Buy Tickets to Pop Pantheon Live! Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and the Millennial Diva Conundrum on 9/30 at Dynasty Typewriter in LA (DISCOUNT BEGINS AT 12AM on 9/20!)

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In a SUPERSIZED episode of Pop Pantheon, critic, writer and NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast host Aisha Harris returns to unpack the astonishing symmetry of two of the biggest boy bands in history, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. Aisha and Louie track their strikingly similar origins, their first brushes with success in Europe and their explosions stateside, which helped solidify the teen pop boom of the turn of the century. They then dig into their self-titled debuts, from Backstreet’s blockbuster 1996 effort to *NSYNC’s launch the next year, their short-lived runs as commercial supernovas with Millennium (1999) and No Strings Attached (2000), their diverging sounds and ambitions, final hits, intertwined legacies and finally, Aisha and Louie rank Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC in the Official Pop Pantheon.

Listen Pop Pantheon's Backstreet Boys VS. *NSYNC Essentials Playlist

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Come to Gorgeous Gorgeous: Los Angeles at Los Globos on 9/27

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In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, The 40th Annual MTV Video Music Awards were held last night and featured marquee performances from It Girls like Sabrina Carpenter, GloRilla, Lisa & Chappell Roan while presenting their prestigious Video Vanguard award to Katy Perry. But with MTV flailing, music videos in their flop era and most old guard superstars MIA, did the VMAs justify their continued existence or live up to their storied history? Louie and Russ ponder these questions, recap all the major performances and awards, and generally talk their sh*t about last night's show.

To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive weekly bonus episodes of Pop Pantheon, gain access to our Discord channel and so much more, subscribe to Pop Pantheon: All Access at the Icon Tier. You can also subscribe for the audio only directly in the Apple Podcasts app.

Buy Tickets to Pop Pantheon Live! Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and the Millennial Diva Conundrum on 9/30 at Dynasty Typewriter in LA

Buy Tickets to Pop Pantheon Presents Main Pop Girls Dance Party on 10/4 at Parkside Lounge in NYC

Sure, we're all listening to a podcast called "Pop Pantheon". But what exactly is the Pop Pantheon? This is a question Louie hasn't addressed in detail since the show's earliest days. So, Russ and he got together to reintroduce the Pantheon, break down all its individual tiers and what constitutes each, and how their ideas about the Pantheon have been altered during the three and half of years of podcast's run.

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Come to Gorgeous Gorgeous: New York at Sultan Room on 9/13

Come to Gorgeous Gorgeous: Los Angeles at Los Globos on 9/27

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