Highlights
- NSYNC’s hit song ‘Bye Bye Bye’ almost didn’t happen, as it was initially offered to a different boy band who rejected it.
- Not all NSYNC members initially thought ‘Bye Bye Bye’ would be a success, but it became one of their most popular and recognizable songs.
- ‘Bye Bye Bye’ is now considered one of the biggest ’90s breakup anthems and may have been influenced by NSYNC’s legal battle with their manager.
NSYNC was one of the biggest boy bands of their time, with several hit songs, including ‘Bye Bye Bye.’ However, ‘Bye Bye Bye’ was first presented to a completely different boy band, and one of NSYNC’s most-recognized songs almost wasn’t released.
Fortunately for NSYNC though, they ultimately did record the song, which was placed on their highest selling album, No Strings Attached. The album itself went on to sell over 14 million copies and also featured NSYNC’s #1 hit, ‘It’s Gonna Be Me.’ Today, NSYNC and ‘Bye Bye Bye’ easily go hand-in-hand, but in the beginning, the song’s writers had a very different vision for the pop tune.
Why NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ Almost Didn’t Happen
While everyone now associates NSYNC’s hit song ‘Bye Bye Bye’ with the popular boy band, that nearly wasn’t the case.
After ‘Bye Bye Bye’ songwriters Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, and Andreas Carlsson finished writing the song, they initially brought the project to the English boy band, 5ive.
Since ‘Bye Bye Bye’ was originally written with a rap chorus, the songwriters thought it would be better to bring it to a band who wanted to dabble in rap. At the time, 5ive was attempting to become a rap band, so the songwriters thought it would be a good fit.
5ive actually rejected what would become NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye,’ as they did not want to have a rap/pop crossover and compete with other artists who were already doing that successfully.
As a result, the song was then shown to NSYNC, and boy band history was made.
As of November 21, 2023, NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ has over 498 million streams on Spotify, the music video has over 338 million views on YouTube, and “Bye Bye Bye” made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 4 in 2000.
Not All NSYNC Members Wanted ‘Bye Bye Bye’
Though NSYNC agreed to record ‘Bye Bye Bye’ after hearing it, not all the members thought it was a good idea.
NSYNC member Joey Fatone thought that it was a “cool song,” but “didn’t know it was going to be as big as it was.”
“Of course when you’re hearing it in the studio, you’re hearing everything raw or you’re not hearing it completely mixed,” Fatone told Us Weekly in a recent look back on NSYNC’s career. “Then when you hear it on the radio… it just sounds better.”
Lance Bass had a very different feeling about the song than Joey Fatone.
“The first time I heard that demo, I knew it was something,” Bass said in the same interview. “It was the first time in the studio that as I was live singing a song, I knew that this was going to be a single.”
Is ‘Bye Bye Bye’ NSYNC’s Most Popular Song?
Though NSYNC was only active the first time around for a few years, they produced a great deal of popular music. The group released their first album in 1997, but by 2002, they had already made the hard decision to part ways.
During their five years together in the late ’90s and early 2000s, NSYNC released four studio albums, their debut self-titled album, No Strings Attached, Celebrity, and their holiday album Home For Christmas.
The members of NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and JC Chasez, certainly took the world by storm.
Their album No Strings Attached held the record for most copies of an album sold for over fifteen years. Many of their singles remained high in the pop charts for weeks on end, and to this day, fans still cannot get NSYNC’s catchy tunes out of their head.
In regard to which song was the most popular NSYNC song, there is not much debate.
Several singles from No Strings Attached were in the top 10 charts around the world. This includes ‘This I Promise You,’ ‘It’s Gonna Be Me,’ and ‘Bye Bye Bye.’ ‘It’s Gonna Be Me” actually held the number one slot on the Billboard Hot 100 list and ‘This I Promise You’ was NSYNC’s longest chart-topping hit on the Hot 100.
The song ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ is certainly a strong contender for NSYNC’s most popular song, but for fans, not much can compare to ‘Bye Bye Bye.’
‘Bye Bye Bye’ was released by NSYNC in January 2000. It was the lead single for their album No Strings Attached.
Though it only peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 list, it is considered by many to be the boy band’s “signature song” and solidified NSYNC’s status as one of the biggest boy bands of all time.
Among its many accolades, ‘Bye Bye Bye’ won “Best Pop Video”, “Best Choreography in a Video”, and “Viewer’s Choice” at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards; the NSYNC song was nominated for a Grammy.
The Meaning Behind NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’
Today, fans of music expect most songs to be written by those performing it, or alternatively, for the performer to have a hand in the creation and songwriting. This is a relatively new expectation of artists, and when NSYNC was popular, this was certainly not the case.
NSYNC never claimed to write their own music, and it is publicly known that they did not write a lot of their music.
The writers of NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ were Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, and Andreas Carlsson.
‘Bye Bye Bye’ was very production driven, according to the writers. The sound and energy of the song came first, while the lyrics came later.
The song is considered to be one of the biggest breakup anthems ever created. Carlsson was actually inspired by a breakup he went through while writing the hit song.
While the obvious message of the song is a failed relationship, fans of NSYNC think the boy band chose to record the song for a different reason.
Before releasing the song, NSYNC had just parted ways from their manager Lou Pearlman, who is also famous for forming the Backstreet Boys.
While Pearlman had founded the band and was considered to be the “sixth member of the group,” Pearlman manipulated the band member’s contracts so that they did not greatly profit from their music.
“I was in the biggest band in the world and selling millions of records… but I can’t even afford my apartment in Orlando. I couldn’t even get a car,” Lance Bass explained to ABC about the situation with Pearlman.
NSYNC was able to part ways with Pearlman thanks to a loophole in their contract, but that didn’t stop Pearlman from suing the boy band.
Due to the public legal battle, many fans interpret NSYNC’s song ‘Bye Bye Bye’ as being a reference to cutting Pearlman out of their lives.
Source: NewsFinale
