How Justin Timberlake Can Return To Prominence
Justin Timberlake started his career in the limelight as a teen idol, leading the band *NSYNC. There, he was able to cultivate a rabid fanbase that still exists today. Like many other bands, *NSYNC split to pursue solo careers with Timberlake achieving the most success. His first two albums, Justified and Future Sex/Love Sounds were smash hits selling over 10 million records. His early success as a solo act culminated in a Super Bowl performance with Janet Jackson at the age of 23.
The 20/20 Experience was the first album that made me fall in love with music. After listening to the album, I went down a rabbit hole of his prior music (*NSYNC and Solo) and became a massive fan of his. His follow-up album, Man of the Woods, showed the singer making a drastic change in sound and was very underwhelming (except for the song Say Something) compared to his previous albums. It was the lowest-selling album of Timberlake’s career. This commenced the downfall of his popularity and perception along with the rightful criticism he received for his treatment of Britney Spears, the additional criticism he received for his failure to stand up for Janet Jackson after her blacklist from the industry following their Super Bowl performance, and the time between his album releases. Not even a solo Super Bowl performance and a great song with SZA released shortly before the pandemic, could change people’s ambivalent to outright negative perceptions of him as an artist and person. His most recent album, Everything I Thought It Was, was released a few days ago and is a return to the sound that made Timberlake one of the best artists in the world. Although it is an upgrade over Man Of The Woods, it still has not gained the traction that his albums before 2014 did. None of his two top songs from the album, Selfish and No Angels, placed in the Billboard Hot 100. However, the most (and only) positive attention he received recently was his reunion with *NSYNC at the MTV Music Awards leading people who grew up with *NSYNC to plead for a reunion tour on their Instagram and TikTok pages. The best way for Timberlake to recapture the masses again and return to prominence return to his roots and reunite with the band that made him a world-renowned sensation. The *NSYNC Reunion Tour could serve as a massive celebration of millennial culture the way the Eras Tour was for Generation Z.