Justin and JC may dominate the solos in nearly all of the songs, but there's a method behind this madness. The
main difference between *NSYNC and other male vocal groups, such as BSB, 98 Degrees or BBMak, is the voice
composition of *NSYNC.
In a standard barbershop quartet, you have one bass (lowest), one baritone (mid), one tenor (highest) and one lead (solo).
The lead sings ever solo, period. That's just the way it works. The reason for this is that the harmonies
sound the tightest and blend the best when the bass, barry and tenor are together with the solo on top. Every once in a while, the bass or the tenor will have a solo, or parts of
a solo, but when they do, the background isn't as strong. When the bass solos, the group loses the low end of
the harmony, thus making the group sound less full. When the tenor solos, the group loses the high end,
forcing the group to lose the shimmer that the tenor creates.
Within *NSYNC, essentially it is a barbershop quartet with an extra added part to round out the sound. You
have the bass (Lance), baritone (Joey), tenor 1 (Justin), tenor 2 (JC) and counter-tenor (Chris). [Two quick
sidenotes. First, a counter-tenor, for those who aren't familiar is a male who can sing very high notes in the
ranges that a low to mid female can sing. Second, Joey can sing very high notes as well, however, that is due
to his falsetto, which is soloistically weaker than his normal baritone voice.]
Justin and JC have similar ranges when they sing lead, so when one sings lead, a tenor voice isn't lost from
the group. The similarities between their voice ranges is also why when one of them sings lead, the other
harmonizes a third above the main lead as an obbligato, but that's a different story. Thus, the bass, barry
and counter-tenor are still needed to maintain their positions to create that unique blend that you hear when
*NSYNC sings.
Every so often, though rarely, you will hear Joey or Chris take a lead part. "I Thought She Knew (No Strings
Attached) and "Drive Myself Crazy (Debut Album)" come foremost to mind.
Why, then, haven't we ever heard Lance have a significant solo? Well, Lance is a special case. Some people who
have done a little thought say, "Well, in the Backstreet Boys, Kevin is a bass and he has solos all the time."
True and false. Kevin does sing bass notes, but he isn't a true bass. How is that possible? Kevin is a
baritone with a lower range as opposed to Lance, who is a real bass voice.
Think of it like this. Imagine a female with a very low range. Rapper, Li'l Kim, for example, sings very low when she raps. The notes she reaches are comparable to a male with a high, but not extremely high range. The guy and Li'l Kim could be singing the exact same notes, but one would not mistake the two. The guy would always sound fuller and deeper because his range lies naturally within those notes, whereas Li'l Kim is singing at the lowest end of her range.
In the same manner, Kevin can sing as low as Lance, but Lance's voice will always sound not only lower, but
fuller due to the overtones created in a true bass' voice. Listening to "I Thought She Knew," you can hear the
fullness of his voice at the bottom of the group. Sometimes it seems as if Lance is pushed behind the group,
out of the limelight.
If you watch live performances, you can clearly see (and he completely admits) that he is the worst dancer of
the group. He doesn't do the moves as cleanly as the other guys, and I've seen times when he has simply blown
some of the moves. They knew this from the start when *NSYNC first came together, he took, by far, the longest
to learn the moves.
However, there's a reason that they didn't just pass him up and get someone else who dances better and sings
low. There's a reason why they take the extra time and effort to get Lance at a performance level. Because Lance is the foundation and base of the group.
Talented basses are not easy to find - very few music groups have one. In fact, I can't think of any true basses right now with the exception of Issac Hayes or Barry White. So, though Lance doesn't sing any lead parts, and will probably never sing any, he is integral to the warm, full sound that is *NSYNC.
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