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NSYNC (sylised as *NSYNC) are an American R&B, pop and dance boyband, consisting of members Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass. With over 350 million records sold worldwide, the group are widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries and one of the greatest entertainers in the history of music. Through stage and video performances, they popularized complicated dance techniques such as the moonwalk, to which Timberlake gave the name. Their sound and style have influenced artists of various genres, and their contributions to music, dance, and fashion, made them a global figure in popular culture the decade they were performing together.

Signed to Epic Records in 1994, NSYNC released their debut album Off The Wall in 1995. By the end of the 1990s, the group were the most dominant figure in popular music. Their music videos, including those for "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from their second studio album Thriller (1996), are credited with transforming and revitalising the use of music videos as an art form in their own right. Between 1998 and 2005, the group continued to innovate with music videos on the global best-selling albums Bad (1998), Dangerous (2001) and HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (2004). In 2005, the group quietly went on hiatus after Timberlake quit the group to focus on his solo music career.

The group briefly reunited in 2011 for the release of their sixth studio album Invincible which returned the group to the top of the charts before splitting again in 2013. In 2018, they were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. In July 2020, the group again launched a surprise return with the release of This Is It, their seventh album. The album and its lead single, "Love Never Felt So Good", made NSYNC the first artist to have an album and a single debut at number one on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously.

NSYNC are one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Thriller is the world's best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 66 million copies worldwide. In addition, the group's remix album Blood On The Dancefloor: HIStory In The Mix (2005) is the best-selling remix album of all time. Bad sold over 1 million copies in the United States on its first day on sale and 2.42 million copies in its first week, a record which remained until 2015. Dangerous debuted with 1.8 million copies sold in its first week in the United States. They have released fifteen singles that have topped the Billboard Hot 100, the fourth most in history behind The Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (19) and Elvis Presley (18).

Formation and Off The Wall (1994-1996)
In 1994, Chris Kirkpatrick, who had missed the cut for the Backstreet Boys, met with Lou Pearlman to talk about forming a second group. Pearlman said that he would finance the group if Kirkpatrick could find other young male singers. Pearlman looked through some tapes they had, and one of Justin Timberlake from J5 and The Mickey Mouse Club caught his eye. During the time since The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Timberlake and JC Chasez both made demos together at Timberlake's house in Memphis, Tennessee. Chasez initially left the show when he was seventeen to go to Los Angeles, but felt cheated on after attempting to pursue music there. The two eventually relocated to Nashville with Timberlake's friend while continuously writing songs and demo tracks. Timberlake received a phone call from Kirkpatrick and decided to join the group, recommending Chasez in the process, who was back home in Maryland saving up to return to Nashville. The trio decided to venture in Orlando, Florida to search for a baritone player, where they encountered Joey Fatone, who knew Kirkpatrick from their time working at Universal Studios Florida. The group finally recruited Jason Galasso as their bass singer after several auditions. NSYNC received its name after Timberlake's mother commented on how "in sync" the group's singing voices were. The group's name is also a play on the last letter of each of the initial members' names: JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, JasoN, and JC. After several weeks of rehearsals, the group set up a showcase and began planning to officially sign with Pearlman's Trans Continental Label. However, at the last minute, Galasso dropped out. He was not fond of the group's musical direction, claiming that being a teen idol was never a goal of his. In need of a bass, the group auditioned several people without success. Timberlake soon called on his former J5 bandmate Lance Bass. Bass flew to Orlando to audition and was immediately accepted into the group. He was nicknamed "Lansten" so they could keep the name 'NSYNC.

Throughout 1994, the group recorded a number of songs but Timberlake and Chasez in particular became frustrated with the group's direction. Towards the end of the year, Timberlake met legendary writer Rod Temperton at a recording studio who suggested he write his own material and put him in touch with Quincy Jones. By early 1995, Timberlake had played "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough" to Epic Records who agreed to allow him to continue writing and hired Jones as a producer for the record. Their debut album Off The Wall was released on August 14, 1995 and had a solid sound of disco, pop and R&B to give them a more distinct sound. The album sold over 20 million copies worldwide and produced four top ten entries on the Billboard Hot 100; "Off The Wall", "She's Out Of My Life" and the chart toppers "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough" and "Rock With You". In 1996, the group won the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough".

Off the Wall is widely considered by critics and publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. Although it was not as commercially successful as its successors, the album is often debated by critics between itself and Thriller as the group's best release.

Thriller (1996-1998)
Between April and October 1996, the group recorded their second studio album. During this time, Timberlake solidified himself as the creative lead of the group, becoming their lead writer, choreographer and according to Bass "there was nothing creative that didn't go through Justin. We were all allowed to contribute ideas but if Justin said no, it just didn't happen". Chasez claimed to have written over 20 songs for the project but only two songs co-written by Timberlake made it to the album.

Thriler was released worldwide on November 26, 1996 and quickly became a hit around the world. It became the best-selling album of 1997 worldwide and eventually was named the world's best-selling album of all time, selling an estimated 66 million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks and was in the top 10 of the 200 for 80 consecutive weeks. Paul McCartney expressed an interest in working with the group, resulting in the album's lead single "The Girl Is Mine" which was seen as a poor lead single and caused many to believe the album would be disappointing. Despite this, the single was a top ten single around the world. The second single "Billie Jean" was considered to propel the group to worldwide superstardom when it hit #1 across the globe. A third single "Beat It" became their eighth US #1 single and also had top ten success around the world. A further four singles, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing)" and the title track "Thriller", were released between January and September 1997, each gaining success worldwide. The music video for "Thriller" is said to have changed the landscape with it's 14 minute length and in 2009 it was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video ever selected. Although the song itself was a huge success commercially, the video outshone its popularity. Between January 1997 and March 1998, the group embarked on the "Thriller World Tour" which sold over 10.4 million tickets worldwide and grossed over $586 million.

At the peak of it's popularity, the album was selling over 1 million copies a week worldwide. Blender described the group's lead singer Timberlake as the "late twentieth century pre-eminent pop icon", while The New York Times gave the opinion that he was a "musical phenomenon", and that "in the world of pop music, there is Justin Timberlake and NSYNC and there is everybody else". At the 1997 Grammy Awards, the group won seven awards including "Album Of The Year" and "Record Of The Year".

Bad and Dangerous (1998-2003)
Whilst on tour, the group began work on their third studio album. Whilst Quincy Jones continued to work with the group despite growing creative differences with Timberlake, an argument between Timberlake and Temperton saw the latter being frozen out of the group's future. Timberlake was the main writer on the album, writing nine of the eleven tracks with Chasez writing the remaining two. Timberlake and Jones produced the entire album.

The record was highly anticipated and expected to be another major success by those in the industry. With "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", Bad became the first album in history to produce five number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 whilst another single "Smooth Criminal" peaked at number seven. Upon its release, the album sold 1 million copies on its first day in the United States, going on to sell 2.416 million copies in its first week. This was a record that the group held until 2015 when Adele's 25 sold 2.433 million copies. By 2012, the album had sold an estimated 45 million copies worldwide. From September 1998 until January 2000, the group embarked on the 185 date Bad World Tour. The tour had 24 sell out dates in Japan, selling over 1 million tickets there. They also played 12 sell out nights at London's Wembley Stadium, selling 864,000 tickets which set a new Guinness World Record.

In January 2001, the group announced they had signed a 3 album deal with Sony's Epic Records. As part of the deal, Timberlake was free to sign a solo recording contract with any Sony sister label and release a solo record before 2004. In late 2000, Timberlake decided he no longer wanted to work with Quincy Jones, the producer of the group's last three albums, as he wanted to avoid a perception that he was creatively reliant on Jones. In February 2001, Timberlake and Chasez flew to Timberlake's Los Angeles Neverland Ranch to work on the group's fourth album. They also met Teddy Riley who would become the group's new producer. At this point, tensions were also growing between Timberlake and Chasez, the latter of which wanted more creative input.

The album's singles failed to live up to their predecessors, with only lead single "Black Or White" topping the charts whilst "Remember The Time", "In The Closet" and "Will You Be There" reaching the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Despite this, the album was an international success. The album sold over 1.8 million copies in the United States in its first week on sale and has gone on to sell over 32 million copies worldwide. Between January and August 2002, the group embarked on the "Dangerous World Tour".

In 2003, the group were the star performers at the Super Bowl XXXVII Halftime Show. They went on to make only sporadic appearances throughout 2003, including a rare interview with Oprah Winfrey. Their short hiatus was to facilitate the release of Timberlake's solo record.

HIStory: Past, Present & Future and Hiatus (2004-2005)
In January 2004, just two months after Timberlake released his solo album, he and Chasez confirmed work had begun on their fifth studio album. Tensions had grown again with Timberlake frustrated at being forced back to the group before the promotion of his solo record had ended, and thus being unable to tour the record in the United States, whilst Chasez felt sidelined during the recording of the album. The lead single was a double A side of Janet Jackson collaboration "Scream" and the Chasez led "Childhood". The music video for "Scream" cost $7 million to make, again increasing tensions between the duo as "Childhood" received hardly any budget.

Teddy Riley did not return to produce the record, with Timberlake producing six of the fourteen tracks himself. Dallas Austin co-produced three of the tracks, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis co-produced three and David Foster co-produced two. Despite submitting over 40 tracks for the record, Chasez's only writing credit on the album is "Stranger In Moscow". In February 2005, the track was announced as the final single from the record. Timberlake however disliked the song and refused to be part of its promotion. Publicly, it was claimed he was recovering from an injury sustained during a rehearsal and the remaining four members picked up the promotion of the single. HIStory has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and is the best selling double disk album of all time.

In March 2005, it was announced that the group would be releasing a remix album later that year. The album, which would remix a number of tracks from HIStory alongside new tracks. The lead, and only, single from the album "Blood On The Dancefloor" was released a few weeks later. It hit #1 in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand whilst also becoming a top ten single in the United States. On May 30, 2005, "HIStory In The Mix" was released and became the best-selling remix album of all time, selling 8 million copies worldwide. Just two weeks later, the group made their final public appearance together at the NSYNC Challenge For Children event but did not perform. They were originally slated to start work on their thirteenth studio album in the summer of 2006 with a world tour to follow in 2007 but these plans failed to materialise. In his 2007 autobiography "Out Of Sync", Lance Bass blamed Timberlake for the split: ""In the summer of 2004, Justin sat down with us and told us he was leaving the band and it was up to us if we wanted to carry on. He said didn’t think any of us was operating in the best interest of the band. When I asked him what he meant by that, and he said, ‘Well, you know, none of us want to be here and we've done everything. It's time to take a break’. We all looked at each other in amazement… According to Justin the whole reason for the break-up of ‘N Sync was everyone else’s fault? That was crazy! All of us had done nothing but wait around for him to feel he was ready to start work on a new ‘N Sync album. He told us we should meet up in 2006 and work on a new album but that day never came. Justin's time to become a solo star had arrived.""

There would be no farewell tour or announcement of a split by the group which has led to constant speculation and the question on whether a reunion would take place had come up many times during individual interviews, which resulted in mixed opinions between all five members.

Invincible and sporadic appearances (2011-2019)
In January 2011, the group secretly met at Timberlake's Neverland Ranch to begin talks for a reunion tour. It was the first time all five members of the group had been in the same room since 2005. Within weeks, the group had signed a deal with Epic Records to release a brand new studio album and Timberlake and Chasez began production on the record. Unlike their previous albums, the pair sat down together to write the tracks, collaborating on eight of the album's thirteen tracks. Rodney Jerkins was drafted in to produce the record, whilst Timberlake produced eight of the tracks himself.

On Monday August 1, 2011, the group confirmed reports of a reunion when the music video for new single "You Rock My World" aired on NBC in primetime. The song became a top ten hit around the world upon its release two weeks later. It would go on to produce two Billboard Hot 100 number one singles in "Gone" and "It's Gonna Be Me" as well as a further two top ten singles. The group's sixth studio album Invincible was released worldwide on November 7, 2011 and it became the second-best selling album of both 2011 and 2012. The album had a much more pop sound which Timberlake claimed was because he wanted the reunion to be about fun. It went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide.

Between January and December 2012, the group embarked on the "Invincible World Tour" which had dates in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia becoming the highest-grossing tour of the year. The tour ended with a five-night residency at the Madison Square Garden in New York. The dates sold 100,000 tickets, grossing $15 million in total. At the end of the tour, the group once again went on hiatus.

On August 25, 2013, the members of NSYNC regrouped for a one-off performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. They performed a medley of "Gone", "Girlfriend" and "Bye Bye Bye" during Timberlake's 15-minute set leading up to his acceptance of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. After the performance, Bass said that the group does not have any plans at the moment for a reunion tour or new music. On April 30, 2018, NSYNC reunited to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On April 14, 2019, Chazez, Fatone, Bass and Kirkpatrick reunited, for a performance with Ariana Grande during her headlining performance at Coachella. They performed "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored", "It Makes Me Ill" and "Tearin' Up My Heart". Timberlake was unable to make the reunion due to finishing up his The Man of the Woods Tour the night before.

This Is It and NSYNC 25 (2020-Present)
In December 2019, Timberlake contacted Chasez about celebrating the 25th anniversary since the release of the group's debut album Off The Wall. Whilst in the studio with long time collaborator Timbaland, Timberlake had written a track which he played to Chasez. Initially planning to release an updated version of the debut with demo versions and previously unreleased tracks, Chasez flew out to meet Timberlake and the trio went on to write three songs in as many days. By February 2020, the group had agreed to release a new studio album and once again signed a deal with Epic Records to release it.

In June 2020, it was confirmed that Netflix would air a six part documentary series entitled This Is It: NSYNC 25 which would begin streaming on August 14, 2020, 25 years to the day that Off The Wall was released. The series featured sit down interviews with each of the members speaking to Oprah Winfrey about their careers along with never before seen footage of the group recording albums, shooting music videos and on tour. On July 23, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and The CW all aired a 30-second advert at 9pm ET. Each of the member's faces appeared separately for five seconds with the beat of a previously unheard song playing the background before "NSYNC: THIS IS IT 07.24.20" appeared on screen, confirming their second reunion.

Three hours later, the group's seventh studio album This Is It was available to buy and stream. "Love Never Felt So Good", the album's lead single, was released alongside its music video and the album. The album sold two million copies globally in its first week, 1.3 million of which were sold on its first day alone. The album was streamed over 80 million times on Spotify and 34 million times on Apple Music in its first 24 hours.

On the week of August 8, both This Is It and "Love Never Felt So Good" debuted at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart and Billboard Hot 100 respectively, making NSYNC the first artist to have an album and a single debut at number one simultaneously. All sixteen of the album's tracks debuted on the Hot 100, with "This Is It" debuting at #4 and "Slave To The Rhythm" debuting at #6. A further two singles debuted within the top twenty.