Unsynchronized - Season 1 Episode 7 - Echoes vs Evidence

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In early 2020, while fans were

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celebrating the 20th anniversary of No

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Strings Attached, ET Canada published a

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piece suggesting that NSYNC's breakup

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could be traced back to Lance Bass. But

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after following all 5 members through the

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year that marked their final era, the

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historical receipts tell a different

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story. Let's get into it with the last

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episode of Season 1: Echoes versus

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Evidence. (Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

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(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

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(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

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One band, 5 voices, and 5

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trajectories over the course of 2001.

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That's what we've covered in this

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first season of Unsynchronized, and now

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it's time to compare what we

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know to what some people want us to

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believe. I'm Nicole Raposo, and you're

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listening to Unsynchronized, the deep

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dive podcast where we get into how *NSYNC

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got out of sync and eventually called it

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quits. So before we get into

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the article that sparked this entire

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project, I want to return to the theme

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that opened this season. When I said that

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the theme for this season was Bringin'

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Da Noise, I wasn't just thinking about

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the song from No Strings Attached. I was

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thinking about what noise meant for

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*NSYNC at the turn of the Millennium. In

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2000, the noise was record-breaking

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success and cultural saturation and

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basically the kind of visibility that

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most artists never experience. We talked

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about that in the first episode.

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But in 2001, the noise changed. Outside

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of the group, the noise got louder, and

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it wasn't always celebratory. Some people

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in the media started wondering whether

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the momentum would hold, and others blew

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past wondering into counting the minutes

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until the next big thing took off. Inside

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the group, the noise changed because they

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pushed boundaries by taking their sound

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in different directions. It also changed

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because of some private conversations

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surrounding a break and what may or may

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not happen during that time off.

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That's why the theme still fits. Because

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the noise never went away, it just

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became something else. And decades later,

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there's still noise. Some of it was

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joyful, like the No Strings Attached 20th

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anniversary, and some of it was

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problematic, like the ET Canada article

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by Leena Tailor.

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On March 24th, 2020, Easy Canada

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published an article called 'Did Lance

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Bass's Astronaut and Acting Aspirations

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Break Up *NSYNC?' This article was

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written by Leena Tailor. The piece opens

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with an unsupported premise that most

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people blame Justin Timberlake's solo

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career for the group's breakup. Then the

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article positions itself as corrective,

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as if it's going to offer a more

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nuanced explanation based on input from

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"musicians and executives", as Leena put it.

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But the factors that she brings forward

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in the article mostly redirect the blame

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towards Lance Bass. Lance is quoted in

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the article, but his commentary is

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sandwiched between input from several

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people who were in the group's orbit

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but not members of *NSYNC, creating an

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imbalance of perspectives that tilts the

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narrative against him. When I first read

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the ET Canada article, I wasn't thinking

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about a multiyear research project. I

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just knew that something felt off. It

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didn't seem right, but I couldn't put my

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finger on why. And I had to

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be honest with myself about that. I

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didn't actually know how *NSYNC broke

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up. I only knew that the public was fed

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some line about a "hiatus" and that the

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group never reunited for anything other

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than one-off events. At first the article

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mattered to me simply because it didn't

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make sense, but the deeper I got into

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the research, the more I realized that it

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mattered for a much bigger reason. It's

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an example of how entertainment media can

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take advantage of the public's limited

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memory or their limited access to primary

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sources and steer them towards a

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narrative that isn't supported by actual

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history. In a nutshell, this article is

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narrative management in a nostalgic slip-

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cover. It's a prime example of

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how media outlet can take a complex,

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emotionally-charged moment in pop culture

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history and flatten it into a story

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that's convenient, easy to digest, and

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something that shifts responsibility away

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from the people who actually made the

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decisions. And because so many fans don't

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remember the details of the so-called

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hiatus, or at this point there are

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fans who weren't even born yet, articles

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like this become a touchstone for people,

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even though they don't line up with the

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history. Sp ultimately, this article

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matters because it shows how easily a

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simplified narrative can mask a truth

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that's much more complex.

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I think the easiest way to parse out the

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article is to look at the people

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involved, starting with the writer Leena

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Tailor. Her writing and the way she set

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up the article set the tone for the

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piece, starting with the clickbait title.

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And yes, I'm calling it clickbait because

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it follows a well documented pattern in

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digital media: negative headlines or

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conflict-framed headlines generally get

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more clicks than neutral or positive

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ones. So when you see a title

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like 'Did Lance Bass's Astronaut and

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Acting Aspirations Break Up *NSYNC'

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it's not just a question, it's designed

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to pull you in by suggesting blame

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before the article even begins. Like

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I mentioned before, the introduction to

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the article includes an unsupported claim

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that most people blame Justin and his

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solo career for *NSYNC never reuniting.

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The article also claims that there are

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several other factors to consider when it

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comes to instincts breakup. When I look

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at this article as a whole, there are two

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big distortions from Leena that jump out

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at me. 1st when talking about the

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idea that Lance may not have been

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acting in the group's best interest, she

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collapses about six years into one moment

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and makes it seem like a certain

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conversation happened in real time. In

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Lance's memoir, which she did mention was

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published in 2007, he recalled being told

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that. None of them were operating in the

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best interests of the band by Justin, and

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the supposed proof of this was Lance and

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Joey making the film on the line. The

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problem is that this section of the

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memoir was Lance looking back at a

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meeting that he recalls happening in

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2004, and it was a comment. About

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something that happened three years prior

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since, as we've established this season,

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on the Line was made and released

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in 2001. But the way this article

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is structured, it's implied that the

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comment about not working in the best

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interests of the ban was something

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directed to Lance in 2001, which isn't.

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Something that's implied in his book, The

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second distortion is that Leena reordered

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the timeline of events by making it seem

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like Lance's desire to do a space mission

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was the cause of the so-called hiatus.

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She does this by leaning on some quotes

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from one of the other people she

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interviewed for the piece. And it's a

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problem because. The historical receipts

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don't point in that direction. Something

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else that stands out in the article

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is that Leena isolated Lance by giving

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him no supporting voices and by

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positioning his comments after comments

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from two men who both opposed him.

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Two men who both point to him,

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or at least to his side. Rojects

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as the reason why In Sync started

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to fall apart. They both contradicted

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Lance's perspective and so did the third

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person she interviewed. Even if it's not

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a manufactured consensus exactly, it's

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still positioned his input against three

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other people who disagree with him on

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top of that. The article applied

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editorial skepticism only to Lance, the

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only person who was actually in *NSYNC.

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Leena uses phrases like as far as

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he recalls, which she never uses with

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the other men she interviewed. Meanwhile,

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the perspectives of the three people who

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were not in the group and had

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incomplete information. Are presented

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with more confidence and with less doubt.

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Then there's the vulnerability framing.

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Leena includes this long, pretty personal

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quote from Lance about taking on outside

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projects as a distraction from his

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sexuality, and that is part of his

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story. He's talked about that openly, but

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the placement of that comment feels off.

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It's a full paragraph about his emotional

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state, and in the article it comes right

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before the part where he actually

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explains what he remembers from the

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timeline for the hiatus. That's

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the important part. That's the

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part that contradicts the article's

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premise, and instead of summarizing the

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emotional context for Lance in one

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sentence, the article focuses on it in

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a way that emphasizes his vulnerabilities

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instead of what he remembers. What's

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interesting is that none of the other

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men's vulnerabilities or blind spots are

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mentioned at all. In this article, I'm

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sure they had their own pressures and

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limitations when it came to their work.

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Everybody does. But the article doesn't

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use any of that to contextualize their

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perspectives. It only uses Lance's

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vulnerability, and the article uses it in

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a way that kind of frames his

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recollection. Is less reliable. I think

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that imbalance matters because Lance was

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the only person in the article who

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actually lived through the internal

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dynamics of *NSYNC, and by the time this

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article was published, his recollection

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had been consistent for over a decade at

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that point. Toward the end of the

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article, Leena uses fake neutrality. To

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smooth over the biased comments and turn

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the conversation towards burnout, she

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says. And I quote Regardless of what or

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who bore the seeds of the group's

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eventual split, there's one factor most

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people agree on that the young musicians

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needed time off in the wake of NSA's

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phenomenal success. Burnout is a

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factor, and we'll get to that in this

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episode, but pretending that the start of

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the breakup doesn't matter feels really

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performative. After 4 paragraphs of

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implying that the real impetus for the

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split was Lance wanting to do side

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projects, then the article closes by

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focusing on whether the public would be

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receptive of a version of *NSYNC that

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didn't include Justin. Citing the group's

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4 member Coachella performance as

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something that reignited reunion talk. I

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understand the Coachella link, but I

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think that's a strange thing to speculate

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about given the premise of the article.

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If Lance's side projects were supposedly

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leading factors in the break up, then

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wouldn't the logical question be whether

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the public would accept *NSYNC?Without

268
00:10:49,936 --> 00:10:52,673
Lance. But she doesn't

269
00:10:52,673 --> 00:10:55,476
ask that at all. Even after pretending to

270
00:10:55,476 --> 00:10:57,579
explore other factors, she still manages

271
00:10:57,579 --> 00:10:59,681
to center Justin's lack of participation.

272
00:11:01,101 --> 00:11:03,941
So by the time you work through

273
00:11:03,941 --> 00:11:06,374
the whole article, Leena's pattern is

274
00:11:06,374 --> 00:11:08,808
pretty clear. The article doesn't just

275
00:11:08,808 --> 00:11:10,836
question Lance, it stacks other

276
00:11:10,836 --> 00:11:13,269
perspectives against his with no support

277
00:11:13,269 --> 00:11:16,109
and then frames his explanation like a

278
00:11:16,109 --> 00:11:18,542
defence instead of a first hand

279
00:11:18,542 --> 00:11:20,570
experience. It's unbalanced and it

280
00:11:20,570 --> 00:11:22,421
undermines commentary. Than the one

281
00:11:22,421 --> 00:11:24,684
person in the article who was actually

282
00:11:24,684 --> 00:11:26,947
part of *NSYNC. And Speaking of things

283
00:11:26,947 --> 00:11:29,210
that are unbalanced, we need to talk

284
00:11:29,210 --> 00:11:31,150
about Barry Weiss because the article

285
00:11:31,150 --> 00:11:32,766
gives unquestioned authority to the

286
00:11:32,766 --> 00:11:34,383
former Jive Records president while

287
00:11:34,383 --> 00:11:36,322
completely ignoring the power he wielded

288
00:11:36,322 --> 00:11:38,908
over the group's fate. We'll look at his

289
00:11:38,908 --> 00:11:40,202
version of events next.

290
00:11:42,852 --> 00:11:45,307
If Leena Tailor shows how a narrative can

291
00:11:45,307 --> 00:11:47,456
be shaped by structure and tone, then

292
00:11:47,456 --> 00:11:50,218
Barry White shows how it can be shaped by

293
00:11:50,218 --> 00:11:52,060
authority and deflection. The way his

294
00:11:52,060 --> 00:11:54,208
comments are presented tells you a lot

295
00:11:54,208 --> 00:11:56,050
about how perception drifts when history

296
00:11:56,050 --> 00:11:57,891
is removed from the equation. Barry

297
00:11:57,891 --> 00:11:59,733
claims that Justin only truly started

298
00:11:59,733 --> 00:12:01,575
considering a solo career when Lance

299
00:12:01,575 --> 00:12:04,227
Bass. Joey Fatone took roles in the

300
00:12:04,227 --> 00:12:06,881
film On the Line. That already puts

301
00:12:06,881 --> 00:12:09,536
a kink in the timeline. If Justin

302
00:12:09,536 --> 00:12:11,811
truly started considering it then, then

303
00:12:11,811 --> 00:12:14,466
it implicitly means that he was already

304
00:12:14,466 --> 00:12:16,362
considering it before that point.

305
00:12:17,982 --> 00:12:20,322
And if Barry is telling this to a

306
00:12:20,322 --> 00:12:22,369
journalist, it means that the label was

307
00:12:22,369 --> 00:12:23,832
likely well aware of this.

308
00:12:25,072 --> 00:12:27,784
The article tries to have it both ways,

309
00:12:27,784 --> 00:12:29,139
acknowledging Justin's solo ambitions

310
00:12:29,139 --> 00:12:31,512
while still framing Lance's movie as the

311
00:12:31,512 --> 00:12:34,224
catalyst for the break that turned into a

312
00:12:34,224 --> 00:12:36,258
breakup. That's not how causality works.

313
00:12:36,258 --> 00:12:38,292
If Justin was already thinking about

314
00:12:38,292 --> 00:12:41,004
going solo on the line didn't create the

315
00:12:41,004 --> 00:12:43,377
idea, it just gave Barry a convenient

316
00:12:43,377 --> 00:12:46,217
place to pin the blame. Barry

317
00:12:46,217 --> 00:12:48,823
Weiss says, and I'm quoting here, that on

318
00:12:48,823 --> 00:12:51,429
the line was a strategic error on the

319
00:12:51,429 --> 00:12:53,710
band's part and ultimately what broke the

320
00:12:53,710 --> 00:12:56,316
group U, and that if the movie hadn't

321
00:12:56,316 --> 00:12:58,596
happened, there would have been at least

322
00:12:58,596 --> 00:13:01,202
one, if not two more In Sync albums.

323
00:13:03,702 --> 00:13:06,486
I want to reflect on that for a

324
00:13:06,486 --> 00:13:09,254
second because. How does that

325
00:13:09,254 --> 00:13:11,971
make sense?Justin

326
00:13:11,971 --> 00:13:14,185
couldn't have launched a solo career

327
00:13:14,185 --> 00:13:17,156
without Barry's approval. He was

328
00:13:17,156 --> 00:13:20,111
under contract. Every cost footed by Jive

329
00:13:20,111 --> 00:13:22,221
Records would have needed Barry's

330
00:13:22,221 --> 00:13:24,332
approval for Justin's solo rollout.

331
00:13:25,342 --> 00:13:28,173
So for him to imply that Lance's movie is

332
00:13:28,173 --> 00:13:30,375
the reason the group didn't continue only

333
00:13:30,375 --> 00:13:32,892
works if you choose to forget who Barry

334
00:13:32,892 --> 00:13:35,409
Weiss was. And that's hard to do since

335
00:13:35,409 --> 00:13:37,926
Leena put it right up front and introduced

336
00:13:37,926 --> 00:13:40,757
him by saying he used to be the president

337
00:13:40,757 --> 00:13:42,960
of Jive Records. He wasn't watching this

338
00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:45,162
unfold from a distance, he was running.

339
00:13:45,232 --> 00:13:47,990
Label. He had the power,

340
00:13:47,990 --> 00:13:50,747
Lance didn't. And before I wrap up this

341
00:13:50,747 --> 00:13:53,503
point, I have to ask if on the

342
00:13:53,503 --> 00:13:55,915
line was really a strategic error then

343
00:13:55,915 --> 00:13:58,672
did anyone say anything to Lance at the

344
00:13:58,672 --> 00:14:01,429
time? Leena twists things in a way that

345
00:14:01,429 --> 00:14:03,496
implies that Lance was confronted about

346
00:14:03,496 --> 00:14:05,564
supposedly not operating in the best

347
00:14:05,564 --> 00:14:08,543
interests of the ban. But like

348
00:14:08,543 --> 00:14:10,222
I explained, that conversation happened

349
00:14:10,222 --> 00:14:12,572
three years after he filmed the movie.

350
00:14:13,962 --> 00:14:16,861
Why didn't any one from the label step in

351
00:14:16,861 --> 00:14:19,438
if things were that bad? Why didn't the

352
00:14:19,438 --> 00:14:21,693
group's management warn him that he was

353
00:14:21,693 --> 00:14:23,626
jeopardizing the next album, the same

354
00:14:23,626 --> 00:14:25,881
album that was already behind schedule by

355
00:14:25,881 --> 00:14:28,458
the time On the Line started filming? In

356
00:14:28,458 --> 00:14:30,713
case anyone forgot, you can hear more

357
00:14:30,713 --> 00:14:32,646
about that in Lance's episode this

358
00:14:32,646 --> 00:14:34,662
season. Something's not. Adding up.

359
00:14:35,532 --> 00:14:38,205
If this movie was really the thing

360
00:14:38,205 --> 00:14:40,878
that broke the group up, then the

361
00:14:40,878 --> 00:14:43,169
people with actual power, the label

362
00:14:43,169 --> 00:14:45,078
executives, the management, they would

363
00:14:45,078 --> 00:14:47,901
have intervened. They would

364
00:14:47,901 --> 00:14:50,488
have said something and probably tried to

365
00:14:50,488 --> 00:14:53,445
stop it, but despite all of this chatter

366
00:14:53,445 --> 00:14:56,402
after the fact, it seems like nobody did.

367
00:14:57,522 --> 00:15:00,434
And I think that prolonged silence says a

368
00:15:00,434 --> 00:15:03,346
lot. I think it tells us that the

369
00:15:03,346 --> 00:15:06,258
movie wasn't seen as a threat at the

370
00:15:06,258 --> 00:15:09,225
time. It also tells us that

371
00:15:09,225 --> 00:15:10,979
the people in charge likely didn't view

372
00:15:10,979 --> 00:15:12,232
the movie as a problem.

373
00:15:13,962 --> 00:15:16,543
And specifically for Barry, it tells us

374
00:15:16,543 --> 00:15:18,755
that his opinion only appears years

375
00:15:18,755 --> 00:15:21,336
later, when it's convenient and when the

376
00:15:21,336 --> 00:15:23,917
audience is far enough removed from the

377
00:15:23,917 --> 00:15:25,761
timeline that the contradictions aren't

378
00:15:25,761 --> 00:15:27,973
obvious. Here's the part of Garry's

379
00:15:27,973 --> 00:15:30,554
comments that really don't hold up. The

380
00:15:30,554 --> 00:15:32,766
chain of causality he presents goes

381
00:15:32,766 --> 00:15:35,580
something like this. Joey and

382
00:15:35,580 --> 00:15:38,493
Lance take roles in a movie in 2001.

383
00:15:38,493 --> 00:15:40,677
Justin suddenly has space to truly

384
00:15:40,677 --> 00:15:42,862
consider going solo and decides that's

385
00:15:42,862 --> 00:15:44,682
what he wants to do.

386
00:15:46,432 --> 00:15:48,965
OK, and then here's the

387
00:15:48,965 --> 00:15:51,497
part not mentioned in the

388
00:15:51,497 --> 00:15:54,030
article. Somehow Justin's entire solo

389
00:15:54,030 --> 00:15:56,563
rollout magically gets approved. Studio

390
00:15:56,563 --> 00:15:58,589
time, production budgets, marketing,

391
00:15:58,589 --> 00:16:01,284
radio promotion. All of

392
00:16:01,284 --> 00:16:03,772
it just gets green lit by unnamed forces.

393
00:16:05,112 --> 00:16:07,420
Maybe it was fairies, maybe sprites,

394
00:16:07,420 --> 00:16:09,727
maybe a wizard was involved, but

395
00:16:09,727 --> 00:16:12,034
apparently not the president of Jive

396
00:16:12,034 --> 00:16:14,726
Records. And after years of being solo,

397
00:16:14,726 --> 00:16:17,034
Justin isn't interested in returning to

398
00:16:17,034 --> 00:16:19,726
the group. Or at least that's what

399
00:16:19,726 --> 00:16:22,033
Lance remembers being told. But Barry

400
00:16:22,033 --> 00:16:24,725
doesn't talk about that part. He only

401
00:16:24,725 --> 00:16:27,480
says that Justin had the space. Think

402
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,422
and decide he wanted to go solo and

403
00:16:30,422 --> 00:16:32,628
then somehow Lance's movie is the

404
00:16:32,628 --> 00:16:35,202
strategic error that broke the group up.

405
00:16:37,362 --> 00:16:40,252
If On The Line had caused some massive

406
00:16:40,252 --> 00:16:43,143
internal rift, I'm not sure In Sync would

407
00:16:43,143 --> 00:16:45,671
have been able to finish the celebrity

408
00:16:45,671 --> 00:16:48,562
album or do the Pop Odyssey tour. But

409
00:16:48,562 --> 00:16:51,091
there's still the years left after 2001,

410
00:16:51,091 --> 00:16:53,620
and there's still the bigger issue once

411
00:16:53,620 --> 00:16:56,148
Justin privately told the group that he

412
00:16:56,148 --> 00:16:58,617
wasn't coming back. Any version of *NSYNC

413
00:16:58,617 --> 00:17:00,655
that tried to move forward without him

414
00:17:00,655 --> 00:17:02,402
would have needed to renegotiate their

415
00:17:02,402 --> 00:17:04,441
contract with Jive, and Barry is the

416
00:17:04,441 --> 00:17:06,188
person who ultimately would have been

417
00:17:06,188 --> 00:17:08,848
able to approve that. I'm

418
00:17:08,848 --> 00:17:11,337
not claiming to know the specifics of

419
00:17:11,337 --> 00:17:13,826
their contract, and I'm not pretending to

420
00:17:13,826 --> 00:17:16,316
have insider information, but what I can

421
00:17:16,316 --> 00:17:19,161
say is this. It doesn't make sense to

422
00:17:19,161 --> 00:17:21,650
claim that Lance's movie prevented one or

423
00:17:21,650 --> 00:17:24,495
two more In Sync albums when the only

424
00:17:24,495 --> 00:17:26,273
person who could have contractually

425
00:17:26,273 --> 00:17:28,407
facilitated those albums with or without

426
00:17:28,407 --> 00:17:31,066
Justin. Was Barry Weiss. He was the

427
00:17:31,066 --> 00:17:33,473
one with the authority to approve the

428
00:17:33,473 --> 00:17:36,225
four member path forward. He was the one

429
00:17:36,225 --> 00:17:37,944
who could have facilitated those

430
00:17:37,944 --> 00:17:38,632
hypothetical albums.

431
00:17:40,672 --> 00:17:43,199
One last thing I want to address when it

432
00:17:43,199 --> 00:17:45,444
comes to Barry Weiss is his comments on

433
00:17:45,444 --> 00:17:47,410
the role Burnout played in the group.

434
00:17:47,410 --> 00:17:49,655
Wanting a break. He was quoted as saying

435
00:17:49,655 --> 00:17:51,901
the group was burnt out, touring a lot

436
00:17:51,901 --> 00:17:54,466
and tired. OK,

437
00:17:54,466 --> 00:17:57,444
but why?Maybe because they

438
00:17:57,444 --> 00:17:59,735
had just finished the No Strings Attached

439
00:17:59,735 --> 00:18:02,026
tour in December 2000, and within weeks

440
00:18:02,026 --> 00:18:04,317
of that they were already telling the

441
00:18:04,317 --> 00:18:06,935
press that they'd be in the studio in

442
00:18:06,935 --> 00:18:09,553
January working on a follow up album. I

443
00:18:09,553 --> 00:18:11,844
wonder who approved that idea? So that's

444
00:18:11,844 --> 00:18:13,807
where Barry's contributions to the ET

445
00:18:13,807 --> 00:18:16,098
Canada article leaves us. It leaves us

446
00:18:16,098 --> 00:18:18,783
with the. Story that only works if

447
00:18:18,783 --> 00:18:21,136
you ignore the timeline, ignore power

448
00:18:21,136 --> 00:18:23,489
dynamics, and don't think about basic

449
00:18:23,489 --> 00:18:25,842
business logistics. But Barry Weiss isn't

450
00:18:25,842 --> 00:18:28,195
the only person Leena Tailor interviewed

451
00:18:28,195 --> 00:18:30,548
to fill space with authoritative sounding

452
00:18:30,548 --> 00:18:33,293
voices. She turned to two people closer

453
00:18:33,293 --> 00:18:36,038
to the creative process, Alex Greggs and

454
00:18:36,038 --> 00:18:39,011
Joe Riccitelli. If Barry

455
00:18:39,011 --> 00:18:40,835
Weiss represented the bird's eye view

456
00:18:40,835 --> 00:18:42,660
from the executive suite, then Alex

457
00:18:42,660 --> 00:18:44,180
Greggs and Joe Riccitelli represented

458
00:18:44,180 --> 00:18:45,701
something a little different. Commentary

459
00:18:45,701 --> 00:18:48,133
from people who were close enough to the

460
00:18:48,133 --> 00:18:50,566
machine to see pieces of it, but not

461
00:18:50,566 --> 00:18:52,695
close enough to see the whole thing.

462
00:18:52,695 --> 00:18:55,128
Let's start with Alex. Since he has more

463
00:18:55,128 --> 00:18:56,952
real estate in this article, he's

464
00:18:56,952 --> 00:18:58,473
presented as a creative collaborator.

465
00:18:58,853 --> 00:19:01,234
Someone who lived with JC Chaussee at one

466
00:19:01,234 --> 00:19:03,020
point and generally positioned as an

467
00:19:03,020 --> 00:19:05,103
insider with direct knowledge of what was

468
00:19:05,103 --> 00:19:06,591
happening within sync. Despite the

469
00:19:06,591 --> 00:19:08,080
article supposedly being about whether

470
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,163
Lance's side projects broke up the group,

471
00:19:10,163 --> 00:19:12,247
the first quote attributed to Alex is

472
00:19:12,247 --> 00:19:14,033
about Justin. People think Justin was

473
00:19:14,033 --> 00:19:16,414
like, that's it, I'm done. I'm the one

474
00:19:16,414 --> 00:19:18,795
everyone's looking at, so I'm going to go

475
00:19:18,795 --> 00:19:21,576
off. On my own, but it was quite the

476
00:19:21,576 --> 00:19:23,687
opposite because not once had Jace or

477
00:19:23,687 --> 00:19:25,798
Justin ever asked me about doing other

478
00:19:25,798 --> 00:19:28,211
songs. This was a direct quote from Alex

479
00:19:28,211 --> 00:19:30,624
Greggs. He then also said there was never

480
00:19:30,624 --> 00:19:33,037
any hint of solo music until Lance came

481
00:19:33,037 --> 00:19:35,450
into the room and said I'm going into

482
00:19:35,450 --> 00:19:38,165
space so we'll need a year off. There are

483
00:19:38,165 --> 00:19:40,592
three missing elements to what?Alex said

484
00:19:40,592 --> 00:19:43,495
when he found out, how he found

485
00:19:43,495 --> 00:19:45,983
out and who this information supposedly

486
00:19:45,983 --> 00:19:48,979
came from. But even without

487
00:19:48,979 --> 00:19:51,051
that his input his position does

488
00:19:51,051 --> 00:19:53,469
reliable, despite the fact that later in

489
00:19:53,469 --> 00:19:55,887
the same article Lance Bass says the

490
00:19:55,887 --> 00:19:58,651
break was only intended to be 6 months.

491
00:19:58,651 --> 00:20:01,069
Since we don't have more context for

492
00:20:01,069 --> 00:20:03,141
Alex's comments, we can't compare them

493
00:20:03,141 --> 00:20:05,214
directly to the hiatus conversation Lance

494
00:20:05,214 --> 00:20:07,632
remembered in his memoir. We also can't

495
00:20:07,632 --> 00:20:09,647
assume Alex's. Collections preceded the

496
00:20:09,647 --> 00:20:11,737
conversation that Lance remembers from

497
00:20:11,737 --> 00:20:14,663
late 2001. His comment about there being

498
00:20:14,663 --> 00:20:17,589
no hint of solo music until after

499
00:20:17,589 --> 00:20:20,097
Lance mentioned space also lacks context,

500
00:20:20,097 --> 00:20:22,605
though that's probably based on his

501
00:20:22,605 --> 00:20:25,113
limited access to other conversations. As

502
00:20:25,113 --> 00:20:28,039
far as he knew, there were no

503
00:20:28,039 --> 00:20:30,872
mentions of solo. Music. Other people who

504
00:20:30,872 --> 00:20:32,758
were Privy to different conversations,

505
00:20:32,758 --> 00:20:35,398
like Angie Stone for example, would have

506
00:20:35,398 --> 00:20:36,907
shared different recollections. Really,

507
00:20:36,907 --> 00:20:39,548
so much of what Alex says in

508
00:20:39,548 --> 00:20:41,811
this article relies on the assumption

509
00:20:41,811 --> 00:20:44,074
that his vantage point was universal,

510
00:20:44,074 --> 00:20:46,715
that because he didn't hear the word

511
00:20:46,715 --> 00:20:49,356
solo, nobody was using it at the

512
00:20:49,356 --> 00:20:51,990
time. But that's not how

513
00:20:51,990 --> 00:20:54,061
information works. Whatever he heard,

514
00:20:54,061 --> 00:20:56,961
whenever he heard it, and whomever he

515
00:20:56,961 --> 00:20:59,861
heard it from, is exactly that. It's

516
00:20:59,861 --> 00:21:02,761
what he was told. Alex isn't omniscient,

517
00:21:02,761 --> 00:21:05,661
he is not a historian, and he's

518
00:21:05,661 --> 00:21:08,561
not a member of *NSYNC. But the

519
00:21:08,561 --> 00:21:11,344
article treats his limited access. As if

520
00:21:11,344 --> 00:21:13,553
it's a definitive account of what was

521
00:21:13,553 --> 00:21:15,446
happening behind the scenes. And then

522
00:21:15,446 --> 00:21:17,654
there's the part where he supposedly says

523
00:21:17,654 --> 00:21:19,548
the group was thinking about leaving

524
00:21:19,548 --> 00:21:22,072
while we were on top because boy bands

525
00:21:22,072 --> 00:21:24,808
were waning. I'm not getting

526
00:21:24,808 --> 00:21:27,131
into that today. That belongs in a

527
00:21:27,131 --> 00:21:28,458
completely different conversation, and

528
00:21:28,458 --> 00:21:31,444
I'll come back to it when I get into

529
00:21:31,444 --> 00:21:33,434
the *NSYNC versus Backstreet Boys hiatus

530
00:21:33,434 --> 00:21:35,757
comparison. But for now, I'll just say

531
00:21:35,757 --> 00:21:38,743
that it doesn't line up with any of the

532
00:21:38,743 --> 00:21:41,397
comments I've seen from the members of In

533
00:21:41,397 --> 00:21:43,388
Sync when they've actually talked about

534
00:21:43,388 --> 00:21:46,178
how things ended. In the 2000s, before I

535
00:21:46,178 --> 00:21:48,594
wrap things up with Alex, I'll touch

536
00:21:48,594 --> 00:21:51,010
briefly on his comments about the reunion

537
00:21:51,010 --> 00:21:53,080
being what he called a logistical

538
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:55,151
nightmare. This is another place where

539
00:21:55,151 --> 00:21:57,911
the article used his perspective as if it

540
00:21:57,911 --> 00:21:59,982
were definitive. Even though he was

541
00:21:59,982 --> 00:22:02,397
speaking from the outside looking in, he

542
00:22:02,397 --> 00:22:04,468
essentially framed the potential In Sync

543
00:22:04,468 --> 00:22:07,169
reunion. As a no win situation, he

544
00:22:07,169 --> 00:22:09,604
said that if the reunion flopped without

545
00:22:09,604 --> 00:22:12,038
Justin, it would just reinforce the idea

546
00:22:12,038 --> 00:22:14,472
that some people have that he was

547
00:22:14,472 --> 00:22:16,907
carrying the group. If a reunion without

548
00:22:16,907 --> 00:22:18,993
Justin was successful, it would put

549
00:22:18,993 --> 00:22:21,080
everyone in the position of uprooting

550
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,514
their lives and that's something he says

551
00:22:23,514 --> 00:22:26,407
that some of the guys. One, once again,

552
00:22:26,407 --> 00:22:28,434
with no additional context, it's not

553
00:22:28,434 --> 00:22:30,799
completely clear if these are things that

554
00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:33,503
were said directly to Alex, or if it's

555
00:22:33,503 --> 00:22:35,868
more of his speculation from second and

556
00:22:35,868 --> 00:22:37,558
third hand sources. Joe Richetelli

557
00:22:37,558 --> 00:22:39,585
contributes the least to this article.

558
00:22:39,585 --> 00:22:41,612
His comments aren't substantial enough to

559
00:22:41,612 --> 00:22:43,978
compare them to what we've covered this

560
00:22:43,978 --> 00:22:46,343
season, but in the interest of fairness.

561
00:22:46,433 --> 00:22:48,611
I'll address them anyway. Joe is the

562
00:22:48,611 --> 00:22:50,166
former senior vice president of

563
00:22:50,166 --> 00:22:52,655
promotions for Job Records and as of the

564
00:22:52,655 --> 00:22:54,521
publication date of this article, he

565
00:22:54,521 --> 00:22:56,699
still worked with Justin at RCA Records.

566
00:22:56,699 --> 00:22:58,877
He said he never witnessed any animosity

567
00:22:58,877 --> 00:23:01,054
among the group and believes that the

568
00:23:01,054 --> 00:23:03,543
long term split was the result of the

569
00:23:03,543 --> 00:23:05,099
group outgrowing each other. Describing

570
00:23:05,099 --> 00:23:07,961
it and I quote. As a natural life story

571
00:23:07,961 --> 00:23:10,602
of a teenager becoming a man and saying I

572
00:23:10,602 --> 00:23:12,951
want to experience new things in life. In

573
00:23:12,951 --> 00:23:15,299
2001 the only member of *NSYNC who was

574
00:23:15,299 --> 00:23:17,647
still a teenager was Justin and that was

575
00:23:17,647 --> 00:23:20,582
only for the 1st 30 days of the year. We

576
00:23:20,582 --> 00:23:22,637
don't know what questions Leena asked Joe

577
00:23:22,637 --> 00:23:24,398
directly, but considering the point of

578
00:23:24,398 --> 00:23:26,159
this article was supposed to be

579
00:23:26,159 --> 00:23:27,731
addressing lesser known factors. And

580
00:23:27,731 --> 00:23:29,369
since breakup, specifically the things

581
00:23:29,369 --> 00:23:31,989
traced back to Lance Bass, I think it's

582
00:23:31,989 --> 00:23:33,955
interesting that Joe's description of the

583
00:23:33,955 --> 00:23:36,248
breakup comes down to a singular teenager

584
00:23:36,248 --> 00:23:38,541
growing into a singular man. When it

585
00:23:38,541 --> 00:23:41,161
comes to Joe's comments, I think what he

586
00:23:41,161 --> 00:23:43,782
didn't say is more important than what he

587
00:23:43,782 --> 00:23:46,075
did. Barry talked about having a bird's

588
00:23:46,075 --> 00:23:48,040
eye view while pretending he wasn't

589
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,840
ruling the roost. Even though he was

590
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,582
the one at the top of the

591
00:23:53,582 --> 00:23:56,324
perch signing off on everything, Joe, on

592
00:23:56,324 --> 00:23:58,675
the other hand didn't minimize his

593
00:23:58,675 --> 00:24:01,025
position as an executive. He minimized

594
00:24:01,025 --> 00:24:03,767
the business itself. He gave a very

595
00:24:03,767 --> 00:24:05,334
self development oriented, subjective

596
00:24:05,334 --> 00:24:07,685
explanation about a teenager becoming a

597
00:24:07,685 --> 00:24:10,106
man and about people outgrowing. Each

598
00:24:10,106 --> 00:24:12,465
other, which is convenient because you

599
00:24:12,465 --> 00:24:15,217
can't refute how somebody feels, but it

600
00:24:15,217 --> 00:24:17,969
also bypasses the actual structure of the

601
00:24:17,969 --> 00:24:20,721
group. *NSYNC wasn't a hobby club started

602
00:24:20,721 --> 00:24:23,473
by a bunch of friends. These guys

603
00:24:23,473 --> 00:24:25,832
weren't frat brothers who moved in

604
00:24:25,832 --> 00:24:28,584
together and decided to maybe run a

605
00:24:28,584 --> 00:24:31,475
weekend car washing. Business In Sync was

606
00:24:31,475 --> 00:24:33,527
a multimillion dollar global brand.

607
00:24:33,527 --> 00:24:35,989
Saying they outgrew each other doesn't

608
00:24:35,989 --> 00:24:38,452
address or amend the agreements and

609
00:24:38,452 --> 00:24:40,914
contracts that were already in place.

610
00:24:40,914 --> 00:24:42,556
Outgrowing something doesn't dissolve

611
00:24:42,556 --> 00:24:44,608
obligations and it doesn't magically

612
00:24:44,608 --> 00:24:46,660
release anyone from the business

613
00:24:46,660 --> 00:24:49,122
structure they were operating inside. So

614
00:24:49,122 --> 00:24:51,966
when Joe. Frames the breakup as a

615
00:24:51,966 --> 00:24:54,685
teenager becoming a man. He's focusing on

616
00:24:54,685 --> 00:24:56,627
the psychosocial aspect while completely

617
00:24:56,627 --> 00:24:58,958
ignoring the business aspect. And that's

618
00:24:58,958 --> 00:25:01,677
ironic because he wasn't the senior vice

619
00:25:01,677 --> 00:25:03,619
president of developmental maturity or

620
00:25:03,619 --> 00:25:05,950
the senior vice president of friendship

621
00:25:05,950 --> 00:25:08,281
management. He was the senior vice

622
00:25:08,281 --> 00:25:10,223
president of promotions and promotions.

623
00:25:10,293 --> 00:25:12,875
Only exists when there's an active,

624
00:25:12,875 --> 00:25:15,026
lucrative business to promote. Together,

625
00:25:15,026 --> 00:25:17,607
Alex Greggs and Joe Riccitelli represent

626
00:25:17,607 --> 00:25:20,188
two kinds of partial perspectives, one

627
00:25:20,188 --> 00:25:22,770
limited by access and the other

628
00:25:22,770 --> 00:25:25,351
limited by usefulness. But together, the

629
00:25:25,351 --> 00:25:27,502
article elevates these two perspectives

630
00:25:27,502 --> 00:25:30,083
as if they explain the breakup.

631
00:25:30,773 --> 00:25:33,463
They really don't. They

632
00:25:33,463 --> 00:25:35,913
filled space in a narrative that needed

633
00:25:35,913 --> 00:25:38,013
people who sounded authoritative, even if

634
00:25:38,013 --> 00:25:39,763
these voices weren't offering anything

635
00:25:39,763 --> 00:25:42,760
substantial. And now

636
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,401
he gets to Lance Bass, the only member of

637
00:25:45,401 --> 00:25:47,748
Vincent who was quoted in the ET Canada

638
00:25:47,748 --> 00:25:49,508
article. Leena Tailor pulled lines from

639
00:25:49,508 --> 00:25:51,855
Lance's memoir and even noted that it was

640
00:25:51,855 --> 00:25:53,909
published in 2007. But like I mentioned

641
00:25:53,909 --> 00:25:56,256
earlier, she used the quote she pulled in

642
00:25:56,256 --> 00:25:58,310
a way that stripped them of their

643
00:25:58,310 --> 00:26:00,070
original context. She presented them as

644
00:26:00,070 --> 00:26:02,026
if she was describing. Something that

645
00:26:02,026 --> 00:26:04,518
happened in 2001, when in reality, those

646
00:26:04,518 --> 00:26:06,655
quotes were concerning. A moment that

647
00:26:06,655 --> 00:26:09,504
happened three years later. It was a 2004

648
00:26:09,504 --> 00:26:11,997
meeting when the group was supposed to

649
00:26:11,997 --> 00:26:14,489
begin preparing for their next album, but

650
00:26:14,489 --> 00:26:16,270
according to Lance's recollection, Justin

651
00:26:16,270 --> 00:26:18,406
announced he wasn't coming back. It

652
00:26:18,406 --> 00:26:20,899
wasn't a 2001 conversation, and it wasn't

653
00:26:20,899 --> 00:26:23,577
part of the celebrity. But

654
00:26:23,577 --> 00:26:25,838
the article never tells the reader that.

655
00:26:25,838 --> 00:26:27,776
Instead, those quotes were cherry picked

656
00:26:27,776 --> 00:26:29,715
and dropped into a completely different

657
00:26:29,715 --> 00:26:31,653
part of the timeline, creating the

658
00:26:31,653 --> 00:26:33,592
impression that the comments about not

659
00:26:33,592 --> 00:26:35,853
operating in the best interests of the

660
00:26:35,853 --> 00:26:38,761
band were part of the on the line era.

661
00:26:38,761 --> 00:26:41,345
Whether it was intentional or not, it was

662
00:26:41,345 --> 00:26:42,960
misleading. What makes that cherry

663
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,693
picking?Even more strange is that Leena

664
00:26:45,693 --> 00:26:47,635
never acknowledged that Lance's new

665
00:26:47,635 --> 00:26:50,353
quotes in the article line up with

666
00:26:50,353 --> 00:26:53,071
what he already said in 2007. His

667
00:26:53,071 --> 00:26:55,013
recollection had actually been pretty

668
00:26:55,013 --> 00:26:57,731
consistent for over a decade by the

669
00:26:57,731 --> 00:27:00,449
time this article was published, but by

670
00:27:00,449 --> 00:27:02,390
ignoring that continuity, the article

671
00:27:02,390 --> 00:27:05,385
stripped him of credibility. It made

672
00:27:05,385 --> 00:27:08,309
his version of things look like just one

673
00:27:08,309 --> 00:27:10,867
opinion among many, instead of it being

674
00:27:10,867 --> 00:27:13,061
the only first hand narrative from

675
00:27:13,061 --> 00:27:14,888
somebody who had already publicly

676
00:27:14,888 --> 00:27:17,081
explained what he remembers from that

677
00:27:17,081 --> 00:27:19,274
time. Then there's this omission. Lance's

678
00:27:19,274 --> 00:27:21,102
timeline directly contradicts what Alex

679
00:27:21,102 --> 00:27:23,661
Greggs said earlier in the article. Alex

680
00:27:23,661 --> 00:27:26,615
claimed that he was told Lance. Wanted to

681
00:27:26,615 --> 00:27:29,381
take a year off to go into space,

682
00:27:29,381 --> 00:27:31,802
but Lance's account of things is more

683
00:27:31,802 --> 00:27:34,222
precise. He says that Justin proposed a

684
00:27:34,222 --> 00:27:36,988
six month break so he could try a

685
00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:39,754
solo album, and he only agreed to pursue

686
00:27:39,754 --> 00:27:42,520
the space mission if he could be back

687
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,595
by November 1st. For context, the

688
00:27:44,595 --> 00:27:47,142
celebrity tour ended April 28th. In 2002

689
00:27:47,142 --> 00:27:49,762
and counting forward from May 1st takes

690
00:27:49,762 --> 00:27:52,755
you exactly 6 months to the date that

691
00:27:52,755 --> 00:27:55,504
Lance gave. Nothing in the

692
00:27:55,504 --> 00:27:58,329
record so far. Nothing in 2001 suggests

693
00:27:58,329 --> 00:28:01,154
that Lance was planning a space mission

694
00:28:01,154 --> 00:28:03,172
during the group's active. Lance's

695
00:28:03,172 --> 00:28:05,996
version aligns with the dates, the math,

696
00:28:05,996 --> 00:28:08,821
and the sequence of events he's described

697
00:28:08,821 --> 00:28:11,242
consistently since 2007. Alex's one year

698
00:28:11,242 --> 00:28:13,664
claim doesn't line up with anything.

699
00:28:14,474 --> 00:28:17,466
But I feel like I need to backtrack a

700
00:28:17,466 --> 00:28:19,794
little bit right here, because the way

701
00:28:19,794 --> 00:28:22,121
Lance was introduced in this article is

702
00:28:22,121 --> 00:28:25,019
telling. Before he ever

703
00:28:25,019 --> 00:28:27,597
got to speak about the timeline, the

704
00:28:27,597 --> 00:28:30,175
reader was walked through two people who

705
00:28:30,175 --> 00:28:32,754
contradicted him. Alex with his one year

706
00:28:32,754 --> 00:28:35,700
break claim and then Barry with his claim

707
00:28:35,700 --> 00:28:38,647
that on the line created the opening for

708
00:28:38,647 --> 00:28:41,594
Justin to consider and decide to go solo.

709
00:28:43,034 --> 00:28:45,559
Only after those two people are explored

710
00:28:45,559 --> 00:28:48,445
in the article does Leena turn and ask.

711
00:28:48,445 --> 00:28:51,330
So what does Bass have to say about

712
00:28:51,330 --> 00:28:53,855
this? And instead of starting with his

713
00:28:53,855 --> 00:28:56,380
recollection of the six month break, she

714
00:28:56,380 --> 00:28:58,184
leads with his most personal

715
00:28:58,184 --> 00:29:00,348
vulnerability, the part where he talks

716
00:29:00,348 --> 00:29:02,873
about throwing himself into work to stay

717
00:29:02,873 --> 00:29:05,269
closeted. And stayed distracted in the

718
00:29:05,269 --> 00:29:07,615
layout of the article. That emotional

719
00:29:07,615 --> 00:29:10,352
disclosure takes U almost the same visual

720
00:29:10,352 --> 00:29:13,090
space as his actual timeline, and because

721
00:29:13,090 --> 00:29:15,827
of where it's placed, it reads almost

722
00:29:15,827 --> 00:29:18,564
like a soft admission of guilt. His

723
00:29:18,564 --> 00:29:20,519
sincerity was positioned like a

724
00:29:20,519 --> 00:29:23,257
confession. And by the time he finally

725
00:29:23,257 --> 00:29:25,994
gets to the part where he explains.

726
00:29:26,184 --> 00:29:28,864
About the proposed 6 month break and how

727
00:29:28,864 --> 00:29:31,544
he knew he had to be back by

728
00:29:31,544 --> 00:29:33,889
November 1st. The reader has already been

729
00:29:33,889 --> 00:29:35,899
primed to see Lance as overwhelmed,

730
00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:37,239
distracted, and indirectly responsible

731
00:29:37,239 --> 00:29:39,584
for how things turned out, even though

732
00:29:39,584 --> 00:29:42,264
his timeline is the only one that can

733
00:29:42,264 --> 00:29:44,944
be mapped to a real calendar. But that's

734
00:29:44,944 --> 00:29:47,389
not to say that Lance's perspective. Is

735
00:29:47,389 --> 00:29:49,944
infallible because it's not. His point of

736
00:29:49,944 --> 00:29:52,864
view is limited, just in a very different

737
00:29:52,864 --> 00:29:55,784
way from the other men quoted in this

738
00:29:55,784 --> 00:29:57,609
article. Lance's limitations come from

739
00:29:57,609 --> 00:30:00,529
being inside the bubble where he only had

740
00:30:00,529 --> 00:30:02,719
access to the conversations he personally

741
00:30:02,719 --> 00:30:04,909
participated in and the information that

742
00:30:04,909 --> 00:30:07,464
he was directly told. And that matters.

743
00:30:07,534 --> 00:30:09,628
Because the other perspectives in this

744
00:30:09,628 --> 00:30:11,373
article aren't grounded in direct

745
00:30:11,373 --> 00:30:13,816
communication at all, or at least that's

746
00:30:13,816 --> 00:30:15,910
not how they're presented. Alex never

747
00:30:15,910 --> 00:30:18,004
said Lance told him anything directly

748
00:30:18,004 --> 00:30:20,446
about wanting a year off. Nothing about

749
00:30:20,446 --> 00:30:22,540
his quote implied direct contact, and

750
00:30:22,540 --> 00:30:24,983
Leena Tailor didn't frame it that way.

751
00:30:24,983 --> 00:30:27,426
Barry Weiss doesn't say that Justin told

752
00:30:27,426 --> 00:30:30,144
him that. On the line was the moment

753
00:30:30,144 --> 00:30:32,083
he started thinking about going solo.

754
00:30:32,083 --> 00:30:34,670
Barry simply speaks as if he had insight

755
00:30:34,670 --> 00:30:36,286
into Justin's internal process. Joe

756
00:30:36,286 --> 00:30:37,903
Richetelli's comments don't imply that

757
00:30:37,903 --> 00:30:40,489
anyone in the group ever told him that

758
00:30:40,489 --> 00:30:42,752
they had outgrown each other. This is

759
00:30:42,752 --> 00:30:44,691
just something he somehow magically seems

760
00:30:44,691 --> 00:30:47,601
to know on his own. Lance is the only

761
00:30:47,601 --> 00:30:49,746
person in this article. Was describing

762
00:30:49,746 --> 00:30:51,699
something he remembers as direct

763
00:30:51,699 --> 00:30:54,044
communication, what Justin said to him,

764
00:30:54,044 --> 00:30:56,779
what the group agreed to, and what

765
00:30:56,779 --> 00:30:59,515
the timeline was supposed to be. But

766
00:30:59,515 --> 00:31:01,469
even then, that direct communication

767
00:31:01,469 --> 00:31:03,813
didn't make him Privy to the

768
00:31:03,813 --> 00:31:05,767
conversations happening outside of the

769
00:31:05,767 --> 00:31:07,721
*NSYNC bubble, like the private

770
00:31:07,721 --> 00:31:09,284
discussions with potential collaborators.

771
00:31:09,374 --> 00:31:12,096
Or any early solo planning. And even

772
00:31:12,096 --> 00:31:14,429
in situations where Lance was physically

773
00:31:14,429 --> 00:31:16,762
present, like the Billboard Music Awards

774
00:31:16,762 --> 00:31:19,484
sound check, he still wasn't Privy to

775
00:31:19,484 --> 00:31:21,428
specific conversations. The Angie Stone

776
00:31:21,428 --> 00:31:24,150
moment is a perfect example. Lance was

777
00:31:24,150 --> 00:31:26,872
almost certainly in the same room because

778
00:31:26,872 --> 00:31:29,594
the group was required to be there.

779
00:31:29,674 --> 00:31:32,551
For work, but he wasn't part of the

780
00:31:32,551 --> 00:31:34,709
sound check conversation when Justin told

781
00:31:34,709 --> 00:31:37,587
Angie, your CD's in my car right now

782
00:31:37,587 --> 00:31:40,464
you have to work on my solo project.

783
00:31:40,464 --> 00:31:42,622
That information never reached Lance. And

784
00:31:42,622 --> 00:31:45,499
as I mentioned back in episode 6, the

785
00:31:45,499 --> 00:31:48,017
timeline we have so far suggests that

786
00:31:48,017 --> 00:31:49,815
this conversation with Angie happened

787
00:31:49,815 --> 00:31:52,262
roughly 2 weeks. Before Justin reportedly

788
00:31:52,262 --> 00:31:54,197
approached the group asking about taking

789
00:31:54,197 --> 00:31:56,454
a six month break the following year.

790
00:31:57,714 --> 00:32:00,246
Lance wasn't part of that early December

791
00:32:00,246 --> 00:32:02,054
conversation because he wasn't supposed

792
00:32:02,054 --> 00:32:04,224
to be. His perspective is incomplete

793
00:32:04,224 --> 00:32:06,033
because certain decisions were happening

794
00:32:06,033 --> 00:32:08,926
elsewhere, and that's not a flaw in his

795
00:32:08,926 --> 00:32:11,096
recollection. It's simply the context of

796
00:32:11,096 --> 00:32:13,628
how things operated around him. And This

797
00:32:13,628 --> 00:32:16,159
is why Lance becomes the turning point

798
00:32:16,159 --> 00:32:18,937
for this episode. His account of

799
00:32:18,937 --> 00:32:21,144
things isn't perfect, and it's not

800
00:32:21,144 --> 00:32:24,086
complete. No ones is, but it's the only

801
00:32:24,086 --> 00:32:26,292
one rooted in direct communication and

802
00:32:26,292 --> 00:32:28,866
lived experience. And for the purposes of

803
00:32:28,866 --> 00:32:31,072
this episode, his perspective marks the

804
00:32:31,072 --> 00:32:33,646
moment where we'll stop relying on the

805
00:32:33,646 --> 00:32:36,220
framing in the ET Canada article and

806
00:32:36,220 --> 00:32:38,427
start returning to the actual timeline

807
00:32:38,427 --> 00:32:41,162
of. 2001 as it unfolded through the

808
00:32:41,162 --> 00:32:43,843
eyes of five young men who were

809
00:32:43,843 --> 00:32:45,375
navigating burnout, ambition, pressure

810
00:32:45,375 --> 00:32:47,673
and the corporate machinery around them.

811
00:32:47,673 --> 00:32:50,354
Let's move backwards into that final act

812
00:32:50,354 --> 00:32:53,035
of era and see what the history

813
00:32:53,035 --> 00:32:54,184
has to say.

814
00:32:56,084 --> 00:32:58,762
Now we can finally step back and

815
00:32:58,762 --> 00:33:01,439
look at the bigger picture, not just

816
00:33:01,439 --> 00:33:03,352
Lance's story, but everything we've

817
00:33:03,352 --> 00:33:05,647
covered so far and unsynchronized. When

818
00:33:05,647 --> 00:33:08,324
you put all six of this seasons

819
00:33:08,324 --> 00:33:10,237
episodes together, certain themes start

820
00:33:10,237 --> 00:33:12,914
to stand out and it becomes clear

821
00:33:12,914 --> 00:33:15,592
how they showed up over time through

822
00:33:15,592 --> 00:33:17,552
different. Pieces and across individual

823
00:33:17,552 --> 00:33:19,857
paths. I think the first theme that

824
00:33:19,857 --> 00:33:21,833
reveals itself is burnout. Nsync's peak

825
00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,468
years were built on a schedule that was

826
00:33:24,468 --> 00:33:26,444
pretty much unsustainable and the cracks

827
00:33:26,444 --> 00:33:28,420
were showing before anybody publicly said

828
00:33:28,420 --> 00:33:31,384
the word hiatus when the group had a 2

829
00:33:31,384 --> 00:33:34,018
month break between the legs of the no

830
00:33:34,018 --> 00:33:35,994
strings attached to her People magazine.

831
00:33:36,024 --> 00:33:38,613
Asked them what they wanted to do with

832
00:33:38,613 --> 00:33:40,554
their downtime. Their answers were very

833
00:33:40,554 --> 00:33:43,143
telling. Joey said he wanted to go away.

834
00:33:43,143 --> 00:33:45,084
Chris wanted to play video games.

835
00:33:45,994 --> 00:33:48,510
And Justin said that he wanted to go to

836
00:33:48,510 --> 00:33:50,466
his own home. These are ordinary things

837
00:33:50,466 --> 00:33:52,142
that sound extraordinary when you've been

838
00:33:52,142 --> 00:33:53,819
grinding non-stop for eight months and

839
00:33:53,819 --> 00:33:56,334
still have a year end push ahead of you.

840
00:33:56,334 --> 00:33:58,849
The second leg of the NSA tour ended in

841
00:33:58,849 --> 00:34:00,805
December 2000, and before the month was

842
00:34:00,805 --> 00:34:02,762
over, they were already telling MTV that

843
00:34:02,762 --> 00:34:04,997
they'd be back in the studio in January

844
00:34:04,997 --> 00:34:07,580
to start the next album. Fast forward to

845
00:34:07,580 --> 00:34:09,645
their Larry King interview on January 9th

846
00:34:09,645 --> 00:34:11,710
in 2001, Lance confirmed that the next

847
00:34:11,710 --> 00:34:13,775
two months would be spent recording the

848
00:34:13,775 --> 00:34:15,840
new album. He also mentioned that when

849
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,905
friends or family came and visited them,

850
00:34:17,905 --> 00:34:20,265
these people would spend a few days with

851
00:34:20,265 --> 00:34:22,625
the group and feel like they needed a

852
00:34:22,625 --> 00:34:24,690
week off just from watching them work.

853
00:34:24,690 --> 00:34:27,683
That's not a casual comment. That's a

854
00:34:27,683 --> 00:34:29,899
quiet acknowledgment of how extreme the

855
00:34:29,899 --> 00:34:32,853
pace really was, and despite the plan to

856
00:34:32,853 --> 00:34:35,807
finish the album by the end of February,

857
00:34:35,807 --> 00:34:38,761
the work dragged on. It wasn't done in

858
00:34:38,761 --> 00:34:40,976
February, or March, or possibly even

859
00:34:40,976 --> 00:34:43,561
April, based on reporting in the Rolling

860
00:34:43,561 --> 00:34:46,515
Stone feature that came out in August of

861
00:34:46,515 --> 00:34:48,475
2001. The recording for the Celebrity

862
00:34:48,475 --> 00:34:50,534
album may not have been fully wrapped

863
00:34:50,534 --> 00:34:52,593
until early May. The release date for

864
00:34:52,593 --> 00:34:54,652
Celebrity was pushed back from June to

865
00:34:54,652 --> 00:34:57,005
July, and the new tour was pushed back

866
00:34:57,005 --> 00:34:59,358
too, but not by much. In late April,

867
00:34:59,358 --> 00:35:01,416
rehearsals for the Pop Odyssey tour had

868
00:35:01,416 --> 00:35:02,887
already started, and by mid-May

869
00:35:02,887 --> 00:35:04,946
rehearsals were paused so the group could

870
00:35:04,946 --> 00:35:07,407
film the music video for the new. Albums

871
00:35:07,407 --> 00:35:09,455
lead single Even with the delays, the

872
00:35:09,455 --> 00:35:10,917
public messaging still stayed upbeat.

873
00:35:10,917 --> 00:35:12,965
Entertainment Weekly ran a piece in which

874
00:35:12,965 --> 00:35:15,012
the members were asked whether it felt

875
00:35:15,012 --> 00:35:17,060
too soon to be releasing another album.

876
00:35:17,060 --> 00:35:18,815
The group talked about staying visible,

877
00:35:18,815 --> 00:35:20,862
keeping the hype going, how much they

878
00:35:20,862 --> 00:35:23,202
loved being on the road and also talked

879
00:35:23,202 --> 00:35:25,542
about feeling like a new album would help

880
00:35:25,542 --> 00:35:28,318
to push the new tour. But

881
00:35:28,318 --> 00:35:30,618
when you place those PR friendly

882
00:35:30,618 --> 00:35:33,300
responses next to the reality of the

883
00:35:33,300 --> 00:35:35,983
delays and the sheer amount of work

884
00:35:35,983 --> 00:35:38,666
that must have been happening behind the

885
00:35:38,666 --> 00:35:40,966
scenes, a big disconnect becomes clear.

886
00:35:40,966 --> 00:35:42,499
The public narrative emphasized

887
00:35:42,499 --> 00:35:44,415
excitement. The internal reality looked

888
00:35:44,415 --> 00:35:47,098
like a recipe for exhaustion. The pop

889
00:35:47,098 --> 00:35:49,740
Odyssey tour. Kicked off on May 23rd and

890
00:35:49,740 --> 00:35:52,432
ran until September 1st. In Sync was on a

891
00:35:52,432 --> 00:35:54,825
break in the fall. Imagine the air quotes

892
00:35:54,825 --> 00:35:57,218
around the phrase on a break in November.

893
00:35:57,218 --> 00:35:59,910
Joey told the BBC that he hoped the break

894
00:35:59,910 --> 00:36:02,602
they were taking at the time would last a

895
00:36:02,602 --> 00:36:04,696
little longer. But to me that break

896
00:36:04,696 --> 00:36:07,388
didn't look like much of a break at all.

897
00:36:07,388 --> 00:36:08,977
There were still making. Public

898
00:36:08,977 --> 00:36:11,230
appearances as a group and still doing

899
00:36:11,230 --> 00:36:13,161
live performances throughout the rest of

900
00:36:13,161 --> 00:36:15,415
the year. Even though not every member

901
00:36:15,415 --> 00:36:17,346
openly spoke about fatigue, the pattern

902
00:36:17,346 --> 00:36:19,278
is clear. When some members are

903
00:36:19,278 --> 00:36:20,565
acknowledging exhaustion publicly, and

904
00:36:20,565 --> 00:36:22,819
when the workload is this intense, it's

905
00:36:22,819 --> 00:36:25,072
reasonable to conclude that all of them

906
00:36:25,072 --> 00:36:27,647
were failing it in some capacity. So what

907
00:36:27,647 --> 00:36:30,549
we see is that. Burnout wasn't a sudden

908
00:36:30,549 --> 00:36:32,864
development. It was already starting to

909
00:36:32,864 --> 00:36:35,566
show a bit in the year 2000,

910
00:36:35,566 --> 00:36:37,881
and then starting to be quietly

911
00:36:37,881 --> 00:36:40,197
acknowledged in 2001. But the burnout

912
00:36:40,197 --> 00:36:42,512
didn't happen in isolation. It happened

913
00:36:42,512 --> 00:36:44,442
inside a group whose internal

914
00:36:44,442 --> 00:36:45,986
relationships affected how information

915
00:36:45,986 --> 00:36:48,687
moved, and sometimes how it didn't move

916
00:36:48,687 --> 00:36:51,376
between its members. And that's

917
00:36:51,376 --> 00:36:53,935
why the second theme that emerges from

918
00:36:53,935 --> 00:36:56,859
Season 1 is an intersection of three C's,

919
00:36:56,859 --> 00:36:58,322
Cohesion, connection, and communication.

920
00:36:58,322 --> 00:37:01,246
These things together give us a sense of

921
00:37:01,246 --> 00:37:03,805
how the members of *NSYNC saw themselves

922
00:37:03,805 --> 00:37:06,729
as a group, who seemed closest to whom

923
00:37:06,729 --> 00:37:08,923
within the group, and how information

924
00:37:08,923 --> 00:37:10,385
flowed between those relationships.

925
00:37:10,815 --> 00:37:12,720
Throughout the year, different members

926
00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:15,386
spoke about the group in ways that

927
00:37:15,386 --> 00:37:17,291
reflected their own internal relationship

928
00:37:17,291 --> 00:37:19,958
to it. Joey using collective we language

929
00:37:19,958 --> 00:37:22,625
to express hope for their future and

930
00:37:22,625 --> 00:37:25,292
also hope for more time off. Lance

931
00:37:25,292 --> 00:37:27,958
framing the group as sharing in common

932
00:37:27,958 --> 00:37:30,625
need for a break and in the.

933
00:37:30,935 --> 00:37:33,773
In our own Plus article, Justin

934
00:37:33,773 --> 00:37:35,192
emphasizing separateness and

935
00:37:35,192 --> 00:37:37,971
individuation. None of these

936
00:37:37,971 --> 00:37:39,530
perspectives by themselves prove anything

937
00:37:39,530 --> 00:37:41,401
about how information moved inside the

938
00:37:41,401 --> 00:37:43,896
group, but together they show us that the

939
00:37:43,896 --> 00:37:45,768
members didn't all conceptualize In Sync

940
00:37:45,768 --> 00:37:48,574
in the same way. I think there was 1

941
00:37:48,574 --> 00:37:50,758
moment when the social layout of *NSYNC

942
00:37:50,758 --> 00:37:52,629
became visible, even though it was

943
00:37:52,629 --> 00:37:54,812
wrapped in a joke in the same

944
00:37:54,812 --> 00:37:56,371
Entertainment Weekly interview that I

945
00:37:56,371 --> 00:37:58,377
just mentioned. Adjusted insisted that

946
00:37:58,377 --> 00:38:00,785
the group genuinely liked each other and

947
00:38:00,785 --> 00:38:03,193
they were truly friends. At that point,

948
00:38:03,193 --> 00:38:05,601
Chris jumped in with a tangent about

949
00:38:05,601 --> 00:38:08,009
cliques within In Sync. JC wasn't in

950
00:38:08,009 --> 00:38:10,417
Chris' slick, but Joey was. When Chris

951
00:38:10,417 --> 00:38:13,169
said Lance had a click that he wasn't

952
00:38:13,169 --> 00:38:15,577
allowed into, Lance replied by saying it

953
00:38:15,577 --> 00:38:17,985
was a force field. These are jokes.

954
00:38:18,065 --> 00:38:20,443
Clearly. But jokes like that only work

955
00:38:20,443 --> 00:38:22,820
when there's a thread of truth running

956
00:38:22,820 --> 00:38:24,519
through. Chris's joking about cliques

957
00:38:24,519 --> 00:38:27,236
gives us a light sense of how the

958
00:38:27,236 --> 00:38:28,934
members naturally clustered, and that

959
00:38:28,934 --> 00:38:31,312
context becomes relevant when we look at

960
00:38:31,312 --> 00:38:33,689
the one moment that we can document

961
00:38:33,689 --> 00:38:35,727
clearly, which is the hiatus conversation

962
00:38:35,727 --> 00:38:37,765
that Lance remembered in his memoir.

963
00:38:38,905 --> 00:38:40,877
According to what he remembers, this

964
00:38:40,877 --> 00:38:42,850
discussion didn't happen with all 5

965
00:38:42,850 --> 00:38:45,151
members together in the same room, it

966
00:38:45,151 --> 00:38:47,452
happened in pieces. Lance and Joey were

967
00:38:47,452 --> 00:38:49,424
already together and Justin entered the

968
00:38:49,424 --> 00:38:52,382
room to speak to them. He leaves and then

969
00:38:52,382 --> 00:38:55,012
a bit later JC comes in seeming visibly

970
00:38:55,012 --> 00:38:57,970
upset and there was no mention of when or

971
00:38:57,970 --> 00:39:00,502
how Chris was informed. Of this proposed

972
00:39:00,502 --> 00:39:03,178
hiatus, we can't say this is typical

973
00:39:03,178 --> 00:39:05,472
because we don't have enough examples.

974
00:39:05,472 --> 00:39:07,766
But when you consider this moment

975
00:39:07,766 --> 00:39:10,060
alongside the different ways that members

976
00:39:10,060 --> 00:39:11,971
conceptualize the group throughout the

977
00:39:11,971 --> 00:39:14,265
year, it becomes clear that cohesion,

978
00:39:14,265 --> 00:39:15,794
connection, and communication weren't

979
00:39:15,794 --> 00:39:18,088
always experienced the same by everyone

980
00:39:18,088 --> 00:39:20,979
within In Sync. And that can help

981
00:39:20,979 --> 00:39:23,009
to explain why the conversation lands

982
00:39:23,009 --> 00:39:25,377
from members unfolded the way that it

983
00:39:25,377 --> 00:39:28,084
did. And to get a better understanding of

984
00:39:28,084 --> 00:39:30,114
why communication may have been so

985
00:39:30,114 --> 00:39:32,820
uneven. We need to look at the structural

986
00:39:32,820 --> 00:39:34,512
power dynamics underneath it, the

987
00:39:34,512 --> 00:39:36,880
professional roles or the lanes that each

988
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:39,249
member of *NSYNC occupied, and also the

989
00:39:39,249 --> 00:39:41,296
very different. Months of leverage that

990
00:39:41,296 --> 00:39:43,246
those lanes granted them. That's why

991
00:39:43,246 --> 00:39:45,847
lanes and leverage will be the next theme

992
00:39:45,847 --> 00:39:48,122
that we see emerging from this first

993
00:39:48,122 --> 00:39:49,748
season of Unsynchronized. Every member

994
00:39:49,748 --> 00:39:52,023
had a functional role inside of *NSYNC,

995
00:39:52,023 --> 00:39:54,949
not just in terms of vocal parts, but in

996
00:39:54,949 --> 00:39:57,550
terms of the work that kept the machine

997
00:39:57,550 --> 00:39:59,825
running. JC and Justin carried most of

998
00:39:59,825 --> 00:40:02,723
the musical. While Lance, Joey and

999
00:40:02,723 --> 00:40:04,658
Chris contributed to visual concepts,

1000
00:40:04,658 --> 00:40:06,593
logistics, and overall group cohesion,

1001
00:40:06,593 --> 00:40:09,302
but those roles weren't valued equally by

1002
00:40:09,302 --> 00:40:11,624
the industry, and that disparity shaped

1003
00:40:11,624 --> 00:40:14,333
who had the power to influence the

1004
00:40:14,333 --> 00:40:16,655
group's future. Justin was the only

1005
00:40:16,655 --> 00:40:18,590
member whose internal lane translated

1006
00:40:18,590 --> 00:40:21,324
into substantial leverage in 2001. JC had

1007
00:40:21,324 --> 00:40:23,735
respect and authority in the studio, but

1008
00:40:23,735 --> 00:40:26,145
not the kind of leverage that determines

1009
00:40:26,145 --> 00:40:28,900
outcomes. Just as an example, two of his

1010
00:40:28,900 --> 00:40:30,622
songs were positioned as potential

1011
00:40:30,622 --> 00:40:32,688
singles, yet neither ever became radio

1012
00:40:32,688 --> 00:40:35,098
releases. And in some of the early

1013
00:40:35,098 --> 00:40:36,820
promotional materials for the celebrity

1014
00:40:36,820 --> 00:40:39,231
album, he wasn't even credited for his

1015
00:40:39,231 --> 00:40:41,297
own work. Meanwhile, the members whose

1016
00:40:41,297 --> 00:40:43,165
internal lanes. Income with structural

1017
00:40:43,165 --> 00:40:45,755
power had side projects that had the

1018
00:40:45,755 --> 00:40:47,235
potential for leverage infrastructural

1019
00:40:47,235 --> 00:40:49,455
power outside of *NSYNC. Chris kept

1020
00:40:49,455 --> 00:40:51,675
expanding market share with Flu Mansquito

1021
00:40:51,675 --> 00:40:53,895
and he managed a parallel promotional

1022
00:40:53,895 --> 00:40:56,115
tour alongside the Pop Odyssey tour.

1023
00:40:57,095 --> 00:40:59,117
Lance had already built a talent

1024
00:40:59,117 --> 00:41:01,139
management company by 2001. He was

1025
00:41:01,139 --> 00:41:03,835
managing a country artist. He had a film

1026
00:41:03,835 --> 00:41:05,857
production company and produced on the

1027
00:41:05,857 --> 00:41:08,216
line, and within weeks of the movie's

1028
00:41:08,216 --> 00:41:10,238
release, his company had already started

1029
00:41:10,238 --> 00:41:11,923
acquiring more scripts. Joe's acting

1030
00:41:11,923 --> 00:41:14,282
roles didn't give him leverage on their

1031
00:41:14,282 --> 00:41:16,978
own, but they made him visible in ways

1032
00:41:16,978 --> 00:41:19,425
that being the baritone. The boy band

1033
00:41:19,425 --> 00:41:22,172
didn't. And that's not to say that these

1034
00:41:22,172 --> 00:41:24,232
side projects were pursued because they

1035
00:41:24,232 --> 00:41:26,292
gave people leverage outside of *NSYNC,

1036
00:41:26,292 --> 00:41:29,039
but it's just a reflection of how that

1037
00:41:29,039 --> 00:41:30,412
group bubble didn't necessarily

1038
00:41:30,412 --> 00:41:32,816
createspace for all of the potential or

1039
00:41:32,816 --> 00:41:35,562
all of the talents that all of the

1040
00:41:35,562 --> 00:41:37,622
members had. That's what the evidence

1041
00:41:37,622 --> 00:41:40,352
shows us in 2001. While other members

1042
00:41:40,352 --> 00:41:42,824
of *NSYNC had different lanes and

1043
00:41:42,824 --> 00:41:44,885
different amounts of leverage, the

1044
00:41:44,885 --> 00:41:46,945
consequences of those differences won't

1045
00:41:46,945 --> 00:41:49,418
become fully visible until the members

1046
00:41:49,418 --> 00:41:52,302
start moving apart more in 2002, and

1047
00:41:52,302 --> 00:41:55,187
we'll get into that in Season 2.

1048
00:41:55,187 --> 00:41:58,071
From lanes and leverage, we move to

1049
00:41:58,071 --> 00:42:00,867
external signals. Which is basically

1050
00:42:00,867 --> 00:42:03,576
my way of summarizing how the industry

1051
00:42:03,576 --> 00:42:06,285
outside of *NSYNC responded to all of

1052
00:42:06,285 --> 00:42:08,994
the lanes and leverage that the different

1053
00:42:08,994 --> 00:42:11,703
members had in 2001. The external signals

1054
00:42:11,703 --> 00:42:14,412
about the members of *NSYNC were not

1055
00:42:14,412 --> 00:42:17,324
evenly distributed. Only one member

1056
00:42:17,324 --> 00:42:18,954
had outside collaborators giving public

1057
00:42:18,954 --> 00:42:20,910
front facing messaging that tried to

1058
00:42:20,910 --> 00:42:23,192
position him as someone beyond the group.

1059
00:42:23,192 --> 00:42:25,148
Pharrell Williams and Wayne Brady made

1060
00:42:25,148 --> 00:42:27,757
comments to the media about Justin as an

1061
00:42:27,757 --> 00:42:30,039
individual entertainer and they did it in

1062
00:42:30,039 --> 00:42:32,973
a way that minimized the work that he was

1063
00:42:32,973 --> 00:42:35,255
still doing within sync at the time.

1064
00:42:35,255 --> 00:42:38,007
While most of the group. As the object

1065
00:42:38,007 --> 00:42:40,109
of positive validation for their side

1066
00:42:40,109 --> 00:42:42,561
projects, no one else received the kind

1067
00:42:42,561 --> 00:42:44,663
of validation that minimized their work

1068
00:42:44,663 --> 00:42:47,466
at the time. As part of *NSYNC, none

1069
00:42:47,466 --> 00:42:49,218
of Joey's acting colleagues were

1070
00:42:49,218 --> 00:42:50,969
forecasting A breakout career and

1071
00:42:50,969 --> 00:42:53,422
implying his days as a singer were

1072
00:42:53,422 --> 00:42:55,874
numbered. None of the buyers or fashion

1073
00:42:55,874 --> 00:42:57,725
analysts discussing Foo Mansquito. Were

1074
00:42:57,725 --> 00:42:59,762
positioning Chris as someone poised to

1075
00:42:59,762 --> 00:43:02,478
pivot away from the group and expand an

1076
00:43:02,478 --> 00:43:05,194
empire. I think that as far as 2001

1077
00:43:05,194 --> 00:43:07,571
goes, the silence is part of the

1078
00:43:07,571 --> 00:43:10,287
evidence. Most of the group was not being

1079
00:43:10,287 --> 00:43:12,324
publicly imagined as having a future

1080
00:43:12,324 --> 00:43:14,700
outside of *NSYNC, and it wasn't because

1081
00:43:14,700 --> 00:43:16,737
the others lacked talent or ambition,

1082
00:43:16,737 --> 00:43:18,800
it's because the. History wasn't looking

1083
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,074
at them as individuals at all. Another

1084
00:43:21,074 --> 00:43:23,672
thing to consider when it comes to these

1085
00:43:23,672 --> 00:43:25,620
external signals is the timing. When

1086
00:43:25,620 --> 00:43:28,219
Wayne Brady made his comment to TV Guide

1087
00:43:28,219 --> 00:43:30,817
about Justin being the one to watch after

1088
00:43:30,817 --> 00:43:33,740
In Sync is over, he said this within two

1089
00:43:33,740 --> 00:43:36,013
weeks of the release of the celebrity

1090
00:43:36,013 --> 00:43:38,611
album. This was a moment when the group

1091
00:43:38,611 --> 00:43:40,762
should have been. Resenting A unified

1092
00:43:40,762 --> 00:43:43,337
front and not being put in the position

1093
00:43:43,337 --> 00:43:45,590
of dealing with comments from people who

1094
00:43:45,590 --> 00:43:47,843
implied that the unity would be ending

1095
00:43:47,843 --> 00:43:49,453
soon. Pharrell Williams's comment about

1096
00:43:49,453 --> 00:43:51,384
Justin showing people what he's capable

1097
00:43:51,384 --> 00:43:54,282
of when it's time for him to do his

1098
00:43:54,282 --> 00:43:56,535
solo was something that came while the

1099
00:43:56,535 --> 00:43:58,788
group was still working on the celebrity

1100
00:43:58,788 --> 00:44:01,122
album. Whether that was. Early May, which

1101
00:44:01,122 --> 00:44:03,724
is what was implied by the Rolling Stone

1102
00:44:03,724 --> 00:44:06,000
article, or possibly late March since I

1103
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,277
did come across that article stating that

1104
00:44:08,277 --> 00:44:10,879
In Sync was in the studio with the

1105
00:44:10,879 --> 00:44:13,156
Neptunes at that point. These were both

1106
00:44:13,156 --> 00:44:15,107
future facing comments from these two

1107
00:44:15,107 --> 00:44:17,384
men. The kinds of comments that people

1108
00:44:17,384 --> 00:44:19,661
make when they already know or strongly

1109
00:44:19,661 --> 00:44:21,721
suspect. That someone is being positioned

1110
00:44:21,721 --> 00:44:23,599
for something else. The Angie Stone

1111
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:25,478
comment that I've referenced earlier is

1112
00:44:25,478 --> 00:44:27,982
also an external signal, but this one is

1113
00:44:27,982 --> 00:44:29,860
different. She wasn't hinting at or

1114
00:44:29,860 --> 00:44:31,425
predicting anything. She was talking

1115
00:44:31,425 --> 00:44:33,617
about a request from Justin that was

1116
00:44:33,617 --> 00:44:35,808
attached to what sounds like a decision

1117
00:44:35,808 --> 00:44:38,312
that had already been made by that point.

1118
00:44:38,312 --> 00:44:40,504
And that matters because it shows that

1119
00:44:40,504 --> 00:44:42,870
moves were being made. Outside of the

1120
00:44:42,870 --> 00:44:45,305
group that would affect the group before

1121
00:44:45,305 --> 00:44:47,740
those moves were being brought to the

1122
00:44:47,740 --> 00:44:49,827
group's attention, none of the other

1123
00:44:49,827 --> 00:44:51,567
members had external partners making

1124
00:44:51,567 --> 00:44:53,654
comments that implied their time within

1125
00:44:53,654 --> 00:44:56,089
sync was limited or would become limited

1126
00:44:56,089 --> 00:44:58,524
soon, and the importance of the external

1127
00:44:58,524 --> 00:45:01,307
signals around In Sync at the time come

1128
00:45:01,307 --> 00:45:04,090
down to a combination of the content of

1129
00:45:04,090 --> 00:45:06,377
the messaging. The positioning of the

1130
00:45:06,377 --> 00:45:08,760
messaging, and also the timing. When you

1131
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,482
look back at the early signals, they read

1132
00:45:11,482 --> 00:45:13,865
like the building blocks of the public

1133
00:45:13,865 --> 00:45:16,247
logic around the hiatus, the version of

1134
00:45:16,247 --> 00:45:18,630
events that made sense to the outside

1135
00:45:18,630 --> 00:45:21,012
world. But in all likelihood, that logic

1136
00:45:21,012 --> 00:45:23,054
wasn't what the group itself was

1137
00:45:23,054 --> 00:45:25,096
operating on most members of *NSYNC.

1138
00:45:25,176 --> 00:45:27,122
Weren't seeing these comments. They

1139
00:45:27,122 --> 00:45:29,068
weren't interpreting the moment through

1140
00:45:29,068 --> 00:45:31,793
the lens of who the industry was

1141
00:45:31,793 --> 00:45:34,128
positioning for what. Internally In Sync

1142
00:45:34,128 --> 00:45:36,853
was working off of a completely different

1143
00:45:36,853 --> 00:45:39,188
understanding of what their break would

1144
00:45:39,188 --> 00:45:41,912
mean, even as the external narrative was

1145
00:45:41,912 --> 00:45:44,248
already drifting or being pushed in

1146
00:45:44,248 --> 00:45:47,029
another direction. So for the purposes of

1147
00:45:47,029 --> 00:45:49,609
unsynchronized, this is where we draw the

1148
00:45:49,609 --> 00:45:52,188
line between the external logic of the

1149
00:45:52,188 --> 00:45:54,768
hiatus and the internal logic of the

1150
00:45:54,768 --> 00:45:56,980
hiatus. The external signals from 2001,

1151
00:45:56,980 --> 00:45:59,191
the comments, the positioning, the timing

1152
00:45:59,191 --> 00:46:01,771
became the foundation of the public story

1153
00:46:01,771 --> 00:46:03,982
about why the so-called hiatus happened

1154
00:46:03,982 --> 00:46:06,825
and what it meant. But those signals

1155
00:46:06,825 --> 00:46:08,957
weren't necessarily informing the group's

1156
00:46:08,957 --> 00:46:11,515
own understanding of their break. The

1157
00:46:11,515 --> 00:46:14,074
hiatus logic we're working with here

1158
00:46:14,074 --> 00:46:17,058
isn't a theme that emerged across the

1159
00:46:17,058 --> 00:46:19,617
season. It's a framework that we're

1160
00:46:19,617 --> 00:46:22,175
constructing in this final episode based

1161
00:46:22,175 --> 00:46:25,160
on the themes we've discussed to make

1162
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,088
sense. Of how the public narrative and

1163
00:46:28,088 --> 00:46:30,115
the internal experience diverged. The

1164
00:46:30,115 --> 00:46:32,952
logic of the hiatus isn't about 1

1165
00:46:32,952 --> 00:46:35,384
member's intentions, it's about how the

1166
00:46:35,384 --> 00:46:37,816
underlying dynamics of 2001 created a

1167
00:46:37,816 --> 00:46:40,654
situation where the group's break was not

1168
00:46:40,654 --> 00:46:43,491
understood or experienced the same way by

1169
00:46:43,491 --> 00:46:46,127
everyone. All five members

1170
00:46:46,127 --> 00:46:48,765
were burnt out, which meant that the

1171
00:46:48,765 --> 00:46:51,403
idea of taking time off made sense

1172
00:46:51,403 --> 00:46:54,041
on its face. But the group's internal

1173
00:46:54,041 --> 00:46:55,548
communication patterns, their different

1174
00:46:55,548 --> 00:46:57,809
lanes, the uneven leverage that each

1175
00:46:57,809 --> 00:47:00,447
member held, all of those things meant

1176
00:47:00,447 --> 00:47:02,708
that the same proposal landed differently

1177
00:47:02,708 --> 00:47:05,346
depending on who heard it and when.

1178
00:47:05,546 --> 00:47:07,431
The only first-hand attempt to

1179
00:47:07,431 --> 00:47:09,316
reconstruct the timeline comes from

1180
00:47:09,316 --> 00:47:11,955
Lance, and his account shows a process

1181
00:47:11,955 --> 00:47:14,217
that was fragmented and shifting. A

1182
00:47:14,217 --> 00:47:16,856
conversation that began as a proposal for

1183
00:47:16,856 --> 00:47:19,495
six months off to fool around with

1184
00:47:19,495 --> 00:47:21,756
a solo project escalated into an

1185
00:47:21,756 --> 00:47:24,395
open-ended break with no clear terms at

1186
00:47:24,395 --> 00:47:26,790
the same time. External signals were

1187
00:47:26,790 --> 00:47:29,457
pointing in directions that it seems the

1188
00:47:29,457 --> 00:47:31,363
group hadn't fully discussed internally,

1189
00:47:31,363 --> 00:47:33,650
collaborators like Ferrell and Wayne made

1190
00:47:33,650 --> 00:47:35,555
Future facing comments while Celebrity

1191
00:47:35,555 --> 00:47:37,842
was still being recorded or newly

1192
00:47:37,842 --> 00:47:40,129
released, and Angie Stone later described

1193
00:47:40,129 --> 00:47:42,796
being approached for a feature before the

1194
00:47:42,796 --> 00:47:45,083
group had a unified conversation about

1195
00:47:45,083 --> 00:47:47,767
taking a break. These receipts don't tell

1196
00:47:47,767 --> 00:47:50,648
us what each member felt, but they do

1197
00:47:50,648 --> 00:47:53,170
show us that the information available to

1198
00:47:53,170 --> 00:47:56,051
the public and even to people outside of

1199
00:47:56,051 --> 00:47:58,572
the group was sometimes clearer than the

1200
00:47:58,572 --> 00:48:00,373
information that was circulating inside

1201
00:48:00,373 --> 00:48:03,255
of it. This disparity is one of the

1202
00:48:03,255 --> 00:48:05,776
many factors that come together to form

1203
00:48:05,776 --> 00:48:08,647
these so-called hiatus. It wasn't a

1204
00:48:08,647 --> 00:48:11,556
single shared decision so much as it was

1205
00:48:11,556 --> 00:48:13,375
the convergence of burnout, uneven

1206
00:48:13,375 --> 00:48:14,829
communication, uneven leverage, uneven

1207
00:48:14,829 --> 00:48:17,375
external signals, and the creation of a

1208
00:48:17,375 --> 00:48:19,193
moment where different members walked

1209
00:48:19,193 --> 00:48:21,011
away with different understandings of

1210
00:48:21,011 --> 00:48:23,556
what the future would hold for them.

1211
00:48:25,676 --> 00:48:28,119
Echoes Versus Evidence was our first deep

1212
00:48:28,119 --> 00:48:30,561
dive into the ET Canada article that

1213
00:48:30,561 --> 00:48:32,305
originally sparked this entire project.

1214
00:48:32,305 --> 00:48:34,399
We identified the voices behind the

1215
00:48:34,399 --> 00:48:36,492
piece, including the writer herself, and

1216
00:48:36,492 --> 00:48:38,934
examined their claims through the lens of

1217
00:48:38,934 --> 00:48:41,028
the themes that have emerged throughout

1218
00:48:41,028 --> 00:48:43,121
Season 1. Those themes included the

1219
00:48:43,121 --> 00:48:45,386
group's burnout in 2001. Uneven

1220
00:48:45,386 --> 00:48:46,985
communication patterns within the group,

1221
00:48:46,985 --> 00:48:48,903
the different lanes and levels of

1222
00:48:48,903 --> 00:48:51,141
leverage that each member had, and the

1223
00:48:51,141 --> 00:48:52,419
external signals coming from

1224
00:48:52,419 --> 00:48:54,018
collaborators and industry figures. Alex

1225
00:48:54,018 --> 00:48:55,936
Greggs spoke from the limited vantage

1226
00:48:55,936 --> 00:48:58,174
point of a producer and a collaborator,

1227
00:48:58,174 --> 00:49:00,412
but his comments were positioned as if

1228
00:49:00,412 --> 00:49:02,650
they reflected the full picture. In the

1229
00:49:02,650 --> 00:49:05,207
ATT Canada article he says that he only

1230
00:49:05,207 --> 00:49:07,165
heard about. Potential solo work After

1231
00:49:07,165 --> 00:49:09,663
hearing that Lance wanted to go to space

1232
00:49:09,663 --> 00:49:12,473
and take a year off, but he never says

1233
00:49:12,473 --> 00:49:14,346
Lance told him this directly. His

1234
00:49:14,346 --> 00:49:15,907
information came through second or

1235
00:49:15,907 --> 00:49:17,780
possibly third hand channels, but the

1236
00:49:17,780 --> 00:49:19,654
article tried to make it sound

1237
00:49:19,654 --> 00:49:21,215
authoritative. Barry Weiss offered what

1238
00:49:21,215 --> 00:49:24,024
he called a bird's eye view, but he did

1239
00:49:24,024 --> 00:49:26,210
so well distancing himself from the power

1240
00:49:26,210 --> 00:49:28,773
that he actually. Held at the time, he

1241
00:49:28,773 --> 00:49:30,329
framed Justin's solo decision as

1242
00:49:30,329 --> 00:49:31,885
something that emerged naturally during

1243
00:49:31,885 --> 00:49:33,752
the downtime created by Lance's movie,

1244
00:49:33,752 --> 00:49:36,242
while glossing over the fact that none of

1245
00:49:36,242 --> 00:49:38,109
the resources Justin needed from Jive

1246
00:49:38,109 --> 00:49:39,976
Records could have been approved without

1247
00:49:39,976 --> 00:49:42,155
his direct consent. As the president of

1248
00:49:42,155 --> 00:49:44,022
the company and Joe Richards, Hella

1249
00:49:44,022 --> 00:49:45,578
contributed little more than vague

1250
00:49:45,578 --> 00:49:47,445
platitudes about people growing up in

1251
00:49:47,445 --> 00:49:49,572
outgrowing. Each other his comments

1252
00:49:49,572 --> 00:49:51,753
focused entirely on personal development

1253
00:49:51,753 --> 00:49:54,371
and social positioning while ignoring the

1254
00:49:54,371 --> 00:49:55,680
contractual, logistical and

1255
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:57,425
organizational realities of a

1256
00:49:57,425 --> 00:49:59,607
multimillion dollar global business with

1257
00:49:59,607 --> 00:50:02,225
five equal partners and the writer

1258
00:50:02,225 --> 00:50:04,406
Leena Tailor used deliberate rhetorical

1259
00:50:04,406 --> 00:50:06,588
choices that elevated these outside

1260
00:50:06,588 --> 00:50:08,691
corporate voices while. Minimizing Lance

1261
00:50:08,691 --> 00:50:10,863
Bass's perspective, even though he's the

1262
00:50:10,863 --> 00:50:13,398
only member of *NSYNC featured in the

1263
00:50:13,398 --> 00:50:15,570
article and the only person whose

1264
00:50:15,570 --> 00:50:17,380
comments actually aligned with the

1265
00:50:17,380 --> 00:50:19,191
documented history of 2001. Lance's

1266
00:50:19,191 --> 00:50:21,725
comments in the ET Canada article that

1267
00:50:21,725 --> 00:50:24,622
deal with 2001 like his mention of the

1268
00:50:24,622 --> 00:50:26,794
burnout the group was experiencing and

1269
00:50:26,794 --> 00:50:28,967
his expectation for a short break.

1270
00:50:29,517 --> 00:50:31,652
Those things line up with the receipts

1271
00:50:31,652 --> 00:50:33,482
that we've traced throughout this first

1272
00:50:33,482 --> 00:50:36,414
season of Unsynchronized. While future

1273
00:50:36,414 --> 00:50:39,125
seasons of the podcast will give us more

1274
00:50:39,125 --> 00:50:41,498
points for comparison when it comes to

1275
00:50:41,498 --> 00:50:43,531
the article, I think it's already

1276
00:50:43,531 --> 00:50:45,903
becoming clear that the version of events

1277
00:50:45,903 --> 00:50:48,275
presented in the article by Leena Tailor

1278
00:50:48,275 --> 00:50:50,308
don't hold up against the historical

1279
00:50:50,308 --> 00:50:52,680
record so far. History simply isn't on

1280
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,391
the side of most of the men who

1281
00:50:55,391 --> 00:50:57,535
participated in this piece or on the

1282
00:50:57,535 --> 00:50:58,977
side of the woman who wrote it.

1283
00:51:00,537 --> 00:51:03,377
So after all of this, what are today's

1284
00:51:03,377 --> 00:51:06,131
major takeaways?I think the

1285
00:51:06,131 --> 00:51:08,615
first take away is that the public

1286
00:51:08,615 --> 00:51:10,744
narrative that's put forward in this

1287
00:51:10,744 --> 00:51:12,873
article is a reconstruction, and it's

1288
00:51:12,873 --> 00:51:15,002
polished, but it's not the historical

1289
00:51:15,002 --> 00:51:17,863
reality. The explanations

1290
00:51:17,863 --> 00:51:20,821
that get repeated in interviews and

1291
00:51:20,821 --> 00:51:22,793
entertainment coverage are simplified,

1292
00:51:22,793 --> 00:51:25,751
tidy, and likely curated for strategic

1293
00:51:25,751 --> 00:51:28,709
reasons. They only brush up against

1294
00:51:28,709 --> 00:51:31,667
what actually happened over the course

1295
00:51:31,667 --> 00:51:34,625
of *NSYNC's breakup. The real story,

1296
00:51:34,625 --> 00:51:37,557
the one that's preserved. In the

1297
00:51:37,557 --> 00:51:39,757
historical receipts is more complicated

1298
00:51:39,757 --> 00:51:42,397
and less coordinated than what the

1299
00:51:42,397 --> 00:51:45,319
sanitized versions suggest. The

1300
00:51:45,319 --> 00:51:48,089
second take away It's that the

1301
00:51:48,089 --> 00:51:50,859
breakup didn't begin with a single

1302
00:51:50,859 --> 00:51:53,629
decision or a single action. It

1303
00:51:53,629 --> 00:51:56,399
emerged from a year of uneven

1304
00:51:56,399 --> 00:51:59,169
dynamics that never lined up cleanly

1305
00:51:59,169 --> 00:52:01,477
inside the group Burnout, uneven

1306
00:52:01,477 --> 00:52:03,324
communication, uneven leverage, uneven

1307
00:52:03,324 --> 00:52:06,270
external signals. An uneven access to

1308
00:52:06,270 --> 00:52:08,494
information likely all shaped how each

1309
00:52:08,494 --> 00:52:10,718
member of *NSYNC understood the same

1310
00:52:10,718 --> 00:52:13,684
moment. And when you look at it that

1311
00:52:13,684 --> 00:52:15,908
way, the so-called hiatus wasn't a

1312
00:52:15,908 --> 00:52:18,874
unified choice so much as it was the

1313
00:52:18,874 --> 00:52:21,098
point where all of those underlying

1314
00:52:21,098 --> 00:52:22,951
dynamics finally converged, and the

1315
00:52:22,951 --> 00:52:25,176
result was different people walking away

1316
00:52:25,176 --> 00:52:27,123
with different. Interpretations of what

1317
00:52:27,123 --> 00:52:29,017
their futures would look like.

1318
00:52:30,667 --> 00:52:33,343
And the third take away for

1319
00:52:33,343 --> 00:52:36,019
this episode is actually foundational to

1320
00:52:36,019 --> 00:52:38,695
the rest of the podcast series.

1321
00:52:38,695 --> 00:52:40,925
From this point forward, Unsynchronized

1322
00:52:40,925 --> 00:52:43,601
will be operating with two parallel

1323
00:52:43,601 --> 00:52:45,385
frameworks for understanding these

1324
00:52:45,385 --> 00:52:48,061
so-called hiatus. There'll be the public

1325
00:52:48,061 --> 00:52:50,737
logic and then the internal logic.

1326
00:52:50,977 --> 00:52:53,512
And the work of this podcast is to try to

1327
00:52:53,512 --> 00:52:56,047
be mindful of both and hold on to both at

1328
00:52:56,047 --> 00:52:59,030
the same time. What that

1329
00:52:59,030 --> 00:53:01,563
means going forward is that

1330
00:53:01,563 --> 00:53:04,095
we'll be working with two

1331
00:53:04,095 --> 00:53:06,628
separate logics. Like I said,

1332
00:53:06,628 --> 00:53:09,160
there's the public logic and

1333
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:11,693
that will be shaped by

1334
00:53:11,693 --> 00:53:13,719
external signals, industry commentary,

1335
00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:16,251
external pressures and actions, and

1336
00:53:16,251 --> 00:53:18,843
essentially the logic that. Was

1337
00:53:18,843 --> 00:53:21,641
front facing and the way that

1338
00:53:21,641 --> 00:53:24,440
the so-called hiatus was framed for

1339
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,238
the public. Then there's the internal

1340
00:53:27,238 --> 00:53:30,036
logic and that comes through the

1341
00:53:30,036 --> 00:53:32,834
perspectives and the experiences of the

1342
00:53:32,834 --> 00:53:35,632
five members of *NSYNC who lived

1343
00:53:35,632 --> 00:53:37,497
through the so-called hiatus.

1344
00:53:38,727 --> 00:53:41,524
The rest of this series will

1345
00:53:41,524 --> 00:53:44,320
be in part about understanding how

1346
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:47,117
those two logics developed, where they

1347
00:53:47,117 --> 00:53:49,913
diverged, and what that divergent shows

1348
00:53:49,913 --> 00:53:52,710
about in Sync's break up as

1349
00:53:52,710 --> 00:53:55,507
it unfolded. So that's where we'll

1350
00:53:55,507 --> 00:53:57,837
close Season 1 of Unsynchronized.

1351
00:53:58,727 --> 00:54:01,578
We've spent the past six episodes inside

1352
00:54:01,578 --> 00:54:04,429
of the details of five separate lives,

1353
00:54:04,429 --> 00:54:06,873
five separate pressures, and one year

1354
00:54:06,873 --> 00:54:09,724
that didn't unfold the same way for

1355
00:54:09,724 --> 00:54:12,167
any two members of the group.

1356
00:54:13,307 --> 00:54:16,173
At the beginning of Season 2, we're going

1357
00:54:16,173 --> 00:54:19,038
to widen the frame again, and that means

1358
00:54:19,038 --> 00:54:21,904
going to a wider view of 2001, looking

1359
00:54:21,904 --> 00:54:24,769
at In Sync as a collective and also

1360
00:54:24,769 --> 00:54:27,276
looking at the media and the industry

1361
00:54:27,276 --> 00:54:29,425
narratives that were forming around them,

1362
00:54:29,425 --> 00:54:31,933
looking at what the world was saying

1363
00:54:31,933 --> 00:54:34,749
about In Sync. And what the world

1364
00:54:34,749 --> 00:54:36,895
believed about their future, that creates

1365
00:54:36,895 --> 00:54:39,758
a lot of context for what the group

1366
00:54:39,758 --> 00:54:42,263
stepped into in 2002. So that's where

1367
00:54:42,263 --> 00:54:44,767
we'll begin with the next season. Until

1368
00:54:44,767 --> 00:54:47,630
then, this is Ben Nicole Raposo as Season

1369
00:54:47,630 --> 00:54:49,777
2 of Unsynchronized kicks off on

1370
00:54:49,777 --> 00:54:52,639
September 24th. And I hope to see you

1371
00:54:52,639 --> 00:54:55,323
there. Remember, until next time,

1372
00:54:55,323 --> 00:54:57,693
you can't spell unsynchronized without

1373
00:54:57,693 --> 00:55:00,157
'nsync'. (Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

1374
00:55:04,497 --> 00:55:07,192
(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

1375
00:55:07,192 --> 00:55:09,886
(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

1376
00:55:09,886 --> 00:55:12,684
(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)

1377
00:55:12,684 --> 00:55:15,217
(Drum 'n Bass beatboxing noises)