Continuing our Eat My Vids series (click to view), we’re ranking the music videos of artists or bands that were created during the height of the MTV music video era. Today it’s time for one of our favorite manufactured boy bands — *NSYNC. Though Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and Chris Kirkpatrick were only together as *NSYNC for a short seven years, they managed to produce three albums (plus a holiday album) and 18 music videos, guest-starred on TV shows like Clueless and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and even recorded commercials for the likes of Chili’s with their baby back ribs jingle (click to view our article about the best ’90s jingles). Not too shabby!
We could go on, but let’s get to what you came here for — our ranking of all of *NSYNC’s music videos. These are ranked based on the videos themselves and not the songs, and we definitely gave a heavier weighting when the video had a ridiculous factor.
18. I'll Never Stop
This music video is for a bonus track that, to be quite honest, we’d never heard before. The video itself is pretty lackluster, and features footage from the boys on tour while a group of teenage girls sing along to the song in a bedroom of sorts. We’re not sure who this video was for, because it features the teenage girls having a pillow fight, and let’s be real, seeing girls having a pillow fight is for guys, not girls.
17. Here We Go
Interestingly, NSYNC has quite a few videos that aren’t on their YouTube channel. Are they ashamed of them or something? This video is one of those not on their official channel, and features the boys dancing on a basketball court. The video shows each member of the group much more equally than their videos would evolve into later.
16. Music of My Heart ft. Gloria Estefan
This video features Gloria Estefan, and is featured on her YouTube channel instead of *NSYNC’s, even though it seems like it was pretty clearly an *NSYNC song. This video is pretty boring, with the guys and Gloria singing this ballad in a high school. It seems like actual music students are featured throughout the video as well, to show how music is important in school or something? Who knows.
15. Together Again
In this video (also not on their official YouTube), the boys are getting together for the holidays and looking through some old childhood photos in a photo album. In a very rare sight, both Chris and Joey have solo singing parts that are featured in the video, with Justin taking a pretty significant backseat. Is that the reason why it’s not on the YouTube channel?! Hmmmmm.
14. Tearin' Up My Heart
While we love this song, this music video is pretty boring. It features the boys having a photoshoot in a warehouse, then singing on a random bed that happens to be in that same warehouse. In this video, you’ll notice a lot of this weird thing they all do with their heads, sort of like an ostrich’s neck when they’re walking, just going back and forth. Were they directed this way or was it natural? We may never know.
13. I Want You Back - Alternate Version
Though the other version of this music video is way more iconic (don’t worry, we’ll get to it), apparently some people didn’t think it would go over well with US audiences. So, this alternate version was made featuring a much more generic concept of the boys dancing and some shots of them hanging out. Though it’s a fairly boring video, JC apparently said it was the first time he thought they’d shot a real music video. What’s odd is that the band doesn’t have this alternate version on their YouTube channel, but rather a live version listed as an “official music video.” What’s the deal, guys? You remake the video and then disown it later?
12. Girlfriend
This music video seems to be influenced by The Fast and the Furious, as it features the guys flirting with girls at an illegal car racing event. Though the concept is fairly thin, with the most excitement being the guys dancing on top of cars, it eventually escalates to Justin racing one of the “bad” dudes at the end. You’ll notice that Justin gets a lot of the attention in this video, which is a common theme in most of their videos.
11. (Thinking of You) I Drive Myself Crazy
Wow, what a video. The concept in this one is that each of the boys has broken up with a recent girlfriend under various circumstances, and it has driven them “insane” to the point where they are in an asylum together. In the end, though, they get out, and all of the girls that drove them to this point are now being taken into the asylum instead. … What?! Okay.
10. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
In this video for their holiday hit, you’ll really notice a trend in a lot of their earlier music videos — the heavy use of greenscreen. This video is particularly egregious, and features the guys in a sleigh over a greenscreen background that shows a lot of more summery shots, including a blue sky with sparse clouds, and the ocean. Isn’t this supposed to be during the holidays? Okay, whatever. The video does feature a cameo from Gary Coleman as Santa’s elf, so that’s something to look out for.
9. Gone
When you watch this music video, you’ll wonder to yourself — is this actually a Justin Timberlake video and not an *NSYNC video? It’s more understandable once you read our third Five Fast Fact about the song below, but still, this video is basically just a JT video — the others provide backing vocals and pretty much just exist in the background of the video. What sets this video apart from a typical music video is the opening, which is styled in an old-timey fashion with JT doing a Charlie Chaplin thing.
8. For the Girl Who Has Everything
Here we have another video not on their YouTube channel for one of their earlier ballads. In this video, the guys are stranded on a deserted island where a chest full of fancy stuff floats up — including a champagne bottle. They put a note in the booze bottle and throw it back in the ocean, where it goes and finds this rich girl in New York who has been all sad and mopey throughout the video. Does she go save them? We’ll never know, because the video ends just as she opens their champagne bottle note.
7. This I Promise You
Wow, you guys. This video is so ridiculous. It features the boys singing amidst a redwood forest that has all of these mysterious bubbles floating around interspersed with shots of other random people. It ends with the guys apparently going into these bubbles and being transported to an outdoor restaurant to finish out the song? What. In. The. World. This video is so nonsensical and ridiculous!
6. U Drive Me Crazy
Wow, why isn’t this one on their official YouTube in better quality?! It’s a GEM, you guys. In this video, the boys dress up in multiple different group disguises to perform for a record producer who is looking for a new band to sign — as rockers, a girl group, and a rap group. In the end, though, when the producer sees them singing and dancing as themselves, he’s like YES. It’s so silly, and the band looks like they are genuinely having a lot of fun together.
5. Pop
This music video starts out with a fun bit showing Justin in a Max Headroom-style opening, talking from a TV about Pop, featuring more bubbles (at least this time it makes sense as a reference to carbonation). The video then turns into more of a generic dance video, but does have a fun ending bit that plays out as pop art. And, for those who don’t know, Joey was injured prior to filming this video, so the choreographer Wade Robson stepped in for the dancing scenes — you can tell if you look closely enough as they didn’t replace Wade’s face with Joey’s on the wide shots.
4. (God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You
Okay, so this music video is confusing, you guys. The song seems like a romantic love ballad, but the video is definitely not a love story, at least not of the romantic type. While the guys sing in front of a background of water tanks with bubbles (more bubbles!), the rest of the video is footage of a boy growing up during the ’40s war times with his single mom. He eventually meets a girl, but the video is really about him and his mom, and it’s really unclear whose perspective the song is supposed to be from. While the guys seem to be singing about their latest female obsession, the video seems to be about the love between a dude and his mother — strange.
3. I Want You Back - Original Version
Ah yes, here we go, the original version of this music video! This was their first music video recorded, and the boys are sporting some very interesting outfits — we’re talking some baggy black pants with tight, lycra-looking shirts that are sort of mock-turtlenecks with a half zip. It’s definitely a, uh, look. The video makes a lot of use of computer-generated graphics, and features some kind of half-baked story about the guys being on a space station trying to digitally communicate with a girl? The video is absolutely ridiculous, and that’s what makes it great.
2. It's Gonna Be Me
For this iconic music video, the guys play doll versions of themselves stuck in a toy department as they despair at people choosing to buy other toys rather than them. In the end, though, they do some stop-motion looking dancing and entice a girl to buy them, which turns the gang into their real selves. It’s a pretty fun concept, and should still make you smile all these years later.
1. Bye Bye Bye
Was there really any doubt that this music video would be number one? It’s so synonymous with the group and even has a dance move that everyone remembers. Here, the guys embrace the “No Strings Attached” vibe of the album cover. The video features a woman controlling the guys on strings from above, until she eventually cuts them loose at three different points. Joey and Chris get transported to a train where they are outrunning the girl, Justin gets transported to a warehouse where he runs away from the girl, and JC and Lance get transported to a car on a highway where they have a high-speed chase with the girl. But, the most memorable part has to be the guys in the shipping container thing dancing as it spins around.
But which is your favorite *NSYNC music video? Do you agree with our ranking? Let us know in the comments!
- The music video for “Bye Bye Bye” peaked at number one on Total Request Live and stayed there for 25 consecutive days. It’s their most-viewed music video on YouTube.
- For the “It’s Gonna Be Me” music video, the boys had to undergo six hours of makeup to get their doll look. They then stayed in makeup for 24 hours to film the video.
- If you’ve ever thought to yourself that “Gone” sounds like more of a Justin Timberlake song than an *NSYNC song, that’s because he actually intended on recording it on his own as a duet with Michael Jackson, but Jackson passed so he brought it to the group instead.
- “Tearin’ Up My Heart” was written by Max Martin and Kristian Lundin with the Backstreet Boys in mind, but when BSB passed on it, *NSYNC was given the song.
- While filming the “This I Promise You” music video in the San Francisco area, Justin and Joey ended up touring Alcatraz without tickets — they were eventually caught and let off with a warning.
- The music video for “Bye Bye Bye” peaked at number one on Total Request Live and stayed there for 25 consecutive days. It’s their most-viewed music video on YouTube.
- For the “It’s Gonna Be Me” music video, the boys had to undergo six hours of makeup to get their doll look. They then stayed in makeup for 24 hours to film the video.
- If you’ve ever thought to yourself that “Gone” sounds like more of a Justin Timberlake song than an *NSYNC song, that’s because he actually intended on recording it on his own as a duet with Michael Jackson, but Jackson passed so he brought it to the group instead.
- “Tearin’ Up My Heart” was written by Max Martin and Kristian Lundin with the Backstreet Boys in mind, but when BSB passed on it, *NSYNC was given the song.
- While filming the “This I Promise You” music video in the San Francisco area, Justin and Joey ended up touring Alcatraz without tickets — they were eventually caught and let off with a warning.
