Oh it was a different time.Justin Timberlake had just recently shaved off his fro, and was pretending he hadn't penned a deal to leave his boyband in the dust for true fame.
Lance Bass was still "straight."
Joey Fatone was still not hosting reality show karaoke games.
And Michael Jackson was still appearing in public and sans burka every once in a while.
Yes, a different time. When Justin wore a tie-dyed sleeveless tee with a skull on it, which didn't bring sexy anywhere. When a writer penned the word "Sexetary" and got it greenlit for major broadcast. Do you remember this time? It seems like decades ago - the boy bands that are our shameful version of my parents Beatles. My slightly older friends' Depeche Modes, Smiths and Cures. My grandparents' Comos and Sinatras and King Coles.
They had icons. We had twinky, lipsynching, painfully gay corporate created musical orgies.
Sigh.
Well let's go back there any way. Depression was nowhereabouts. Dubya hadn't assfucked the planet yet. Wall Street and Main Street were getting along swimmingly.
The boys came together on MTV to sing in defense of pop music, of NSync and the boy band generation. Recently there had been murmurings, wondering when the 98 degrees and the Backstreet Boys were going to die out. Their response? "But then you got to realize what we're doin' is not a trend. We got the gift of melody, we're gonna play it to the end."
Of course that end would come a year later. How far we have come.
Looking back today, we get to witness the dramatic irony of this rousing anthem. Of Michael Jackson's odd druged facial expressions. Of N* thinking they truly would live on forever.
Oh, this is sad to see. N'Sync used to sing live, even if it didn't sound great. That's one of the things I liked about them.
ReplyDelete"Pop" is an impossible song to sing totally live since most of it's appeal is in the (post-)production effects.