It seems as though Timberlake is ready to reclaim his title as the millennial king of pop. But in a culture that is now seeking to reckon with the sins of the ’90s and early aughts, can he rise above being viewed as a cultural misstep? Or is a decline in relevance the only natural trajectory for an objectionable, 43-year-old white dude in our current pop landscape where “sensitive” male artists like Bad Bunny and Harry Styles reign supreme?
Justin Timberlake’s “bad boy” image always had an expiration date
Justin Timberlake’s current image — dancing on stage in khakis and promoting songs for the Trolls soundtrack — is a far cry from the version the singer put forth after breaking out of NSYNC.
Unlike the marginalized artists he was often trying to emulate, his whiteness afforded him an appearance of innocence and goodwill in the public eye that could easily be weaponized.
“He was very effective at using his boy-band past and white, blond, blue-eyed looks to shore up the general victim narrative that was central to his early career,” Escobedo Shepherd says.
In the 2010s, Timberlake’s complicated relationship with Black culture finally caught up to him
Despite being embraced by the rap and R&B worlds, though, he’s found himself at the center of heated discussions about cultural appropriation.
The strange landscape of pop music in the 2010s generated many of these online conversations. At the time, white rappers like Macklemore and Iggy Azalea were dominating the charts, and singers like Katy Perry and Madonna were donning hood aesthetics, which some labeled as appropriation. During and following his 20/20 Experience era, Timberlake was receiving that criticism, too — and some critics, including rapper Vic Mensa, called out his silence around the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2016, Timberlake drew more heat after he responded condescendingly on Twitter to a Black journalist who accused him of “appropriating [Black] culture.”
Is Justin Timberlake irrelevant in 2024, or does his stardom just look different?
In June 2022, a viral video of Timberlake doing the Beat Ya Feet dance — some fast and fancy footwork created by Black Washington, DC, teens in the ’90s — at Pharrell Williams’s Something in the Water Festival seemed to indicate that his next music venture would be an uphill battle for several reasons. Not only were the once-revered dancer’s moves labeled awkward, but social media also got a kick out of his paternal appearance — his khakis and patterned button-up made him look like a middle-aged dad at a cookout.
The sex appeal that felt so crucial to Timberlake’s image in the early 2000s seemed to have entirely dissipated in his post-Trolls era. The reaction was less about his actual looks and more about how expectations for the way male pop musicians present themselves have changed. In a New York Times piece, writer Lindsay Zoladz pointed to a trend of younger male pop stars like Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Lil Nas X, and even rapper Jack Harlow embracing a gender-bending, “softboi” brand of masculinity — something Timberlake hasn’t attempted. On the red carpet, he sticks to his refined, GQ-in-2012 style; onstage, well, you saw those khakis.
Most important, though, is Timberlake’s new music. “Selfish,” the lead single from Everything I Thought It Was, had a lukewarm reception, debuting at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song itself was ultimately overshadowed by Britney Spears’s fan army, which trolled Timberlake by streaming her 2011 song of the same name — at one point, Spears’s “Selfish” beat Timberlake’s on the iTunes charts. Fab drama aside, the midtempo, R&B-tinged single, which drew comparisons to Nick Jonas’s “Jealous,” sounded shockingly generic.
Still, the announcement of Timberlake’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour has been met with high demand, selling out in multiple venues and requiring additional dates. A search of the artist’s name on TikTok still shows accounts that are thirsting over the musician and fans who are responding eagerly to his latest Saturday Night Live performance and reunion with NSYNC. Timberlake can still count on the collaboration with his former boy band for engagement.
“Nostalgia is the best drug out there right now,” says Williams. “I think the only way for Justin to really get into the public’s good graces is to work with NSYNC. I don’t think NSYNC is beneath him, but it makes him look humble that, after all these years, he can go back to his roots.”
Whether or not Timberlake can compete on the charts with the Harry Styleses of the world may not be a concern for his die-hard fans. For listeners who grew up alongside him, there’s a level of amusement in watching someone mature and navigate a new stage of their life, even if it’s a little awkward. While Timberlake’s “dad” era may be cringe to some, it’s offered him an air of innocence that he’s struggled to maintain publicly — and ultimately may never fully get back.
