers.
05:25 On the MTV Backstage At the Grammys television special, there was a pre-recorded segment featuring brief solo interviews with most members of the Backstreet Boys. And MTV News correspondent John Norris had asked each of them directly, "which one of the group will be the first to do a solo record and why?"
05:45 Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, and AJ McLean all said that AJ would be the most likely to go solo first, though AJ admitted that it wouldn't be any time before the group's next album. 05:57 Nick Carter said, "Well, we'll have to talk about that."
06:01 And then he kind of dodged the question. He was pretty evasive; he tried to get John to tell him what the other guys said instead of just answering the question.
06:11 But the overall impression was that it was something that the group needed to discuss, and it was something that wouldn't happen any time soon.
06:20 That prerecorded segment led to another segment where John Norris was talking to Joey Fatone and Lance Bass on a red carpet.
06:32 (camera flashing noises, conversational murmurs in thebackground) He turned to the two of them and said, you know, "do any of you have any solo plans in the works?"
06:39 Joey was a little quicker to answer than Lance was. He started his reply by saying "I don't think so, as far as the five of us."
06:49 He did highlight JC's work writing and producing for other artists and he mentioned that Lance was managing 2 country acts.
06:57 But overall Joey ended his comment by saying "we're branching off to do different things but as far as having a solo career, maybe later on."
07:09 Lance chimed in and mentioned JC's duet with the music group Blaque for the song Bring it All to Me.
07:17 The interesting detail here is that the track is officially credited as Blaque Featuring *NSYNC, even though JC was the only member singing on the song.
07:27 John responded by saying it was like "a foot in the water", implying that maybe JC was testing out solo music by collaborating with that other group.
07:37 At the time, the moment probably only registered as just another quick exchange that was part of an interview. But looking back, I think it's one of the earliest glimpses into the idea that solo projects were already on the industry's mind, even if the group hadn't spoken about it internally.
07:57 We'll revisit this moment later in the podcast when I dive into how *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys each navigated solo projects in the early 2000s.
08:07 But for right now, let's stay in the timeline. Late February was full on Grammy season and *NSYNC attended Clive Davis's legendary Pre Grammy Party, a major networking event for the music industry, and presented an award to Sting at the Grammy Awards ceremony that year. 08:24 Even though they didn't walk away with any trophies that night, their nominations still marked a pretty crucial turning point because it meant that *NSYNC was finally being recognized by the music establishment.
08:37 January and February laid the groundwork for what was coming. There was a lot of momentum, a lot of visibility, new found validation, and all of these things were building towards a March release that would break records that no one saw coming.
08:54 (Transition sound) If January and February were about setting the stage, then March was about shattering expectations.
08:59 This was the moment that *NSYNC fully took control of their career, and the numbers proved it.
09:05 They had been teasing their sophomore album for months and finally, on March 21st, 2000, No Strings Attached hit the shelves.
09:14 The first week sales were 2.4 million copies in the US. To put that into perspective, the previous record holder was the Backstreet Boys with their Millennium album they sold 1.13 million in the first week. And it really marked the peak of CD era music sales when fan dedication, media saturation and retail demand all collided together in real time.
09:42 And that new record set by *NSYNC, stood for another 15 years until Adele's 25 album surpassed it in 2015. In the first week, her album did a total number of 3.38 million units in the US, and according to Music Times, that figure was almost evenly split between physical and digital sales, with the total for vinyls and CDs numbering about 1.7 million.
10:07 And here's a crucial detail that defines that era and why this record still holds a special place. Because *NSYNC achieved that 2.4 million in physical sales with essentially one product, and that was 1 single CD variant.
10:23 Let's contrast that with some of the biggest album debuts today. You know, recently in 2025, Taylor Swift broke the overall sales record, pushing the equivalent unit number to around 4 million in the first week.
10:37 But to do that, her team used a strategy of extreme fan mobilization, and they also released the album with 34 different variants, including multiple CD's, different colored vinyls and various content packages with exclusive things in them.
10:51 But when you strip away the streams and the digital downloads and look strictly at physical sales, *NSYNC still holds the advantage over the new record holder by over 1,000,000 copies. And they did it without pressing the album in a bunch of different physical formats. They did it without having eight different covers, 7 different vinyls, 6 bonus tracks and a partridge in a pear tree. (Rustling leaves and partridge cooing)
11:16 No Strings Attached debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and promotion was everywhere from Good Morning America to Saturday Night Live.
11:24 Also on March 21st, the version megastore in Manhattan drew a huge crowd and unfortunately several fans were injured in the rush to grab 500 passes for an in-store 11:36 signing event later that day, on March 25, tickets for the first leg of the No Strings Attached Tour went on sale via Ticketmaster and broke a single day record.
11:47 There were 850,000 tickets sold in one day. And while March was dominated by No Strings attached, from the record-breaking sales to the chaotic Virgin Megastore signing, one solo project for member of *NSYNC did slip into the spotlight.
12:02 The movie model Behavior aired on ABC as part of its Wonderful World of Disney programming. Justin played the role of Jason Sharpe, a male model who dated the film's protagonist.
12:14 Like with Lance's 7th Heaven episode, you can find clips of this online if you want to see it. 12:20 But yeah, overall for March, the focus was firmly on the group.
12:26 (Transition sound) March 2000 was a turning point, not just because of the numbers, but because of the momentum that was building publicly and also behind the scenes.
12:35 And April, that was just going to get even bigger.
12:40 In its second week, No Strings Attached sold another 811,000 copies, bringing the total to 3.2 million.
12:47 By week 5, it had sold over 4.8 million units and was still holding a pretty firm grip on the number one spot on Billboard.
12:56 Also, the Bye Bye Bye music video was dominating TRL. And pretty much held the number one spot for the entire month of April.
13:05 On April 4th, Insync appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, kicking off another month of nonstop visibility.
13:12 The next day, on April 5th, No Strings Attached was released in Japan and across Asia, marking another milestone for the group's global reach.
13:21 On April 11th, the Rumor Mill column on the Hits Daily Double website announced that Lance Bass would be appearing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in May as one of the show's celebrity guests.
13:32 The following day, April 12th, *NSYNC performed Believe In Yourself on Sesame Street (excited crowd of children sound), which was a cute way to endear themselves to a younger generation and reinforce their family friendly appeal.
13:42 Few days later they took the stage at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, performing Bye Bye Bye and again solidifying their connection with younger audiences.
13:52 Then on April 16th, their collaboration with R&B singer Joe, the song I Believe In You, appeared on his album entitled
14:01 My name is Joe. The track offered fans a different flavor of the group's vocal dynamics and marked one of a few cross genre partnerships during this era.
14:10 Song is also really good if you've never heard it.
14:15 Later in the month *NSYNC filmed the music video for It's Gonna Be Me and it became one of their most iconic visual statements.
14:23 The video was directed by Wayne Isham and it featured the band as animated dolls breaking out of their packaging in a toy store.
14:30 So the direct extension of the No Strings Attached theme overall that month was pretty saturated it with press.
14:36 It's definitely packed with performances and it was marked by a steady expansion of *NSYNC's media footprint.
14:43 As we roll into May, we see the official launch of *NSYNC no strings attached tour and the beginning of a subtle but pretty unmistakable shift of how some of the group's.
14:55 Members were positioned in public.
14:57 (Transition sound) On May 9th, the tour kicked off in Biloxi, Mississippi, complete with dazzling lights and polished theatrics.
15:02 Album sales continued to climb and by Week 8, No Strings Attached had surpassed 5 million copies and remained parked at the top of the charts.
15:11 On May 16th, the group premiered their next single, It's Gonna Be Me on TRL and it quickly rose to the top of the countdown.
15:20 That same day *NSYNC revealed a teaser trailer for a planned film project at a private beach party during the Cannes Film Festival.
15:28 It was a promotional drop rather than a press conference, but one that signaled their ambitions to branch out into cinematic ventures.
15:35 Also in May, Lance was quietly expanding his management company, Freelance Entertainment, and they signed country music artist Meredith Edwards as the first artist for Freelance.
15:48 And a song written by JC called Messed Around was released as a single by a group called Boyz 'n Girlz United.
15:55 Just adding another marker to his growing songwriting resume.
16:00 This point in the year also gives us a glimpse into an emerging pattern when it comes to diverging priorities and public image for some members of *NSYNC.
16:11 There were two interviews conducted around the same time in May and I was able to figure out, or at least narrow down, the probable time frame based on some context clues from the interviews.
16:25 The first one was a phone interview that JC did with MTV Asia, and it says that he was speaking with them via telephone from Greensboro, NC. Knowing what dates the North Carolina dates were for No strings Attached, that means that this interview happened pretty late in the month, sometime around the 23rd and 24th.
16:47 Anyway, the MTV Asia interview really framed JC as kind of the spokesperson for the group. He answered a lot of questions that emphasized things like brand integrity and hands on. control.
17:01 One thing in particular jumped out to me: he responded to a question about lip balms. 17:06 I don't know why lip balms were so hotly contested at the time, but MTV Asia quoted JC as saying "we're actually shutting the lip balm thing down, 'cause it wasn't us who okayed it".
17:19 So if nothing else, it showed that the group was very hands on when it came to controlling their image and what kinds of things had their names and faces on them.
17:30 The second interview, which was also conducted around the same time, was an interview that Justin did via telephone for a publication called Max Magazine.
17:40 It was a teen oriented magazine in Singapore and unfortunately there's not too much online about it at this point.
17:47 But he also did his phone interview in North Carolina, and in contrast to the MTV Asia interview that had a lot of group oriented questions, ones that would have I guess pulled out collective oriented responses, this interview for Max Magazine was very solo oriented and almost all of the questions
18:11 focused on Justin's individual celebrity, the topics they covered were acting, ambitions as personal status, and most notably, the speculation about a romantic relationship with Britney Spears. The tone was still promotional and the responses were still personable, but yeah, this interview was distinctively solo oriented.
18:36 These interviews were conducted within days of each other, and I think they highlighted a bit of divergence in how some members of *NSYNC were being framed by the media.
18:49 You have JC being presented with these questions that are all focused on the group and he's positioned as a brand steward. And then you have this other interview where the questions are solo focused and *NSYNC is part of an orbit around the person being interviewed, but not really asked about as if it's an integrated part. The contrast is interesting to say the least.
19:17 (Transition sound) Moving on from May to June, the next month was full tilt and brand deals were rolling in even though JC had just told MTV Asia that they nixed the lip balms looks like they did actually end up signing a deal for licensing Insync branded lip balms in June and also Lance continued auditions and development efforts for freelance entertainment.
19:43 All of this happening while *NSYNC continues to tour with their blockbuster album. As June turned into July, the *NSYNC machine just kept performing and kept evolving.
19:54 Their cultural footprint was starting to extend into television, merchandise and charity, all while maintaining one of the most attended pop music tours of the decade.
20:04 With the first half of 2000 behind them, *NSYNC entered summer with zero signs of slowing down.
20:12 Their Are No strings Attached tour was still in full swing.
20:16 It's Gonna to Be Me was climbing the charts. And the fandom? It was loud, loyal, and growing by the minute.
20:23 On July 20th, It's Gonna Be Me hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it *NSYNC's first, and unfortunately only, US chart topping single.
20:33 This was another milestone moment and another affirmation of their creative control. 20:37 Shortly thereafter, *NSYNC filmed a concert for their upcoming theatrical release *NSYNC Bigger Than Live, and they performed at Madison Square Garden for a nationwide HBO concert special.
20:49 Both of these things being a huge affirmation of the group's mass appeal and their prowess as live performers.
20:58 They also joined forces with Sisqo, Joe, and Britney Spears at a press conference in Philadelphia announcing the McDonald's Summer Music Event.
21:06 It was a campaign including exclusive CD's and ticket giveaways. At the time, this was pretty much peak pop music synergy.
21:14 And then to close out the month.
21:17 On the charity front, *NSYNC hosted their second Challenge for the Children event on July 28th and 29th.
21:23 (Transition sound) August kicked off with the final show of the No Strings Attached tour's first leg.
21:28 The band was set to take a two-month hiatus before the next leg in the fall, and they're publicly stated wish list showed that the guys were pretty much in dire need of a break.
21:39 Um, as reported by People magazine, when faced with the prospect of a 2 month break, the members downtime wishes were basically relief and self-care.
21:50 Chris suggested that he would play video games. (Bell ringing)
21:53 Joey just said that he would go away. (Bell ringing)
21:57 Justin offered the most radical possibility that they would be able to go to their own homes. (Bell ringing)
22:06 But even as they joked about disappearing into their downtime, the spotlight didn't dim for *NSYNC.
22:12 Just days later, on August 6th, the group took home 5 awards at the Teen Choice Awards, proving that their cultural moment was still in full swing.
22:22 August was yet another month in which some individual projects got a little bit of spotlight.
22:28 Joey Fatone was featured in the remix of the song as if from the Bring It On soundtrack. This was a duet that he did with the group Blaque, but notably, unlike with Bring It All To Me, Joey was credited as a solo artist and the song was not credited to *NSYNC.
22:47 Also in August, uh, Lance's freelance entertainment company wrapped up the final round of their country pop talent search. In TV Guide, the group disclosed that they were planning to start working on their new records soon, with, and I quote, "all 5 members taking a more active part in songwriting and producing."
23:09 Also in TV Guide, Lance confirmed that the group was going to be working on a movie, and when he said this, he assured all of the critics (faint voice saying "Lights, camera action!") "We're actually going to make a real movie. We want to challenge ourselves to do something different." 23:25 Considering all the ways that In Sync had branched out individually and also as a group in 2000, I don't think it was surprising to anyone that they would express interest in doing a film together.
23:37 It would just be another notch on their belt, you know? Um, another thing to add to their growing empire in pop culture.
23:45 September 7th, *NSYNC performed at the MTV Video Music Awards and by the time the night was over, they had actually walked away with three Moon Men.
23:57 On September 13th, they completed their voice recordings for The Simpsons and they appeared at the 1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards doing a rare bilingual crossover. It was a live performance of the Spanish version of this I Promise You, and they performed with the group Son by 4.
24:15 As September started to wind down, uh, another individual venture came out into the spotlight a bit.
24:21 This time it was Chris' fashion line, FuMan Skeeto. The line was actually founded in 1999, but in the year 2000, by the fall, Chris had secured some placement at Nordstrom. Which is pretty neat because it showed that he was building a brand, not just on stage, but off stage as well.
24:40 (Transition sound) But by October, the spotlight snapped back to the group, and as *NSYNC rolled into the final stretch of 2000, they weren't winding down.
24:49 The fall leg of the No Strings Attached Tour started in October, and they added Lil' Bow Wow as an opening act for their lineup.
24:58 They also started weaving in some Christmas songs, which is a nice way to get into the holiday spirit early.
25:05 But unfortunately, not every reception the group got in October was warm. At game 3 of the World Series on October 24th, they sang the national anthem and they were met with noticeable booing from the crowd. That moment made headlines and signaled that sometimes with heightened fame, there's also heightened friction.
25:23 Moving on to November, starting early in the month on the 4th, *NSYNC won Artist of the Year and Song of the Year at the Radio Music Awards.
25:34 Notably, Justin and JC weren't photographed with the rest of the group. I tried looking into it, but I haven't found a clear reason as to why they don't seem to have been at the award ceremony.
25:47 On November 7th, the song You Don't Have to Be Alone was released as part of the soundtrack for the film How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
25:56 And also in television news, when the group appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Justin casually confirmed his relationship with Britney Spears during the group's interview.
26:06 This isn't something that's important to *NSYNC as a group, but this fact is related to some things that come up in 2001 and 2002, which is why I'm mentioning it here.
26:17 Another standout moment for Justin in November, this time it was in print.
26:22 Um, he did an interview with Cosmo Girl magazine and amidst all of the mounting celebrity, it was interesting to see Justin publicly acknowledge some of the pressure and sometimes the feelings of isolation that can come with fame.
26:34 One quote that jumped out at me from the interview was "...I hate to sound jaded, but Chris and the other guys are really the only people I can always depend on to be honest with me."
26:46 This is something I want to put a pin on. Because the concepts of honesty and trust, or at least public statements that seem to support honesty and trust, will be something that we get into more as the show continues. So I'm going to set the precedent by highlighting this quote upfront.
27:03 Also in November, *NSYNC unveiled NSYNC@MSN. (Dialup internet noises)
27:06 It was a branded ISP subscription portal offering exclusive photos, exclusive sounds and chats, and this was aimed at teens and kids.
27:15 This was a multi-year deal with Microsoft MSN and it was designed to capture the loyalty of *NSYNC fan base and also to steal marketshare from AOL.
27:25 *NSYNC's business manager Barry Klarberg called it "a perfect fit between the number one band and the number one computer company". And the co-branding optics were very flashy, but the deal was also kind of a strategic hedge. Even at the height of their fame *NSYNC's team understood that teen pop had a shelf life.
27:43 The estimated 20 to $30 million arrangement (cash register noise) wasn't just a tech experiment, it was more like a long term defense.
27:50 As one executive put it in a CNN article, the goal was to align the band with a deep pocketed partner to weather, and I quote, "an impending teen pop twilight".
28:02 So this partnership really marked a turning point. *NSYNC wasn't just a musical act, they were a worldwide brand, Umm, one that was clearly engineered to generate revenue beyond the charts, but also one that was seen as having a rapidly closing window.
28:21 Rolling into December, right on the 1st of the month, just one day before the No Strings Attached tour officially wrapped, Lance Bass participated in a live web chat on MSN to promote the group's new ISP partnership.
28:36 The chat covered a pretty wide range of fan questions, including favorite songs from the latest album, online habits of the group, childhood career dreams - which for Lance was being an astronaut or an actor, no surprises there - and also backstage routines.
28:51 For the purposes of Unsynchronized, there are two quotes that really stand out. The first one was when Lance told the fans in the chat that he was going to be starring in a movie. He specifically said "I'm going to be starring in a movie called On the Line".
29:07 This is the earliest public mention of the film project that I've found.
29:11 The next standout quote was Lance telling the chat participants what was expected to come for *NSYNC in the next year.
29:19 When it came to new music, he said "we're writing and recording in February and it" - it being the new album - "will be out in May and then we'll start our tour the last week of May".
29:34 Both of these comments basically timestamp Lance's personal projects and also the group's public projects rolling into 2001 and while plans shifted later, these quotes did give fans a loose idea of what was next for them.
29:49 On December 5th, *NSYBC hosted the Billboard Music Awards and walked away with multiple honors, including Album of the Year.
29:56 On December 7th, the album No Strings Attached was officially certified Diamond by the RIAA, confirming 10 million copies sold in the United States.
30:05 And in merchandising news, the oddly contentious lip balms were finally released on December 18th, and each member of Insync had their own flavor. ,br> 30:16 Joey was green apple, Chris was strawberry, JC was watermelon, Lance was blue Raspberry, and Justin was vanilla.
30:25 I knew at the time that *NSYNC had lip balms, but I'd never seen any of them. So in the middle of doing my research I looked them up because I wanted to get a feel for the product and they're surprisingly tiny.
30:39 Not even chapstick sized and not Bonnie Bell sized like what I would have imagined, just these itty bitty tubes that mean to me look basically more like collectibles than real cosmetics. 30:49 And honestly, if any of my listeners had those lip balms, I want to hear from you because like I said, those things were tiny. Like, did you use one tube per lip? Because they don't seem like they were the right size to give good coverage.
31:05 Like how long did they last? What did they smell like? If you actually used them hit me up and let me know because I'm genuinely curious.
31:15 Anyway, as December closed out, *NSYNC was still publicly active. The group was confirmed to perform on ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve special, hosted by the late Dick Clark, and all that did was reinforce the group's branding continuing from one year right into the next.
31:34 (Transition sound) So that's our look back at the year 2000 through the lens of *NSYNC. 31:39 It was a huge year for them creatively, commercially, and culturally.
31:43 But for the purposes of Unsynchronized, here are the three big takeaways that really shape how we see this moment in their timeline.
31:51 Um, #1, it looks like the industry was already eyeing solo careers.
31:56 Even before the group made any moves, the media and the music industry seemed to be nudging things in that direction.
32:03 We saw that from the MTV red carpet interview with John Norris, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass.
32:09 Reporters were already asking *NSYNC about solo plans, and in this instance, it was right after doing the same thing with the Backstreet Boys.
32:18 What it means, at least in my opinion, is that these kinds of questions create a bit of pressure, and it also plants the idea publicly, even though at the time the guys in the group were still framing their side projects like Lance's management company or JC's songwriting.
32:38 As part of the group's whole thing, their whole ecosystem, it almost seems like some people in the industry were ready to split them up before they were.
32:50 And #2 side projects were part of the group culture, at least they were for *NSYNC.
32:56 Multiple members had something going on outside of the band and that was normal. It wasn't a threat, it was just how they operated.
33:04 And I think this context is critical because it normalized working on outside projects, things such as Lance's management company, which I mentioned. Things like JC writing songs and producing for other groups like Boyz 'n Girlz United, things like Chris' fashion line or even with Justin and acting.
33:26 These projects weren't necessarily signs that any one in the group was trying to step away full time.
33:33 If anything, they seemed like ways for the members of *NSYNC to explore different facets of their creativity while still being fully committed to *NSYNC.
33:43 These things were just woven into the group's rhythm, and nobody seemed to be penalized for having outside interests, or at least not yet.
33:53 And the third thing is that they were starting to hedge bets, but they were hedging together.
33:59 *NSYNC's success wasn't being treated like a forever thing. It was a peak moment and they knew it might not last.
34:07 So that leads to things like the multimillion dollar deal with MSN. It wasn't just about partnering with the tech giant, it was about locking in value before the wave of teen pop came crashing down, basically.
34:22 And the mindset, at least among the executives that chimed in related to the deal, was that it was a hedge against "an impending teen pop Twilight". So even though the group was still unified at that point, the business side was already treating them like a limited time brand.
34:42 So that's where we'll leave the year 2000 before getting into 2001 member by member. 34:48 Next time, we zoom in on one member who leaned into the shifting currents with full visibility, and that's Joey Fatone.
34:57 In 2001, Joey wasn't just recording and touring. He was acting in movies. He became a father for the first time. And it wasn't really a pivot away, it was a pivot within. Like a way of showing visibility could expand without disrupting what *NSYNC had going on.
35:15 We'll explore how Joey's gear helped shape public expectations for what it meant to be a member of *NSYNC. And also how his personal arc fits into the group's larger arc over the coming years.
35:32 This is Nicole Raposo, and I want to thank you for spending time with me here.
35:38 Until next time, remember you can't spell Unsynchronized without NSYNC. See you in Episode 2.
35:49 (Drum 'n bass beatboxing noises)