Bad (NSYNC Album)

Previous Album: *Thriller*

Next Album: *Dangerous*

**Bad** is the third studio album released by boyband NSYNC. Released on August 31st, 1998 through Epic Records, *Bad* was the follow-up to the world's best-selling album of all time. The record was recorded between April and July 1998, and was the third and final record to be produced by Justin Timberlake and Quincy Jones. The album incorporates pop, rock, funk, R&B, dance, soul, and hard rock styles. Timberlake wrote nine of the eleven songs on the album, with the final two songs written by JC Chasez. Lyrical themes on the album include media bias, paranoia, racial profiling, romance, self-improvement, and world peace. The album features appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder.

## Background

NSYNC's second solo album, Thriller, was released in 1996, and by 1988 it was certified 20 times platinum for sales of 20 million copies in the United States alone. The group's popularity was comparable only to Elvis Presley in the 1950s and the Beatles in the 1960s. As the front man of the group, Timberlake's popularity began to overtake that of the group and offers for magazine covers and endorsements began to filter through for him alone, rather than for the group as a whole.

In January 1997, the group embarked on the Thriller World Tour. The tour was planned for three months before its start, with Timberlake as the lead creative and choreographer for the 195 shows. The group sold 10.5 million tickets for the tour which led to a decades long dislike of touring for Timberlake who suffered multiple injuries on the tour. He later revealed in 2020 that following the end of the tour in March 1998 that he suffered a breakdown and forced Epic Records to delay the promotional activities for their upcoming album. Timberlake was also nervous about completing the next album with Newsweek saying in 2017 "Has there ever been a more difficult album to make than NSYNC's Bad? [...] How the hell do you follow up Thriller? It's like following up the Bible."

## Production and Composition

### Recording

Writing for the follow up to Thriller began in February 1997 whilst the group were performing the Thriller World Tour. Timberlake brought a group of producers and engineers on tour with the group, including Bill Bottrell, who were known as the "B team". The team worked for most of the year together before Timberlake reunited with Quicy Jones in January 1998 for two weeks before the group moved on to South Africa. Bad marked the final time Jones would produce an NSYNC record due to the continued growing tension between Timberlake and Jones and Timberlake not wanting to be considered to be reliant on Jones to create hits.

In April 1998, following a short break that Timberlake forced on Epic Records, Timberlake and Jones returned to Westlake Studios in Los Angeles to begin working on the demos to make them into hits. Jones recalled that the duo, along with engineer Bruce Swedien, would stay awake for days when they were on a roll. JC Chasez would later be brought into the sessions, writing "Dirty Diana" and "Just Good Friends". Songwriter Siedah Garrett was also working at Westlake and would meet Timberlake in the lobby. In one of the final sessions for the record, the pair wrote "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" which was later chosen by Epic Records as the record's first single. Timberlake wrote a reported 60 songs, and recorded 30, wanting to use them all on a three-disc set. Jones suggested that the album be cut down to a ten-track single LP.