＊NSYNC - I Want You Back

What this video is

Produced at the height of the Stockholm pop-factory system — helmed by producers Max Martin and Denniz Pop — this video represents *NSYNC's commercial and artistic entry point into the European teen pop market in 1996, nearly two years before their US breakthrough. The sci-fi concept video aesthetic reflects a period when European pop videos frequently deployed early CGI and virtual sets to signal modernity and…

Why it matters

As *NSYNC's debut music video, this artifact documents the precise visual and performative template the group established at inception: synchronized choreography, coordinated costuming, and concept-driven narrative within a sci-fi framework. It is a foundational document of the Max Martin–era pop…

The director

Alan Calzatti is a music video and commercial director whose work spans the mid-to-late 1990s European pop market. He directed the original 1996 Version 1 music video for *NSYNC's debut single 'I Want You Back,' shot in Stockholm, Sweden in August 1996 for…