Page Six reported that when police banned him, Timberlake said, “It’s going to ruin the tour.” When the officer, who did not appear to recognize him, asked, “Which tour?” Timberlake reportedly responded, “World tour.”
That change, in addition to jokes about Timberlake being unknown to law enforcement and his glassy-eyed mugshot, took over social media. This is no longer the first date Timberlake has been memorialized – for several years, “It’s Gonna Be May” posts have been inevitable on April 30 – though occasionally such jokes have clearly come at his expense.
Twitter has been preparing for Justin Timberlake’s arrest for nearly two decades.
– Matt (@MattBerry05) 18 June 2024
Timberlake once ruled the airwaves with hits like “Cry Me a River” and “SexyBack”, rising from child star to Nsync breakout big name and true solo hitmaker. However, views regarding Timberlake’s behavior towards women, which are generally viewed in hindsight, have recently begun to affect his popularity.
When he headlined the Super Bowl halftime performance in 2018, the crowd began reevaluating his 2004 halftime performance, which led to a dresser malfunction for him. janet jackson Dubbed “Nipplegate”. While Timberlake survived, he faced the brunt of the investigation.
In an indistinguishable way, when people started re-examining the 2000s tabloid treatment of Britney Spears, the way Timberlake was viewed right during their dating began to be reevaluated. They dated between 1999 and 2002, and once they separated, she revealed through his “Cry Me a River” song video that he had cheated on her.
2021 documentary Framing Britney Spears Shed additional light on Spears’ sophisticated dating with Timberlake. Facing widespread backlash after this, Timberlake apologized to both Spears and Jackson on Instagram.
“I especially want to personally apologize to both Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, because I care about and respect these women and I know I failed,” he wrote in the post. Deserves better and most importantly, because this is a bigger conversation that I wholeheartedly want to be a part of and lead.
Spears’ October 2023 memoir the woman inside me She revealed more about the story of their split, claiming that he encouraged her to get an abortion and that he repeatedly cheated on her. Over the years, Timberlake has been accused of cheating on his wife Jessica Biel, but he has denied it.
On January 25, Timberlake released the single “Selfish”, from his first solo album since 2018. By January 29, Spears apologized on Instagram for “offending” anyone with her memoir and praised Timberlake’s new song. However, something happened offline between that moment and January 31, because that night, Timberlake told the audience of his free New York City concert that he would like to “use this opportunity to apologize — absolutely for betraying anyone.” No,” before singing “Cry Me a River.” Both Spears and Timberlake deleted their apology posts.
Brittany Spanos, who writes about pop music for Rolling Stone, told Yahoo Entertainment that Timberlake’s decision to release new music so soon after the release of Spears’ book was “bizarre”.
“His relationship and experiences with Britney and Janet have been at the forefront of everyone’s minds for the past several years, and Britney being so candid about how bad their breakup was, it proved to be the final nail in the coffin of his public image. ,” They said. Said.
The growing anger towards Timberlake reached a peak as his March 2024 album, everything i thoughtdebuted to the smallest audience of his solo career.
Spanos said it didn’t help that Timberlake was no longer in the “pop music zeitgeist” – and that this may have been more responsible for his failure than his revalued reputation. He said that he has failed to release music as fast as his peers, such as Beyoncé or Usher, and his previous albums. jungle man, It was enthusiastically received by critics and fans.
He said, “There was no enthusiasm or appetite for a new Justin Timberlake album, especially one that doesn’t match the excellence of his first three single releases.”
Spanos said that some people – especially fans of Spears – may be excited to see Timberlake “face consequences and fail”.
He explained, “His image has always been a very primitive image, even when he started his solo career, he tried to be something more like a pop ‘bad boy’.” “Given the public mess of Britney’s life and image, I think people who are huge fans of hers… want to see her travel and hit rock bottom.”
Nevertheless, even after Timberlake’s arrest, his next “World Tour” performance went on as planned. There, the pop star thanked her fans for supporting her through her “tough week.”
He said, “I know sometimes I’m not ready to love, but you keep loving me and I start liking you again.”
To restore his public image, Spanos said Timberlake would have to “start addressing the public’s problems with them in a very honest and direct way.”
“This stupidity is not enough to hide his currently broken relationship with his celebrity,” he said. “Even NSync nostalgia couldn’t save their album, which is pretty serious.”