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Joey Fatone is extremely grateful for the younger generation of *NSYNC fans who've "discovered" the band decades after their debut.
The '90s heartthrob recently told People about Gen Z fans who started listening to *NSYNC's music after the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine featured 2000's track "Bye Bye Bye" in its opening scene. The "Tearin' Up My Heart" hitmakers released their first album in 1997 when the oldest Gen Zs were turning one year old.
Fatone thinks it's funny how previous generations knew them as a group, but younger generations separate their careers.
"A lot of the younger generation didn’t really know us. I mean, they kind of know who we are, but it’s funny — people will say, 'Justin’s a solo artist,’ or ‘Lance does this podcast,’ or ‘Joey was doing this show,’ and they don’t always realize we were all in a group together. Then they go down this rabbit hole of all the different things we’ve done, which I think is amazing.”
The standout commented on how *NSYNC's music resonates with fans of all generations, regardless of where and when they first heard their tunes.
"I hear from so many young kids — and their parents, too — saying, 'I let my kid listen to "Bye Bye Bye," and now they’re obsessed with all the songs,' It’s so cool how the music still resonates — or ‘bumps,’ or ‘thumps,’ as my old self would say — with the younger generation. It’s wild, because now people are like, ‘Oh, that’s the Deadpool dance,’ and I’m like, ‘No … that was "Bye Bye Bye" — over 20 years ago!'"
Fatone also watched "Bye Bye Bye" and "It's Gonna Be Me" become TikTok trends in real time, and was baffled by the "new buzz around it."
"It was overwhelming, to be honest. All these different people dancing to it — it was wild. It’s hard to explain, but it kind of felt like … I don’t want to say we died and came back, but in a way, it was like a resurrection. A resurgence, really. Like our music suddenly had this whole new buzz around it."
For more on *NSYNC, read People Are Just Now Realizing What *NSYNC Stands For After 29 Years.