Feature: Music

Justin Timberlake returns as not just a pop god, but a film star too… The Works finds out how he keeps his acting and music careers ’Nsync

Not many former boy band members are able to shirk their popster image. In fact, they usually find themselves forever haunted by those cheesy lyrics, gyrating choreographed dance moves and bad haircuts. The exceptions are few – Take That is but a distant memory for Robbie Williams, Michael Jackson left his other four Jackson 5 brothers in his moonwalking shadow, and of course there’s Justin Timberlake, whose days of ’Nsync are firmly, and thankfully, behind him.

Though Timberlake has only got two solo albums under his belt – his début Justified (2002) and the upcoming FutureSex/LoveSounds – he has already earned himself the nickname ‘Prince of Pop’.

The fruits of those labours will be heard on the new album; the first single SexyBack (about the return of sexy, not about a sexy back) is already getting enthusiastic airplay – and kudos for its fusion of so many different styles.

“I think it’s important on your sophomore album to broaden your sound, to try something new,“ he said recently in Paris. “Because if you do the same thing, then your third album has to be the same thing, and your fourth album has to be the same thing and you don’t grow.

“I realize that I have a platform to push the sound of pop music. That’s the only responsibility that I put on myself in recording the album.“

The album will continue the libidinous theme, and includes further influences from the likes of Prince and David Bowie (“The best way I can describe [SexyBack] is say David Bowie and David Byrne decided to do a cover of James Brown’s Sex Machine” he offers), and Timberlake’s collaborator, will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, has voiced his approval.

‘I can’t explain it, that’s how dope it is,’ he told Billboard.com. ‘He just surprised me again. I was surprised that I was even going to like Justin Timberlake. Then he turned me into a fan. That means you are so talented that you are changing people’s vocabulary.’

Read the full interview in
The Works #A10

Justin Timberlake image © SONY BMG
Feature © Visual Imagination 2006. Not for reproduction

Taken from

The Works #A10
October 2006
ships from Sep 6 2006
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $5.99

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