“Tell me why,” what? To what does the why refer, in that chorus? Who is the I in “I Want It That Way”? Is it me or is it you? What is the nature of that way? To what way does that way refer? How does a song that starts off by rhyming fire and desire descend so quickly into semantic chaos? And why do we find that chaos so purifying, so edifying, so satisfying? What makes “I Want It That Way” math, and pop, and art, and scripture, and inarguably the single greatest boy-band song ever born?
