The song was written and produced by Kristian Lundin and Jake Schulze, with additional writing by Andreas Carlsson.

[10] The song was released on January 17, 2000,[12] although it was not available as a commercial single in order to increase demand for NSYNC's 2000 studio album No Strings Attached.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the song as a "piledriving dance number with the catchiest chorus they've ever sang.

[18] Rolling Stone staff ranked it as the sixth-greatest boy band song of all time, writing, "it remains their defining track, a four-minute blast of big hooks, tight harmonies and intriguingly meta subtext.

The song was nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" at the 2001 Grammy Awards.

Henson flew to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999, where the band were performing at the Billboard Music Awards, so that he would be able to listen to the track.

The band rehearsed at the Alley Kat Studio in Los Angeles over a few days, where Henson stated in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly that he implemented moves that cannot be replicated by other groups such as the "black power fist", which he defined as "stop talking s—" when used in the song's title lyric.

Choreography was performed in a blue gimbal room, which Isham pointed out was inspired both by Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding and Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" music video (both directed and choreographed by Stanley Donen).

JC Chasez and Lance Bass were placed in a red Dodge Viper RT/10 as part of a car chase scene inspired by Chasez's favorite film, Ronin (1998); stunt coordinators who worked on the film were hired to assist with the music video shoot.

[10][27] The video starts with the puppet master, Kim Smith, manipulating the NSYNC members as they are tied to strings.

She cuts Chris and Joey loose first, as they run atop a speeding train and hide among the passengers to elude her.

She cuts Justin loose next, as he outruns her trained dogs inside a warehouse and escapes into the pouring rain.

All the scenes are interspersed with shots of the band dancing in a rotating blue gimbal with a fixed camera, creating the illusion that they are on different gravity planes.

The final chorus is also extended twice; the first showcases the band inside the box, while the second highlights JC and Lance fleeing from the puppet master.

In 2018, iHeartRadio's Nicole Mastrogiannis ranked Timberlake's appearance in the video as first on the Iconic Music Moments From the 00s list.