Guilty Pleasures, Retroactive Edition

I watched a couple of 'N Sync videos tonight (it’s a long story), which was quite entertaining, since I somehow missed their heyday in the late nineties and only know the performers as follows: Justin, the solo artist. Joey and Lance, Dancing with the Stars contestants. JC, the judge on America’s Best Dance Crew. The other guy (Chris), who hasn’t yet been involved in a dance reality show. I was impressed with how hard they worked and how much good dancing was in each video.

I’ve always liked JC’s critiques on ABDC, where he points out a group’s precision, use of the space, and entertainment value with very specific pointers each week. I didn’t know he was the co-lead singer of the band, and it was like discovering an old friend can really sing and dance!

I like seeing boy band acts for the marketing as much as the music. The good ones have brilliant marketing for their demographic. One of the few failures of the nineties bands were clothing lines, since the average teenage boy is pretty much uninterested in boy band merchandising. In a smart move, the latest darlings, the Jonas Brothers, apparently have a clothing line aimed at girls.

Buster watched the videos with me, and he can sing along (well, to “Bye Bye Bye,” which admittedly is not a stretch for a baby), which gives him the highly random repertoire of John Williams (Raiders of the Lost Ark/Star Wars), 'N Sync, and the Twinkle Twinkle.

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In totally unrelated and more serious news, I wrote about helping to keep up the spirits of friends during cancer treatment over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog in Guys Get Cancer Too.