No Strings Attached is the third studio albumnote by pop Boy Band *NSYNC released on March 21, 2000.
The album would be released after several delays due to the group's ongoing legal battles with former manager Lou Pearlman. *NSYNC accused Pearlman of fraud and swindling them of their earnings, and they would eventually reach a settlement that allowed *NSYNC to sever their ties with Pearlman's management company and RCA Records, and join Jive Records. During the legal wrangling, *NSYNC would still record songs for No Strings Attached. Chris Kirkpatrick came up with the title of the album, referencing the group finally breaking free from Pearlman's control. The album's visuals would take this further and use a puppetry motif, representing *NSYNC achieving independence as well as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the criticism that they were manufactured, corporate-controlled marionettes.
*NSYNC would then take control of the direction of the album, choosing the producers and songwriters they wanted to work with, as well as writing and producing themselves. When the album was released, it set the first-week sales Billboard sales record of 2.4 million albums sold, a record that went uncontested for 15 years until Adele surpassed it with her 25 album in 2015.
Tracklist
- "Bye Bye Bye"
- "It's Gonna Be Me"
- "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)" (featuring Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes)
- "Just Got Paid"
- "It Makes Me Ill"
- "This I Promise You"
- "No Strings Attached"
- "Digital Get Down"
- "Bringin' da Noise"
- "That's When I'll Stop Loving You"
- "I'll Be Good for You"
- "I Thought She Knew"
Tropes, Tropes, Tropes!
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, the rapper of TLC makes an appearance on "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)".
- A Cappella: The track "I Thought She Knew" is entirely in a cappella.
- Auto-Tune: Used to distort the vocals in "Digital Get Down"
- Break-Up Song: The album has three break-up songs, "Bye Bye Bye", "It Makes Me Ill", and "I Thought She Knew".
- Bizarro Episode: The album is full of your usual Boy Band songs, your break-up songs, your love songs, etc. Then there's "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)", a song about The End of the World as We Know It but still partying and going into space. And it has the only feature on the album, a rap from Left-Eye from TLC.
- Chase Scene: The entire premise of the "Bye Bye Bye" music video. The Psycho Ex-Girlfriend runs after Chris and Joey on a train, sics two Dobermans after Justin, and engages JC and Lance in a high-speed car chase.
- Cover Version: "Just Got Paid", a song originally recorded by Johnny Kemp. Bonus points for Teddy Riley producing both versions.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: "It Makes Me Ill", a song about the subject feeling intense envy about his ex-girlfriend being with another guy.
- Darker and Edgier: *NSYNC worked with the same producers/songwriters as the Backstreet Boys on No Strings Attached, and they asked for a harder edge to their sound to differentiate themselves from the group. Songs like "Bye Bye Bye", "Space Cowboy", and "Digital Get Down" sounded edgier compared to most of the pop music of that era.
- Genre Shift: Slight, this album would mark the start of *NSYNC starting to incorporate R&B into their music, a trend that would continue with their fourth studio album Celebrity, and Justin Timberlake would almost completely shift to Contemporary R&B for his solo work.
- Living Toys: The "It's Gonna Be Me" music video has the band as toy dolls in a toy store.
- People Puppets: No Strings Attached's visuals used this motif with the album art. The "Bye Bye Bye" music video shows the band members with ropes attached to their limbs while they are manipulated from above like puppets. Basically it symbolizes how manipulative the Psycho Ex-Girlfriend is, who just wants to toy with them.
- Signs of the End Times: "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)" has a couple of references to the End Times and prophecies about the end of the world.
- Silly Love Songs: "That's When I'll Stop Loving You", "I'll Be Good for You", and especially "This I Promise You" complete with the cheesy music video.
- Intercourse with You: "Digital Get Down", which would mark *NSYNC's first song about doing the deed.
- Intimate Telecommunications: "Digital Get Down", a song about cybersex.
