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Such a cute outfit! JC's just all kinds of adorable. The hair's just a bit short, but overall, he looks fabulous.
From straight.com: I found this article about Ms. Timberlake today, and did quite a bit of horselaughing while reading.
Timberlake strangely ladylike
By martin turenne
Publish Date: 14-Sep-2006
Two months ago, New York Times pop-music critic Kelefa Sanneh declared Justin Timberlake to be “that rarest of creatures: a male pop star who is willing to sing about being sexy”. To these ears, it’s not so much that JT is alone in his willingness to address his carnal appeal—every cheese-ball heartthrob from Usher to Keith Urban plays that game—it’s that his approach to the subject is weirdly feminine, so much so that his lyrics often sound like they could be sung by a woman. On his excellent new album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, not only does Timberlake’s falsetto graze altitudes normally reserved for female pipes, he also assumes the submissive sex-kitten role played by just about every pop diva since Britney Spears first oozed her way across our television screens. As did Prince and Michael Jackson before him, Mr. Cameron Diaz sees the payoff in being a dude but acting like a lady.
Like many women, JT has spent the better part of his life being lusted after and objectified and can thus claim an affinity with them that most men spend their lifetimes wishing they could achieve. If life were like high school—and, sadly, it is—then Timberlake would be that guy all the other guys hate, the artsy one who likes singing and dancing, the outgoing one who rolls with girls and girls only, the sensitive one who gets pussy whether he likes it or not. JT’s so boyishly charming nowadays that his cut-and-run job on Janet Jackson seems like ancient history. In pop years, it practically is.
At various moments in FutureSex/LoveSounds, the singer is less the hunter than the hunted. This is truest of “Lovestoned”, a space-age disco track in which he rhapsodizes about a statuesque goddess who casts a lustfully narcotic spell, leaving him defenceless against her predatory wiles. This is not just a song; it’s the start of an S&M porno script. The album’s first single, “Sexyback”, is an elaboration of that same narrative, as the singer, now shackled to the bedpost, invites the crack of his mistress’s whip.
Where the marketing of pop stars like 50 Cent and Pete Doherty is based on the suspect notion that good girls love bad boys, the Timberlake persona derives its power from the more credible idea that women want to be feared first, then worshipped. Thus, having played the slave on “Sexyback”, JT lowers himself on bended knee during “My Love”, proposing long walks on the beach and asking the listener, ever so earnestly, “Would you date me on the regular?” Half the people listening to the album will laugh out loud at this cornball line; the other half, mostly teenage girls and gay men, will disrobe and promptly defile themselves. Throughout the album, Timberlake proves himself willing not only to debase himself for the right girl but also to beg for the privilege. No woman, not even talk-show troll Rosie O’Donnell could resist his offer.
In a larger sense, the submissive and worshipful postures Timberlake assumes before his female listeners mirror his surrendering of artistic control to FutureSex/LoveSounds’ true author, Timbaland. Timbo has rarely sounded so thrillingly out-there, taking the singer’s stated aim “to push the sound of pop music” as permission to break the rules, unleashing a torrent of uncanny rhythmic figures that often relegate his leading man to the margins.
As for Timberlake, some will deride him as a drippy weakling, but the view from this writer’s corner suggests just the opposite, framing his esteem for both his producer and his audience as an expert strategy for, well, getting money, and getting laid by just about any woman. If we had to endure another one of Cameron Diaz’s giggly attempts at a “serious” film role, we’d be doing the same thing—either that or hanging ourselves. To his credit, JT has chosen life (and pussy).
From straight.com: I found this article about Ms. Timberlake today, and did quite a bit of horselaughing while reading.
Timberlake strangely ladylike
By martin turenne
Publish Date: 14-Sep-2006
Two months ago, New York Times pop-music critic Kelefa Sanneh declared Justin Timberlake to be “that rarest of creatures: a male pop star who is willing to sing about being sexy”. To these ears, it’s not so much that JT is alone in his willingness to address his carnal appeal—every cheese-ball heartthrob from Usher to Keith Urban plays that game—it’s that his approach to the subject is weirdly feminine, so much so that his lyrics often sound like they could be sung by a woman. On his excellent new album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, not only does Timberlake’s falsetto graze altitudes normally reserved for female pipes, he also assumes the submissive sex-kitten role played by just about every pop diva since Britney Spears first oozed her way across our television screens. As did Prince and Michael Jackson before him, Mr. Cameron Diaz sees the payoff in being a dude but acting like a lady.
Like many women, JT has spent the better part of his life being lusted after and objectified and can thus claim an affinity with them that most men spend their lifetimes wishing they could achieve. If life were like high school—and, sadly, it is—then Timberlake would be that guy all the other guys hate, the artsy one who likes singing and dancing, the outgoing one who rolls with girls and girls only, the sensitive one who gets pussy whether he likes it or not. JT’s so boyishly charming nowadays that his cut-and-run job on Janet Jackson seems like ancient history. In pop years, it practically is.
At various moments in FutureSex/LoveSounds, the singer is less the hunter than the hunted. This is truest of “Lovestoned”, a space-age disco track in which he rhapsodizes about a statuesque goddess who casts a lustfully narcotic spell, leaving him defenceless against her predatory wiles. This is not just a song; it’s the start of an S&M porno script. The album’s first single, “Sexyback”, is an elaboration of that same narrative, as the singer, now shackled to the bedpost, invites the crack of his mistress’s whip.
Where the marketing of pop stars like 50 Cent and Pete Doherty is based on the suspect notion that good girls love bad boys, the Timberlake persona derives its power from the more credible idea that women want to be feared first, then worshipped. Thus, having played the slave on “Sexyback”, JT lowers himself on bended knee during “My Love”, proposing long walks on the beach and asking the listener, ever so earnestly, “Would you date me on the regular?” Half the people listening to the album will laugh out loud at this cornball line; the other half, mostly teenage girls and gay men, will disrobe and promptly defile themselves. Throughout the album, Timberlake proves himself willing not only to debase himself for the right girl but also to beg for the privilege. No woman, not even talk-show troll Rosie O’Donnell could resist his offer.
In a larger sense, the submissive and worshipful postures Timberlake assumes before his female listeners mirror his surrendering of artistic control to FutureSex/LoveSounds’ true author, Timbaland. Timbo has rarely sounded so thrillingly out-there, taking the singer’s stated aim “to push the sound of pop music” as permission to break the rules, unleashing a torrent of uncanny rhythmic figures that often relegate his leading man to the margins.
As for Timberlake, some will deride him as a drippy weakling, but the view from this writer’s corner suggests just the opposite, framing his esteem for both his producer and his audience as an expert strategy for, well, getting money, and getting laid by just about any woman. If we had to endure another one of Cameron Diaz’s giggly attempts at a “serious” film role, we’d be doing the same thing—either that or hanging ourselves. To his credit, JT has chosen life (and pussy).
