Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop the Feeling': How he's succeeded in entertainment

Timberlake has released a new song, 'Feeling.' While some projects have fizzled, the singer has garnered praise for his work in other musical genres besides pop and for his skill as an actor.

|
John Shearer/Invision/AP
Justin Timberlake accepts an award at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles in 2013.

Singer Justin Timberlake has released a new song titled "Can't Stop the Feeling," his first new song with him at the forefront in about three years. 

The song follows Mr. Timberlake's 2013 album “The 20/20 Experience,” which included the hit song “Suit & Tie.” 

First rising to fame as a member of the band NSYNC, Timberlake has since become an extremely successful solo artist, with his albums including 2006’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds” and 2002’s “Justified.” Both spawned multiple hit singles. 

While he has experienced success in pop music, Timberlake has also been lauded for his forays into other genres as well. A duet with country singer Chris Stapleton at the CMA Awards last year was widely praised, with Rolling Stone writer Marissa R. Moss writing of their performance, “Timberlake’s falsetto is tailor-made to slay the highest notes of the song that appeared on Stapleton’s ‘Traveller’… and the band grooved the whole thing into a revelatory, take-us-to-church moment that left Florida Georgia Line – and really, the rest of the evening’s performers – in the unfortunate spot of having to follow that.” 

And Timberlake’s turns in film and on TV have also garnered praise for his skills as a performer. There have been some less-positively-received projects, of course, with, for example, his 2011 movie “In Time” being poorly received by critics.

But after he appeared as Napster co-founder Sean Parker in the 2010 Best Picture nominee “The Social Network,” David Denby of The New Yorker wrote, “Justin Timberlake, with his charm and his physical dynamism, and with a wicked visionary gleam in his eye, torques the movie even higher.”

And following his multiple appearances as a host on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” VH1 writer Christopher Rosa put Timberlake on his list of the best “SNL” hosts ever, writing, “Justin Timberlake is certainly SNL’s best contemporary host.... Timberlake has an undeniable charm and dynamite comedic timing that put him on par with some of the hosting greats.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop the Feeling': How he's succeeded in entertainment
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2016/0505/Justin-Timberlake-s-Can-t-Stop-the-Feeling-How-he-s-succeeded-in-entertainment
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe