What kind of former child performer can sell a million records in a matter of days?
Such is a week in the whirlwind life of Justin Timberlake, the megastar every woman wants and every guy surely wants to be. An anomaly in more ways than one, the man is officially embarked on a path to world domination.
The birth of Timberlake-Mania
From the gilded gramophones of the Grammy Awards to the laugh-filled set of Saturday Night Live, the world’s most famous former boy-band mate and Mouseketeer is both in your ears and your face. Timberlake-Mania is racing ahead at warp speed, not unlike sales of his new album The 20/20 Experience. Timberlake’s third solo effort threatens to break one million sales after just a few days in circulation. All of this comes less than six months after tying the knot with his longtime girlfriend, actress Jessica Biel.
One might be tempted to use the word “over-saturation” to describe the almost aggressive reintroduction of a singer who hasn’t dropped anything new in nearly six years, and whose once-promising acting career appears to have cooled. Yet Timberlake’s re-emergence provides the chance to revisit a dicey topic: namely, the current state of R&B. The former ‘N Sync member’s runaway success – and his broad acceptance amongst black audiences – also raises the question of whether the R&B genre is on a fast track to obsolescence.
Blue-eyed soul or legitimate R&B?
In a certain sense, it’s almost counter-intuitive to mention soul, be it the conventional or “blue-eyed” variety, in the same breath as Justin Timberlake. While an eminently talented entertainer, the former boy-bander is not a legitimate R&B artist. He’s certainly not in the same strata as some of the most heralded names in the sub-genre.
At best, Timberlake’s sound is pop with an urban edge: recently, he’s even got his very own rap beef to enhance his street cred.
None of this is meant to slight Timberlake, or his considerable talents, which make him the rarest of species: a child star in another life who managed to strike career gold as a solo artist through sheer force of will.
That is an exclusive club indeed, rarefied air occupied most prominently by arguably the most famous former boy-band member in history, the deceased Michael Jackson – the artist whose “King of Pop” mantle Timberlake was once poised to usurp for himself. Actually, it’s another artist that Timberlake’s stratospheric career arc most resembles: George Michael. The British singer with the golden pipes and crossover appeal, Michael in his heyday was neither fish nor fowl. Still, he managed to ride the blue-eyed soul gravy train before reinventing himself anew in pop/dance music.
It’s only Timberlake’s close association with names like Timbaland (who, it should be said, outdoes himself with his ingenious staccato beats on Timberlake’s semi-brilliant new album), Pharrell Williams, and now none other than Jay-Z himself, that even give him the veneer of blue-eyed soul.
Lyrics may be Timberlake’s low point
In order to be considered a true R&B singer, there’s an unspoken requirement that an artist’s music must withstand the test of time. Classic lyrics, flawless vocals and timeless instrumentals are a must. Listening to the slickly-produced 20/20 Experience – which could easily be considered Timberlake’s best yet – one almost has to fight the urge to stifle laughter when listening to the lyrics.
It’s impossible to imagine that decades from now, music lovers will be grooving to “Strawberry Bubble Gum” (the irony of the title is obvious, since JT’s own sound is borderline bubblegum itself), or swooning to “Suit and Tie,” in which our hero pays homage to a girl’s “phatty” (no, really). The sound is good and syncs perfectly with Timberlake’s cloying falsetto, yet it functions like the musical equivalent of Haagen Dazs. It’s sweet, savory and ultimately satisfying, yet only in the moment when you’re listening to it.
All in all, one would be hard pressed to say that 20/20 is the recrudescence of R&B, or even all that significant for blue-eyed soul. Still, the fact that Timberlake is even halfway considered an R&B artist is in itself a comment on the state of a genre that birthed so many transcendent careers.
Like it or not, traditional R&B is suffering a slow but almost inexorable demise, magnified by Timberlake’s gangbuster record sales.
Don’t cry for R&B, it’s already dead
The death of R&B by a thousand cuts isn’t difficult to understand. Consider how most ostensible soul artists are most successful when they either dabble in hip-hop or pop, or revel in bad-boy (or haughty bad-girl) personas that make them edgy. With few exceptions, gone are the days where a female blows the barn doors off their hinges with ear-splitting octaves, or a male artist who croons emotional ballads that sear the memory and the heart. Were that not the case, Anthony Hamilton records would sell like Justin Timberlake’s hotcakes.
Years of cannibalization, co-opting by other genres and outright neglect has sealed R&B’s lamentable fate. If anything, Timberlake’s milestone offers the chance to bemoan just how badly R&B has declined, with very little to arrest its fade into irrelevance.