All you ever wanted to know about JT.... and more!

It all began with a simple request:

AIM IM with Anil Browne Dash.
10:49 PM
Erika Hall: explain justin timberlake to me.

Anil Browne Dash: you know nsync?
Erika Hall: yeah
Anil Browne Dash: boy band, created by lou perlman
Anil Browne Dash: so, lou used to run a private charter air transport company
Anil Browne Dash: he noticed that the biggest single user of his small jets was new kids on the block
Anil Browne Dash: and realized that meant they were making a lot of money
Anil Browne Dash: so he made backstreet boys
Erika Hall: you know too much!
Anil Browne Dash: at the time, grunge was just taking off
Anil Browne Dash: so he figured no shot on duplicating NKOTB
Anil Browne Dash: so he launched backstreet boys in Europe
Anil Browne Dash: after 2 years of success, they came here, and he needed another band to be touring
Anil Browne Dash: younger, so he could do a more restrictive contract
Anil Browne Dash: and also so he could maximize revenues and increase usage of the planes
Anil Browne Dash: NSYNC started with a really large open call for artists
Erika Hall: did you audition?
Anil Browne Dash: in Orlando, where perlman was based (lots of corporate jet travel to disney world)
Anil Browne Dash: i did not.
Anil Browne Dash: several of the people who showed up were formerly on the new Mickey Mouse Club in the early 90s
Anil Browne Dash: britney spears and christina aguilera had been there
Anil Browne Dash: as were J.C. Chasez and Justin Timberlake
Anil Browne Dash: both of whom ended up in N*SYNC
Anil Browne Dash: nsync ran its course from roughly 1998 to 2000/2001
Anil Browne Dash: their first big single was "tearing up my heart", which is a pretty great song, and they probably had a dozen other charting hits
Anil Browne Dash: by 2000, they realized they were getting screwed by perlman
Anil Browne Dash: and started agitating to get out of their contracts
Erika Hall: this is like behind the music IM stylew
Anil Browne Dash: they were on Zomba Records, and wanted to move to Jive, another Zomba imprint, and also get royalties, songwriting credits, etc.
Anil Browne Dash: totally!
Anil Browne Dash: in 2000, they released their final album, which would have the biggest opening week sales of any album in history. (and if you believe The Long Tail, will never be topped.)
Anil Browne Dash: "No Strings Attached" was named after their new contractual freedom
Anil Browne Dash: they'd gone all the way to stating they would have dissolved their contracts and gone indie if perlman hadn't conceded.
Anil Browne Dash: (nobody wrote "slave" on their face)
Anil Browne Dash: 2.1 million copies sold in the first seven days, on the strength of lead single "Pop".
Erika Hall: wow
Anil Browne Dash: Pop was produced by BT, the only time he ever did a regular radio single, and the only time his name appears in the song itself
Anil Browne Dash: co-producer/co-writer was Justin Timberlake, whose idea it had been to bring in BT
Anil Browne Dash: the second single, "Gone" was also co-written and co-produced by JT, and was as big a hit as "Tearing up my heart"
Anil Browne Dash: in 2001, both JT and JC announced they were doing solo albums
Anil Browne Dash: it was already clear that JT had pretty much created the last NSYNC album, and he was already being asked to write/produce other artists
Anil Browne Dash: so nsync did one of their last perfomrances together, at the MTV awards, where they did a medley that featured Michael Jackson coming out to dance with them at the end
Erika Hall: I remember that
Anil Browne Dash: the next time JT performed, it was again at the MTV Awards, doing the lead single for his debut solo album, "Justified". the song was "Like I Love You", and he came out in a fedora, sang in a falsetto, and had random buckles and things on his outfit
Anil Browne Dash: TORCH HAD BEEN PASSED
11:00 PM
Anil Browne Dash: and it really was parallel, like MJ, he used his time in the boy band as a kind of training, learning about the biz and how to make and market music
Anil Browne Dash: Justified was created in just 3 weeks, and featured performances or production by The Neptunes and Timbaland, who were inarguably the best producers in pop at the time, from a standpoint of both inventiveness and sales
Anil Browne Dash: and ever single was a hit. Like I Love You, Cry Me A River, Senorita, Rock Your Body
Anil Browne Dash: he deliberately put a weaker single out as the first song to set expectations low, and then "Cry Me A River" was the bomb, with an explicit reference to breaking up with Britney Spears, whom he'd been dating since their Mouseketeer days, and a vocal that won him a grammy. It's also probably the best pop single of the current decade.
Anil Browne Dash: He did a standard arena tour for the album, along with Christina Aguilera. Her album was named "Stripped", so it was the "Justified and Stripped Tour". But he also did one-off club shows with his band.
Anil Browne Dash: Those were looser and more intimate, and also showed him doing things like playing guitar and keyboards.
Anil Browne Dash: see: http://www.anildash.com/poplife/2003/09/justin_timberla.html
Anil Browne Dash: then he went quiet for a few years, taking acting lessons
Anil Browne Dash: he was deemed surprisingly credible in his Sundance debut
Anil Browne Dash: the film was "Alpha Dog", directed by the same guy who did Hustle and Flow
Anil Browne Dash: and he also did some one-off singles on the side, including the Black Eyed Peas' "where's the love", which became their biggest song ever and turned them from an obscure has-been hip hop group into a pop music force
Anil Browne Dash: Finally, this year, he launched his new album "FutureSex/LoveSounds"
Erika Hall: I just saw that on itunes, which prompted the uestion
Anil Browne Dash: where the first album was a gloss on Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson, this was the move to aping Prince
Anil Browne Dash: from the title on down
Anil Browne Dash: the lead single was, again, not the best song on the album, but still pretty good. It's called "SexyBack"
Anil Browne Dash: and seemed somewhat calculated at appealing to the indie hipster MP3 bloggers who sometimes like pop songs
Anil Browne Dash: see: http://www.dashes.com/anil/2006/07/17/justin_timberla
Erika Hall: so, justin timberlake is balcck
Erika Hall: er black
Anil Browne Dash: Finally, he's about to release the "Cry Me A River" of this album, a fantastic single called "My Love".
Anil Browne Dash: Justin has a black pass, granted by being very faithful and honest to the black pop music tradition of MJ, Prince, Stevie
Anil Browne Dash: but he was in serious danger of losing it after Janet's nipple popped out
Anil Browne Dash: because most of black america felt he'd sold her out by apologizing and blaming her
Erika Hall: yeah - that wasn't cool
Anil Browne Dash: he stayed contrite and kept his head down, so he's not totally on the outs, but it's not straight-up love like it used to be
Anil Browne Dash: he'd been the first white artist to get a real black pass on soul stations since george michael
Anil Browne Dash: see: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=2015
Anil Browne Dash: after the nipple drama, j.c. chasez's album release was overshadowed
Anil Browne Dash: and he kind of got the shaft, even though his record was pretty decent
Anil Browne Dash: so JT had his old bandmate help out on some tracks on the new album
Anil Browne Dash: and so some parts sound surprisingly similar to J.C. Chasez's debut.
Anil Browne Dash: the FutureSex album was officially released yesterday
Anil Browne Dash: and will likely close its debut week in either first or second place
Anil Browne Dash: depending on how much of an impact Starbucks sales have on John Mayer's numbers
Anil Browne Dash: JT has had Mayer onstage with him (including at the show I saw) before, and other collaborations he's been involved with include Pharell and The Neptunes, Snoop Dogg, Charlie Wilson, the Black Eyed Peas, and Coldplay.
Anil Browne Dash: He also shows up in Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" video, but he wasn't actually on the song.
Anil Browne Dash: aaand that's it.
Erika Hall: thanks!
Anil Browne Dash: sure
Anil Browne Dash: you can post that on Vox if you want
Erika Hall: I now know 9000% more about JT
Anil Browne Dash: i figured
Erika Hall: as a public service
Anil Browne Dash: i am very proud to say i wrote all that without googling anything
Erika Hall: of course you did - I had no doubt
Anil Browne Dash: it may be 100% false
Anil Browne Dash: however, i did write all of it