When We Were Young - an 80s and 90s pop culture podcast · When We Were Young podcast

131: “This Must Be Pop” – *NSYNC

·1 hr 25 min·5 clips

Rolling Stone ranked 'Bye Bye Bye' the sixth greatest boy band song, while another editor called it one of the 17 most annoying songs.

The show opens with a loud pop joke and a bit of swagger. Chris, Seth, and Becky use the intro to sketch a loose conversation about how *NSYNC fit into the broader pop moment around the early 2000s. Becky leans into the memory-lane angle. She talks about buying *No Strings Attached, listening back to it with her five-year-old in the car, and finding that the album still works for her in ways that go past the singles. The conversation keeps circling the band's personality problem. The hosts point out that earlier singles and promotional moves made the group feel generic or awkwardly managed, while "Bye Bye Bye" and its video finally gave the act shape, humor, and a clearer identity. They treat that shift as the moment *NSYNC became relatable enough to stand apart from the blur of other boy bands. Becky says she especially likes the non-singles. She names "Space Cowboy" and the title track "No Strings Attached" as songs that still click for her, even while admitting "Bye Bye Bye" is maybe one of her least favorite songs on the record and she still likes it. That admission gives the talk a nice edge. It lets the panel separate iconic from personally favorite, which is a distinction the show likes to linger on rather than flatten. There is also a clear Backstreet Boys comparison running through the conversation. The hosts contrast Backstreet's more clearly managed trajectory with *NSYNC's weirder, less coordinated path, including a Christmas song, a Gloria Estefan single, and some later moves that felt boring or random to them. That comparison helps explain why *NSYNC landed differently. The group's success here is tied less to a perfect plan and more to the point where the jokes, the dancing, and the image all started to work together. The panel keeps that idea grounded in how the video plays. It is remembered as memorable, playful, and the place where the band stopped feeling like pure product and started feeling like people with personalities and a sense of humor. By the close, the episode settles into affectionate teasing. It ends the way this show often does, with everyone a little tired, a little delighted, and still humming the hook.

As heard by us

A funny, memory-rich look at when *NSYNC started feeling like more than a generic pop act.

The episode follows *NSYNC as it shifts from a tightly managed pop act into a group with more personality, with No Strings Attached, Bye Bye Bye, and the video choreography marking the break point.

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Why you'd press play

*You want the moment NSYNC start feeling like a fun pop group, not just a generic boy band.**

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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