25 Years of *NSYNC
Things that happened in 1998: Titanic dominated the Oscars, Bill Clinton was impeached, the FDA approved viagra and *NSYNC released their debut album in the United States.
It’s been 25 years since *NSYNC released their debut album and my life was forever changed. I lived and breathed *NSYNC for the better part of my preteen years and it was glorious. When I tell you I watched their No Strings Attached HBO concert special so many times that I memorized every adlib that they did on that stage, I need you to understand how serious I am about that. My walls were covered with *NSYNC posters from floor to ceiling and my mother hated me for it. What a time to be alive!
Their debut album came out at a time when the Backstreet Boys were already dominating the US fangirl base. They needed to differentiate themselves immediately from the other boy band and I think it was the harmonies that did that. *NSYNC was put together based specifically on their vocals and their ability to harmonize while singing acapella. The uptempo pop songs make it a bit more difficult to realize, but it’s really during their ballads that you hear how in sync they truly were. ‘N Sync was the perfect debut album because it gave you enough songs to satisfy your pop-loving ear and gave you plenty of pop ballads to swoon over. Though their impact in the pop world was cemented with No Strings Attached, it was their debut album that was great enough to push them into the mainstream.
Though I was just but a pre-teen when I was blasting their music in my bedroom, my life was tumultuous at the time. I felt so alone and immeasurably sad, *NSYNC saved me from myself in many ways. I poured every ounce of attention to those 5 beautiful men and I didn’t have any attention left to focus on the chaos of my childhood. I stayed from school the day after I found out about their break up. *NSYNC was my first introduction to pop culture, I dove deep into what they were doing, who they were photographed with and we really have them to thank for this site, the podcast and my constant need to thirst over beautiful celebrities.
Thank you *NSYNC, it’s been a wonderful 25 years.
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