Justin Timberlake isn't just coming back, ya'll. This dude is everywhere, and completely taking over pop culture in the process.
He's already slated for Jimmy Fallon all week, Bud Platinum'd his “Suit and Tie” music video for commercials, he had a streaming party for his album, has been rumored to show up at SXSW and has a release party TV show lined up on CW on March 19.
When you wait seven years to drop an album, fans can get thirsty and American ears had been longing for another JT album. But this media blitz is playing out as if Rex Ryan called it. Yeah it's exciting, but was it really necessary?
The only other person to put on a similar assault coming into 2013 was Beyoncé, who hit us with that GQ cover, the Superbowl, Pepsi and the Mrs. Carter World Tour in the first quarter. Bey was also ridiculed for her deals, and spent several days in the headlines for lip-syncing at President Obama's inauguration.
NYMag wonders why this is, and, more so, why female celebrities are forced to prove themselves in public to a much higher degree and standard than their male counterparts.
Whether the criticism is warranted or not, JT has skated by with a sense of "You better not upset him or you won't have any new music for another three years" sense of entitlement. You know who does stuff like that? The worst type of girlfriends.
Honestly, some are so satiated by the mere presence of a JT-fix that we haven't even been able to legitimately determine if a song like "Suit and Tie" is any good or not.
And he can do that, if he wants, because he's been elevated into this new realm where his work is criticized as an afterthought, after people have already seen the movie or put his song on the playlist. As Drake put it, he's got everyone on safety.
It's a nice position to be in for a celebrity, but a tough place to be creatively. Judging by the all-out assault on the media front, that appears to be an okay set-up for Mr. Timberlake.
