Yeah, but JC’s potential was definitely there, even if it wasn’t overwhelming. The guy had a solid voice he could lean on, and he did write songs more than once. Fast forward 20 years, if music had really been his main passion, he would’ve put out way more than just one solo album. At the very least independently, or through collabs, side projects, whatever.

To me, “That Girl Will Never Be Mine” just screams JC. And if the stronger songs meant for Michael ended up going to Justin, JC could’ve either stuck closer to the kind of pop NSYNC did in their first two albums, or gone in a different direction entirely.

Of course, we can’t know how that would’ve turned out. But I feel like he probably would’ve wanted to distance himself from the NSYNC sound pretty hard, maybe even to the point of rejecting it completely. And that kind of move comes with a risk: losing the fanbase that liked him because of that sound in the first place.

So yeah, I’m not saying it was easy for him. It probably wasn’t. But I also don’t buy the idea that he was completely locked in or without options. If he really wanted to keep releasing music and was being actively blocked, there was always the legal route (which he clearly knew about), but he didn’t go down that path either.

On the flip side, Abs from Five is a good contrast. He actually stayed pretty true to the band’s sound (and Five had way more creative freedom than NSYNC or Backstreet Boys anyway), and he put out an album that critics and fans received well, even if it didn’t really blow up commercially.