# For the last time, NSYNC is not a damn BAND! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 27, 2000, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055 "2000-07-27T14:53:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/1 "2000-07-27T14:53:09Z")
OK, forgive me if this has been stated before, but I don’t spend much time in the Pit so I haven’t read all the threads. I was watching Entertainment Tonight (No, I can’t explain why I watch that stupid show, so don’t ask me. We all have our failings) and they had what I think was the 1,000th story this year on NSYNC. Now I hate this gaggle of bleached-hair teenybobbin’ poster boys as much as the next guy, but it’s nothing personal. Heck, I know that 11 year old girls have to start listening to music somewhere and these shmucks fit the bill. During my formative years, I had to suffer through Sean Cassidy, Menudo, and even New Kids on the Block. As long as there are pre-teen girls, there will always be groups like this. I can’t change it, so I accept it. But lets get one thing straight, Entertainment Tonight: They are not a goddamn BAND! Bands have musical instruments. Bands PLAY these musical instruments. Bands do not dance around in synchronized choreography while wearing ridiculous outfits without a single fucking musical instrument in sight. So call NSYNC a _group_ if you like. Call them a travelling song and dance revue, or an off-Broadway road musical. Or a pre-packaged video entertainment product, but stop calling them a BAND! The Glen Miller Band was a band. The Rolling Stones are a band. Metallica is a band. Hell, even goddamn Hanson is a band! So knock it the fuck off, ET. Same goes for you, every other media outlet that has the temerity to refer to these dancing bubblegum glitterboy fucknuts as an actual band. Pick a different word. There, that’s all. I feel better. I’m gonna throw a Ramones cd in my player now and go about my business. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/2 "2000-07-27T14:59:48Z")
I wholeheartedly concur! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/3 "2000-07-27T15:11:16Z")
I’ll jump on that band-wagon. I have this exact screaming fit, directed at the TV every week when “Making the Band” comes on. (I don’t have cable, I’m forced to watch the network dregs). When I first heard about this show, that is, just the title and nothing else, I thought - Cool! - I’ve been in bands, This will definitly something I’ll watch. Oh, imagine my dismay. 50 bleached, artifically tanned, tongue ring sportin’, talent dificient, NSYNC wannabe’s, prancing around as if they could actually dance in the first place, screeching god-awful nasally prattle about being someone’s man, when not a one of them even has testicles which have fully dropped yet. Jesus, it’s amazing my TV survived. I just wanted put my boot through the screen. I say give each one of them either a guitar, a bass, a piano or some drum sticks, and if they can’t produce something remotely musical with it - kill them with it. And if they can produce something musical, just maim them a little. ---
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/4 "2000-07-27T15:23:20Z")
Oh, Kee-riist, I’d forgotten all about Making the Band. What a crock. My wife actually watched this show more than once. I just sat there, dumbfounded. I think the guy that is producing the group in that show is the same one who unleashed NSYNC on us. Well, he knows the successful formula, so this bunch of made-for-TV singing dorks will probably be gracing teen magazine covers after NYSNC’s steam runs out. God help us all. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/5 "2000-07-27T20:10:08Z")
I concur here . . . a couple of us in chat (a while ago) were debating this and I pointed out that if 'N SYNC is a band, then I am a band when some friends of mine and I sing along to prerecorded music. Or when I sing along to Winamp. Anyway, the best BAND these days is none of the following: BDB, NSTINK, 32 degrees, spice girls, Ricky Martin, Bwitched, “the band,” 2gether, christina aguilera, britney spears, mandy moore, jessica simpson . . . you get the idea. further nominations? Other than former NKOTB, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/6 "2000-07-27T20:17:37Z")
The word “band” means “group”, as in a bunch of folks banded er, bound together. Instruments have nothing to do with it. Although you may enjoy definition #2 below. Webster says > [@](#): > > Main Entry: 1band > Pronunciation: 'band > Function: noun > Etymology: in senses 1 & 2, from Middle English band, bond something that constricts, from Old Norse band; akin to Old English bindan to bind; in other senses, from Middle English bande strip, from Middle French, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin binda, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German binta fillet; akin to Old English bindan to bind, bend fetter > Date: 12th century > 1 : something that confines or constricts while allowing a degree of movement > 2 : something that binds or restrains legally, morally, or spiritually > 3 : a strip serving to join or hold things together: as a : BELT 2 b : a cord or strip across the back of a book to which the sections are sewn > 4 : a thin flat encircling strip especially for binding: as a : a close-fitting strip that confines material at the waist, neck, or cuff of clothing b : a strip of cloth used to protect a newborn baby’s navel – called also bellyband c : a ring of elastic > 5 a : a strip (as of living tissue or rock) or a stripe (as on an animal) differentiable (as by color, texture, or structure) from the adjacent material or area b : a more or less well-defined range of wavelengths, frequencies, or energies c : RANGE 7a > 6 : a narrow strip serving chiefly as decoration: as a : a narrow strip of material applied as trimming to an article of dress b plural : a pair of strips hanging at the front of the neck as part of a clerical, legal, or academic dress c : a ring without raised portions > 7 : TRACK 1e(2) ---
**Author:** ![jesuslynch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e99b99/32.png) [@jesuslynch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesuslynch)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/7 "2000-07-27T20:31:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\* > I say give each one of them either a guitar, a bass, a piano or some drum sticks, and if they can’t produce something remotely musical with it - kill them with it. And if they can produce something musical, just maim them a little. \*\* Oh. So you want another round of **Monkees**? ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/8 "2000-07-27T20:38:40Z")
No . . . I think what he wants is another round of “The Partridge Family.” ---
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/9 "2000-07-27T20:56:57Z")
I appreciate the clarification, Bill. But I was referring to a more colloquial definition of a band as a group of instrument-playing individuals. Using the Websters definition, I suppose NYSNC can be considered banded together as a group, but this doesn’t change the fact that they don’t meet my own definition of what makes a band (my rant, so I get to define the terms). If the Websters people had the virture of foresight, they would add a clarification at the end: “when used in conjunction with the music industry, not an appropriate term to describe blow-dried, whiny-voiced, sissy-boy, sugar candy bubblegum crap groups who lip-synch to canned music and shake their underdeveloped privates at screaming hordes of taste deficient preteens.” Or something like that. But, semantics aside, I did like the part in definition #6 about “serving chiefly as decoration.” Sums up their purpose in the world pretty nicely, I would say. ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/10 "2000-07-27T21:06:09Z")
If we’re going to be technical about things, wouldn’t NSYNC’s instruments be their “voices”? ---
**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/11 "2000-07-27T21:27:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Necros \* > \*\*If we’re going to be technical about things, wouldn’t NSYNC’s instruments be their “voices”? \*\* Or rather, the voices of the background singers they lip-“sync” to… ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/12 "2000-07-27T21:28:24Z")
Yes, Lou Pearlman (the big fat guy on “Making the Band”) is the same guy who gave us N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys. The name of the band (group, whatever) on “Making the Band” is O-Town, and they’ve already been on MTV. I’ll call Korn a group, but they play instruments. To me, it’s all the same. ---
**Author:** ![Altair\_8800](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Altair\_8800](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Altair_8800)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/13 "2000-07-27T21:31:21Z")
They are definitely not a band. Bands sound way better than that. And their voices? Think “digitally enhanced.” Nothing is more disgusting to me than watching bunches of pre-pubescent girls screming over such groups. It’s nothing to get excited about–all of their songs sound exactly alike and have no meaning. ---
**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/14 "2000-07-27T21:32:30Z")
One guy gave us both of those horrid… _things_? Great! Then one tactical strike will prevent him from spawning his horrible Cheez-Wiz, Tan-In-A-Can, featherfluff (not to be confused with marshmallow fluff, which is good and holy), bubblegum “groups” ever again. ---
**Author:** ![FreakFreely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@FreakFreely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FreakFreely)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/15 "2000-07-27T21:33:48Z")
“Oh. So you want another round of **Monkees**?” Bartender! One round of monkees! ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/16 "2000-07-27T22:07:38Z")
Actually, I saw them on The View one day and they had a full fledged group of people playing musical instruments. So technically, they are a band. We don’t see them as a band because the people playing the instruments aren’t plastered all over the media. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/17 "2000-07-27T23:02:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh. So you want another round of Monkees? > [@](#): > > No . . . I think what he wants is another round of “The Partridge > Family.” First of all, neither the Partridge Family, nor the Monkees claimed to be a band. They were TV shows and anybody with three or four brain cells knew that they couldn’t really play (except for the members of The Monkees themselves, but I’ll leave that alone). And I know Making the Band is a TV show too, but they have announced that the purpose for the show is to create a musical _group_. Curse them for that. Now. All that being said, I would gladly move in with the Partridge Family and let Davy Jones give me daily swedish massages, if NSYNC and the dorks from Making the Band would promise to off themselves, right now. ---
**Author:** ![BlockHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@BlockHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlockHead)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/18 "2000-07-27T23:10:35Z")
What about when these groups utilize backup singers? I’m sorry but if you don’t play any instrument, all you do is sing, and you still need backup singers then something is way way wrong! ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/19 "2000-07-27T23:16:38Z")
My favorite boy band is fingerbang. ---
**Author:** ![BlockHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@BlockHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlockHead)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055/20 "2000-07-27T23:24:27Z")
FINGERBANG! RIGHT ON RIGHT ON RIGHT ON! FINGERBANG RULES THE WASTELANDS! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-last-time-nsync-is-not-a-damn-band/27055.md?page=2)