No Strings Attached (NSYNC album)
No Strings Attached is the third studio album by American boy band NSYNC. It was released by Jive Records on March 21, 2000. Looking to distinguish their music from that of their labelmates, NSYNC chose to incorporate pop and R&B styles. Prior to the release of the album, the band separated from their management Trans Continental and their label RCA Records; its title is a play on the idea of independence from corporate control. Contributions to the album's production came from a wide range of producers, including NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, and collaborators including Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, Rami, Teddy Riley, Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, Richard Marx, Veit Renn, Babyface, and Guy Roche.
No Strings Attached
March 21, 2000
February 1999 – January 28, 2000
- Battery (New York City, New York)
- Cheiron (Stockholm, Sweden)
- Cove City (Orlando, Florida)
- The Treehouse (North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California)
- Westlake
47:15
- Kevin Antunes
- Babyface
- Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs
- JC Chasez
- Riprock 'n' Alex G.
- Kristian Lundin
- Richard Marx
- Rami Yacoub
- Veit Renn
- Teddy Riley
- Guy Roche
- Jake Schulze
- Justin Timberlake
After several delays due to legal battles, No Strings Attached was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics, many of whom praised the production. The album debuted atop the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 2.4 million copies, setting the record for one-week sales in the country; a record that remained for 15 years until Adele surpassed the first-week sales record with her third studio album 25 (2015). Four singles were released from the album. Its lead single "Bye Bye Bye" is credited with creating the hype for the album's eventual landmark success. No Strings Attached was the best selling album of 2000. NSYNC promoted the album through the No Strings Attached Tour in 2000, which was the second highest-grossing tour in North America of that year.
It was considered to be the peak of the teen pop genre, as CDs were beginning to be phased out in favor of peer-to-peer file sharing sites such as Napster and LimeWire, as well as trends shifting away from the genre, beginning with the Backstreet Boys' album Black & Blue (2000). NSYNC were considered to be influential in crossing over music genres, which helped distinguish themselves from the Backstreet Boys, and inspire other boy bands to experiment with different genres of music while expressing their originality.
Commercial performance[edit]
Many retailers around the United States had predicted that, "with an impressive show of sales strength", No Strings Attached could "culminate into the biggest first week ever in the SoundScan era". Jive Records had already shipped 9.2 million units of the album, and reorders were already made shortly after the album's release in record stores. At online retailer Amazon, advance sales for the album were the biggest at the time. Meanwhile, orders for the album were aggressive in the West Coast. Some stores stayed opened until midnight specifically for the album.[42] According to Pareles, the sales of No Strings Attached were "a tribute to Jive Records' skill at building anticipation" for the album. The strength of its lead single and music video, "Bye Bye Bye", and Internet song previews for the album provided for the build up.[1] Both Jive Records and the band's management credited the album's early success to the anticipation amassed over the two years since they released their self-titled debut album, the highly publicized legal battle and the media blitz leading up to the release.[15][28] Despite the mania that No Strings Attached stirred in the wake of its debut, MTV reported the "record week may not have been simply the result of a wide fan base and effective marketing". Several NSYNC fans bought numerous copies of the album "to have more than one" and with the intent for NSYNC to "break the Backstreet Boys' sales record",[43] as their second studio album Millennium, sold more than 1.13 million copies in its first week in 1999.[44]
No Strings Attached sold over 2.4 million copies in the United States during its first week, setting the record as the first album to have sold more than two million copies in a single week since the chart adopted Nielsen SoundScan data in May 1991.[44] This record was later recognized at the 2000 Billboard Music Awards.[41] The album held the record for 15 years after its release, until it was surpassed by Adele's third studio album 25 on November 23, 2015, which sold over 2.433 million albums in the United States within three days of its release.[45] The figures surpassed the album's successor Celebrity's debut sales of over 1.88 million units, retaining the recognition as NSYNC's highest-debut in their career.[46] Chartwise, the album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one.[47] It topped the chart for eight consecutive weeks,[48] becoming one of the longest-running number-one albums of 2000.[49] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified No Strings Attached nine-times Platinum on April 19, 2000, becoming the highest-certified single disc album in the initial RIAA audit in that year. It broke the record previously set in 1993 by The Bodyguard soundtrack, which was certified six-times Platinum in the RIAA's first audit.[50] No Strings Attached shipped 10 million copies domestically in 2000 alone, of which 9,936,104 were sold, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[51] This consequently made No Strings Attached the highest-selling album of 2000 in the United States.[52][53] As of October 2014, No Strings Attached sold 11.16 million copies per SoundScan.[54] An additional 1.52 million copies sold through the BMG Music Club are not included in SoundScan's total.[55] In 2000, No Strings Attached was ranked at number one on the Billboard 200 year end chart.[56] According to Billboard, No Strings Attached was the top album of the decade.[57]
Legacy[edit]
By status, NSYNC were considered a clone of the Backstreet Boys. With the success that the band attained with No Strings Attached, that notion was obliterated, even calling them as a serious rival with their label mate.[58] On November 21, 2000, the Backstreet Boys issued their follow-up album Black & Blue, which sold 1.6 million in its debut week domestically, alongside selling 5 million copies worldwide.[59] According to Richard Skanse of Rolling Stone, the album gave the group its landmark achievement. For Janet Kleinbaum, Jive's then-Vice President of Artist Marketing, the "yardstick is definitely extended",[28] referring to the record by which future releases of Jive would have to be compared with. After No Strings Attached, Jive's other popular artists at the time such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys were each releasing an album.[26] Kleinbaum thought, "We know now what the possibilities are. We're not going to compare a Britney Spears record to NSYNC, or Backstreet Boys. However, NSYNC has shown us what can be done."[28]
Referring to the first day sale of the album with 1.1 million units, Josh Wolk of Entertainment Weekly said that it was "perhaps the greatest mass spending of allowances in history".[60] Craig Seymour of the same publication said, "What has the industry buzzing is not only that 2.4 million fans rushed to the stores, but that teen-pop behemoth Jive Records was in a unique and almost unprecedented position to meet the stores' demand". This demand on physical copies of the album was met by Jive by shelving up millions of units leading to the album's release date. The label was able to ship 4.2 million copies for the album's official release date, then couriered another 2.3 million in reorders the next day on March 22, 2000. Retailer Grandoni said, "If they hadn't been ready for it, stores would have sold out after a couple days which would have limited their first-week sales".[26]
The teen pop trend reached a climax following the peak of No Strings Attached, where customers moved from CDs to peer-to-peer file sharing such as Napster and LimeWire. Kirkpatrick reflected twenty years later; "We were ahead of the trend when we came out [...] and then the trends caught up, because that's what trends do". NPR wrote that the album has stood the test of time today, stating that "a union of Swedish pop songcraft with R&B and hip-hop's flow and bounce; an eagerness to explore mature themes and styles; an understanding that dance and visual presentation can turn stars into icons".[61] Writing for Consequence of Sound, Anna Rahmanan stated that South Korean boy band BTS have followed in NSYNC's footsteps in crossing music genres, as their initial start as a hip hop group had led them to branch out into different genres such as K-pop, EDM, and R&B. She complimented their adaptability by "tearing a page out of 'N Sync's playbook", while simultaneously showcasing their originality.[23] No Strings Attached was ranked 111th on the Billboard Top 200 Albums of All Time.[62]
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[63] All lead vocals provided by Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, except for "I Thought She Knew" which also features lead vocals from Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick.
Notes