What is a "Forty Factoid"?

MTV has a series (well, I guess you could call it a series) of shows in which artists get to pick their 40 favorite videos, and in between videos, fans can get to ask questions, you learn personal information about the artists, what their days as a artist are like, their music and why they like performing, etc. Artists such as the Backstreet Boys, Brandy, Mya, and KoRn have had the opportunity to host their own shows.

A couple months back, 'N Sync got the chance to have a top 40 video countdown of their own. But MTV took it a step further. Instead of just viewing the videos the guys had chosen, they also added in 'N Sync videos as bonuses (so really you got 43, not 40 videos), some clips from "'N The Mix," and concert footage, but even more interestingly, facts about each of them rolled across the screen intermittently in a orange, blue ribbon.

All kinds of stuff about them - their personalities, what they like to collect, what they were like as kids, etc!

So a "Forty Factoid" (in my sense of the phrase, since I made it up!) is a tidbit from that show. I figure that if the guys told MTV this kind of stuff, I guess it all was authorized by them and I shouldn't be offending them by posting it here. But I am omitting some of the more embarrassing stuff because honestly I don't know why people need to know some of these facts. (Example - why does everyone want to know if someone wears boxers or briefs? I couldn't care less and you shouldn't either, IMHO.)

I am posting these factoids here because...

• when I taped this show I really wasn't that much of an 'N Sync fan and not being a teenybopper (I'm 19) I almost never read teen magazines, so I frankly didn't know much about them, and this show changed that.
• that has completely changed - I'm a big fan now, so looking back at some of these factoids - they remind why I'm a fan. (I remember when I tried - unsuccessfully - to memorize all the events in Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Chronicle - *grin*.) So what if I'm a little fanatical?
• let's say you weren't an 'N Sync fan by any shape or form. And you started reading these factoids. Sure, you might not be interested in the get-go as much as the average 'N Sync fan, but maybe you can get to know them a little better and figure out where they're coming from musically.
• all in all, I hope these pages will be fun to read for any 'N Sync fan and will get non-fans interested in their music. 'N Sync is not just for teenyboppers! I'm sure more people of all ages would become fans if they put aside their preconceived prejudices about "boybands" and actually started listening to their harmonies.

The phrase "boyband" to me is an ugly word. It is a media-coined slang term but it's getting old. Lumping different groups that honestly are completely different is wrong - it prevents non-fans from finding out about these groups because they are termed "boybands" and thus has a negative connotation. I would encourage every 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Five, 98 Degrees, Moffatts, Boyzone, 911 - etc. - fan to set the records straight with people they know who use that phrase. Help them to understand that "the boyband myth" simply isn't true - and help them to discover some great music. (Am I the only one who feels this way?)

Okay, here are those Forty Factoids you've been waiting for!

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THESE PAGES AND PUT THEM ON YOUR SITE! I spent a lot of time compiling these lists and I would appreciate it if you "look but don't touch." Thanks for your cooperation. If you really can't live without these factoids, e-mail me telling me why you want to use my stuff and more than likely I'll let you use them. Again, THANK YOU.

J.C. Chasez - how serious is this "Mr. Serious"?
Justin Timberlake - the "baby" and Mr. North Carolina
Lance Bass - the guy's name is Bass, and he sings bass too!
Chris Kirkpatrick - the founder, yet the most hyperactive
Joey Fatone - the guy with the goatee, and the Superman freak

Hugs,
littlewillow

Back to the 'N Sync 'Ntellectual

First Posted 4/30/99
Created 1999, by littlewillow (fabfan97@hotmail.com).
PLEASE DO NOT DUPLICATE OR REPRODUCE IN ANY FORM.