Reigning kings of teen pop ’N Sync partied at ultra-hip Los Angeles nightspot Moomba on Monday night to celebrate their latest release, the aptly titled Celebrity. The quintet, taking a break from their sold-out PopOdyssey US tour, was joined by a bevy of stars ranging from Party Of Five beauty Jennifer Love Hewitt to legendary Playboy founder Hugh Hefner at the launch as they set out to beat the record breaking sales of their previous disc, 2000’s No Strings Attached.
In March 2000 No Strings hit stores with a resounding “ka-ching”, moving 2.4 million albums in one week, more than doubling the previous record set by rival boy band Backstreet Boys in 1999. And while the first-day numbers aren’t in yet, industry insiders are predicting Celebrity, which features the garage-style single Pop, may sell as many as two million copies this week.
“So far, it’s the biggest album this year,” says a buyer for the Tower Records chain of stores. “MTV was plugging it all weekend and it’s been selling very strong.” Yet despite their success, bandmembers Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake remain firmly grounded and unaffected.
“What’s so refreshing about these guys is that they don’t take themselves too seriously,” says collaborator and electronic-music guru BT. “You get more attitude from a guy working behind the counter at Starbucks than you do from these guys. They’re just regular people.” Regular people who’ve sold upwards of 25 million albums worldwide and date the likes of Britney Spears.
But while the boys are proud of their unprecedented sales, they’d rather talk about the music. “Sure, we'd like to break our own record,” says 22-year-old Lance. “But if it doesn’t happen, we won't be disappointed. It might be better if it didn’t happen because it would take the pressure off us.”
Since their last album, the band has matured musically, and they want everyone to take note. “The big numbers have hurt No Strings Attached.,” says Lance. “Nobody remembers that album for what’s important – the music. They remember it as a sales figure. If Celebrity sells, great, but we’d like this one to be remembered for the music.”
“Twenty years down the road, people are gonna be looking back and going, ‘Ya know what? ’N Sync was on top of it’,” says Chris. “´We labelled them as a bubblegum group but over time, we’re seeing that they really knew where music was going and where they were taking their music’.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
