Confession time, y’all: My first personal email address was [email protected]*. The candy raver part doesn’t really pertain to this confession—I was 13 and wore a lot of brightly colored necklaces?—but the first half … was because baby blue was Justin Timberlake’s favorite color.
*I’m pretty sure I deleted the account, so don’t be hurt if you email me at this address and I don’t respond.
For most of high school, I was absolutely mad about boy bands, ‘N Sync in particular. Sure, I dabbled in Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees, and I even branched out with Irish and British boy bands like Westlife and BB Mak. But for the most part, I was all about Justin, JC, Lance, Joey, and JC.
Why am I telling you all this, FYAers? Because I am admittedly biased, and I need your help.
At BEA, HRH Megan McCafferty and I ended up discussing who’d we’d include in a Boy Band Supergroup. (Because that is how amazing Megan McCafferty is.) We limited ourselves to choosing only five guys—we weren’t planning the next NKTOBSB—but we hit a sticking point when it came to the fifth member. Later, Megan and I drew Mandy W. and a few other eager boy band fans into the discussion on Twitter. Names were bandied about, but we still couldn’t come to a consensus. I leaned more toward including more of the ‘N Sync guys, while Mandy and Megan tried to create an imbalance suggested we include more of the Backstreet Boys. But can a true Supergroup be made up of guys from only two groups?
Below, I present evidence of the greatness that was the late 90s/early 00s Boy Band era. Watch the videos below, and then take to the comments to discuss your top five choices for who’d make up The Best Boy Band of All Time. And, of course, if you have a strong contender not included below, feel free to present them for consideration.
The Big Two
‘N Sync (or *NSYNC, if you prefer)
Funny story about the “Pop” video—much of the time, that’s not actually Joey dancing. It’s Wade Robson, the choreographer … who might possibly have been the reason Justin and Britney Spears broke up. But I digress.
The Other Guys
The British (and Irish and Canadian) Invasion
5ive (or Five, if you’re not ridiculous)
They played their own instruments! They were a LEGIT BAND.
I couldn’t resist. (They also did an excellent cover of “More Than Words.”)
(Pants to Mandy W. for sharing the last two groups with me.)
