Pop

"Pop" is a song by American boy band *NSYNC. It was released to U.S. radio on May 14, 2001, as the first single from their fourth studio album, Celebrity. The song was written by Wade Robson and Justin Timberlake and produced by BT. It won four MTV Video Music Awards, for Best Group Video, Best Pop Video, Best Dance Video, and Viewers Choice, as well as a Teen Choice Award for Choice Single. Background and release Despite the success of NSYNC's previous studio album No Strings Attached (2000), the band were constantly blasted by critics who had preconceptions of what a "credible group" was, which forced them to be more involved in the production of their next album, Celebrity. While discussing about "Pop" in a 2001 interview with Billboard, Justin Timberlake stated that NSYNC "put everything that is not considered 'pop music' in [the] song". The group enlisted BT after JC Chasez and Timberlake befriended the musician. Chasez asked BT to appear on NSYNC's next album, but BT was initially hesitant due to his "ambivalence" towards the band. He eventually relented when Timberlake heard BT's song "The Hip Hop Phenomenon", from the UK version of his 1999 album Movement in Still Life, on the request that he "treat [their] vocals so irreverently, it's not even funny". While the song was in production, BT heard Timberlake beatboxing under his breath, and asked to use his vocals. Timberlake initially hesitated, as he did not want it to be featured on any track, but relented as BT created four tracks using broken headphones. After BT created over 1,200 edits of the track using Max Headroom-styled stutter-edits, he showed the song to Chasez and Timberlake, who immediately loved it. Jive Records was initially reluctant to release "Pop" as the first single from Celebrity, as they reasoned that the song is "not radio-friendly" and didn’t "have a formula".