Flashback Friday: NSYNC Covering Janet Jackson's 'That's The Way

The year was 2001. MTV decided to honor Janet Jackson with the MTV Icon Award.

Janet was the first honoree ever. After Janet, they gave the award to Aerosmith, Metallica, and The Cure. I wonder if they started doing the Video Vanguard Award as part of the VMA's instead of the MTV Icon special. Anyway, Janet was the first.

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It was a big event full of performances honoring Janet. Everybody who was anybody at the time was there. Pink, Usher, Outkast, Destiny's Child, Macy Gray, Mýa, Buckcherry, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Aaliyah, and Christina Aguilera, just to name a few.

Big brother Michael even said a few words.

Now, most of the performances were live covers of Janet's songs, but not NSYNC. Oh, no. They re-created one of Janet's music videos. I mean, this is MTV. Re-doing a music video seems like the appropriate gesture.

The song they chose, "That's The Way Love Goes." Now, in the original music video, Janet and some friends are basically just hanging out. One of those friends is Jennifer Lopez before she was JENNIFER LOPEZ. Check it out below.

Anyway, now check out NSYNC!

Pretty good, right?

Everyone lost their minds. Well, at least everyone around my age at the time. The music video was meant to be just for this special, but it ended up on TRL due to popular demand!

Sadly, we never got an official release of the song by them. But thanks to the internet, we will always be able to watch it.

Honestly, the only thing that would have made it better was if one of them wore the beaded vest that Janet wore in the video.