NSYNC got its name from a mother's remark and the last letters of first names
Justin Timberlake's mother Lynn told the new group their voices sounded so in sync. The name also hid a trick: the last letters of Justin, Chris, Joey, Jason and JC. When Jason quit before signing, his 16-year-old replacement Lance Bass was nicknamed Lansten just to keep the spelling working.
Chris Kirkpatrick was singing in a doo-wop group while working at Universal Studios in Orlando in 1995 when he met Lou Pearlman, the backer behind the Backstreet Boys. Pearlman offered to fund a new vocal group if Kirkpatrick could recruit singers. A year of searching led to Timberlake, a former Mickey Mouse Club kid who was writing demos with fellow alumnus JC Chasez, and the pair brought Chasez in. Joey Fatone, a Universal Studios colleague of Kirkpatrick's, completed the core. Jason Galasso, the first bass singer, dropped out after his lawyer judged Pearlman's contract oversized and overcomplicated.
Oddly, the American boy band launched in Germany. Signed to BMG Ariola Munich, they recorded in Sweden with Denniz Pop and Max Martin, and I Want You Back reached the German top 10 in late 1996. Their debut album hit number 1 there in its second week in 1997 and made them an overnight European success. RCA then brought them home, but the American album opened at a sluggish number 82. A Disney Channel concert special, offered first to the Backstreet Boys, who withdrew because Brian Littrell needed heart surgery, changed everything; within three weeks the album had climbed to number 9 and it eventually shipped over 10 million copies.
Success exposed the money. In 1999 the group sued Pearlman, accusing him of taking more than half their earnings when he had promised a sixth. When they moved to sign with Jive, Pearlman and RCA's parent countersued for 150 million dollars. A judge refused to block the band, and a private settlement in December freed them.
Their first Jive album, No Strings Attached, sold more than a million copies in a single day in 2000 and 2.4 million in its first week, a US record that stood for over fifteen years. The group paused indefinitely in 2002 after selling more than 70 million records, returning for occasional reunions since.
Source: NSYNC
