＊NSYNC - It's Gonna Be Me

2000

＊NSYNC - It's Gonna Be Me (2000) Director: Wayne Isham Era: Teen Pop Apex (2000) - Peak of the late-1990s/early-2000s boy band phenomenon, coinciding with *NSYNC's commercial zenith on the Billboard Hot 100 and the dominance of TRL-era MTV pop culture. An essential artifact of the boy band era's commercial and artistic peak, this video demonstrates the highest production ambitions of early-2000s pop video making. Its pioneering use of prosthetic transformation effects, documented production methodology, strong chart pedigree, award history, and remarkable post-broadcast meme longevity make it a Tier 1 preservation priority for any comprehensive study of millennial pop visual culture. Context: Released in 2000 as the second US single from *NSYNC's album No Strings Attached, 'It's Gonna Be Me' became the group's only Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit, topping the chart for two consecutive weeks. The video arrived at the absolute peak of the boy band era, when TRL was the definitive arbiter of pop cultural relevance. The toy/marionette visual concept extended the thematic thread of *NSYNC's 'No Strings Attached' album branding, in which the group positioned themselves as artists breaking free from puppet-like control, creating a coherent visual mythology across the campaign. The video's internet afterlife as the 'It's Gonna Be May' meme (originating on Tumblr in 2012) further cemented its status as a durable cultural artifact, generating measurably increased annual YouTube traffic each April 30. Director notes: Confirmed directed by Wayne Isham (IMDB, IMVDb, Wikipedia, Billboard, Music Fandom, Justin Timberlake Fandom). Filmed April 26–28, 2000 at Los Angeles Center Studios with additional footage shot at a toy store location. Isham deliberately avoided CGI for the doll transformation, instead hiring prosthetic makeup artist Screaming Mad George, who transformed all five members into marionettes using prosthetics applied over approximately six hours; the band wore the makeup for roughly 24 hours total, with 22 hours allocated to the shoot. The band was filmed at 12 frames per second on a 24fps base to simulate marionette movement, and placed against a green screen, an approach Isham conceived after seeing a Slim Jim advertisement. Radium, a San Francisco-based effects company, was initially approached for CGI marionettes but declined due to deadline constraints. The video debuted on MTV's TRL on May 23, 2000, reached the TRL #1 position multiple times from May through September 2000 (including the 500th episode countdown), and won Best Makeup in a Music Video at the 10th Annual MVPA Awards on May 16, 2001. Isham also directed *NSYNC's preceding single 'Bye Bye Bye,' creating a visual continuity between the two videos within the No Strings Attached campaign.