＊NSYNC - Gone

What this video is

Released in August–September 2001 as the second single from *NSYNC's fourth and final studio album Celebrity, 'Gone' arrived at a pivotal cultural inflection point for the boy band genre. The video's deliberate artistic elevation—employing a celebrated fine-art photographer-director, stripping away color and choreographic spectacle, and centering a single member's emotional narrative—signaled the commercial and…

Why it matters

A watershed moment in boy band video history, 'Gone' was the first *NSYNC video to concentrate the visual and vocal narrative entirely on one member, presaging the group's dissolution. Herb Ritts' monochromatic, fine-art aesthetic represented an unprecedented application of high-fashion…

The director

Herbert Ritts Jr. (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer and music video director. His work concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraiture, often evoking classical Greek sculpture. He directed thirteen music…