The Making of Justin Timberlake
From Disney to NSYNC
Justin Timberlake’s journey to becoming a solo superstar started surprisingly early.
In the early 1990s, he joined The Mickey Mouse Club, appearing alongside a remarkable collection of future stars including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling and his future NSYNC bandmate JC Chasez.
It’s easy to look back at that cast and think it was obvious that they would all become successful. It wasn’t.
What Timberlake did have, however, was years of experience performing in front of cameras and audiences before he was even old enough to drive.
Next came NSYNC. The group formed in 1995, although it took a few years before their debut album finally appeared in 1998.
The timing was perfect. The late ’90s were the golden age of the boy band, and NSYNC became one of the biggest groups of the era.
Their catalogue included songs such as This I Promise You, Bye Bye Bye and Girlfriend, and the group eventually sold tens of millions of records worldwide.
But while NSYNC was making Timberlake famous, he was also developing something else. A musical identity of his own.
Michael Jackson Gives Justin a Push
One of the most interesting parts of Timberlake’s story involves Michael Jackson.
In 2001, Justin wrote a song with Michael Jackson in mind. Jackson didn’t want the song, but reportedly encouraged Timberlake to pursue a solo career.
Whether or not that conversation was the decisive moment, Timberlake soon began working seriously on his own material with some extraordinary people around him.
Among them was Pharrell Williams, who became an important collaborator during the making of Justin’s first solo album.
The musical direction was also clear. Michael Jackson was a major influence. In particular, Timberlake and the producers looked back to Off the Wall and Thriller—albums that had already demonstrated how Soul, Funk, Pop and R&B could be turned into incredibly polished mainstream music. That influence would become obvious on the debut.
Justified
Timberlake introduced himself as a solo artist with Like I Love You, performed at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.
It was a clever choice of stage. He wasn’t simply announcing that he had left NSYNC. He was demonstrating that he could stand on his own.
A few months later came Justified. The album debuted at number two and eventually sold millions of copies worldwide.
It contained Rock Your Body, Cry Me a River, Señorita and Like I Love You. Suddenly Justin Timberlake wasn’t just the former NSYNC singer. He was a solo pop star.
And Rock Your Body has probably had the longest life in working-band territory.
Rock Your Body
Rock Your Body was the third single from Justified. Produced by The Neptunes, it has that wonderfully tight combination of Funk, Soul and Pop that makes a song work equally well on a dance floor or with a live band.
It’s also a great example of how much production can be hidden inside what appears to be a relatively simple song.
The rhythm has to feel good. The bass and drums have to lock. The guitar or keyboard parts need to sit in exactly the right place.
And then there is Justin’s vocal phrasing, which is as rhythmic as the instrumental arrangement.
This is something worth studying as a guitarist. Don’t just ask: What are the chords? Ask: Where are the accents? Where does the guitar stop? Where does the bass take over? What happens when the vocal comes in?
Those details are what turn a collection of chords into a convincing groove. And there were some seriously talented people involved in making Justified who knew a thing or two about it.
The production team included The Neptunes, Timbaland, Scott Storch, The Underdogs and Brian McKnight.
A Little Mixing Magic
The album was also mixed by Canadian engineer Serban Ghenea.
I call him a wizard because I once had a track mixed by him for one of my bands. I’d completely lost hope. I was convinced the song needed to be re-recorded and that we’d somehow ruined the whole thing.
Then I heard Serban’s mix. My complaining instantly stopped. Unfortunately, the band broke up before that single was released…
But the lesson stayed with me. There are insanely talented people working behind the scenes on major records.
Sometimes the difference between a good recording and a great one isn’t another guitar part. It’s knowing exactly how to present what you’ve already recorded.
FutureSex/LoveSounds
After Justified, Timberlake toured, acted, collaborated with other artists and continued developing as a songwriter and producer.
Then came FutureSex/LoveSounds in 2006. This was a significant change.
The sound was more electronic, more experimental and more heavily influenced by contemporary production. And it worked.
The album produced some of Timberlake’s biggest songs, including SexyBack, My Love, LoveStoned and What Goes Around… Comes Around.
Timberlake returned to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2006 and performed SexyBack, giving the world another reminder that the former boy-band singer had successfully reinvented himself.
There was a lesson here too. He didn’t try to make Justified again. He changed.
Mirrors
After another huge touring cycle, Timberlake spent more time acting and collaborating before returning to music in 2013 with Mirrors, from The 20/20 Experience.
The song became another major hit and showed that Timberlake could move between different eras of pop production without losing his identity.
This is perhaps one of the most useful things to study in his catalogue. The songs don’t all sound the same. But you can still hear the same performer.
Can’t Stop the Feeling!
Then, in 2016, Timberlake found a completely different kind of hit. For the animated film Trolls, he recorded Can’t Stop the Feeling!.
Written and produced by Timberlake alongside Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, the song was released months before the film and quickly became a worldwide hit.
It reached number one in numerous countries and became one of those songs that seemed almost impossible to escape during the summer of 2016.
It was also a fascinating example of modern pop promotion. The music video showed Timberlake dancing through everyday locations, with the concept naturally encouraging people to make their own versions.
This wasn’t entirely new—Pharrell Williams had already demonstrated how a simple, joyful song could inspire an enormous amount of fan-generated video content with Happy.
But Can’t Stop the Feeling! took the formula into the world of Trolls and family entertainment. The result was enormous.
And from a learn guitar perspective, there’s another interesting detail. A lot of chord websites get the progression wrong, it seems so simple, yet, nobody gets it right!
This is why it’s worth actually listening to the record rather than trusting whatever chord chart happens to appear first in a Google search.
For guitarists, this is becoming increasingly important. Modern pop can sound complicated because of the production, even when the underlying musical material is quite simple, getting those simple details right is vital.
Essentially, your job as a guitarist is to strip away the production and find the song underneath.
What Justin Timberlake Teaches Guitarists
Timberlake isn’t the first artist you’d necessarily think of when you think about guitar lessons. But his catalogue is actually useful for exactly that reason.
The guitar isn’t always the star. Instead, you’re learning how to fit into a production.
With Rock Your Body, you can study funk rhythm and space. With SexyBack, you can look at how electronic production changes the role of traditional instruments. With Mirrors, you can study arrangement and dynamics.
And with Can’t Stop the Feeling!, you can take an extremely polished pop production and ask: How would I make this work with just a guitar and a singer? And, what are the chords, really?
That’s a really useful exercise. Strip away the synths. Lose the programmed drums. Forget the studio effects. Find the chords. Find the melody. Find the groove.
Then see if the song still works. If it does, you’ve discovered something important about the songwriting.
From Boy Band to Solo Artist
Justin Timberlake’s career is interesting because it isn’t really a story about leaving one successful thing behind and starting again.
It’s a story about continually adding to what he already knew. Disney taught him how to perform. NSYNC taught him how to work inside a group. Justified established his solo sound. FutureSex/LoveSounds showed that he could reinvent that sound.
And later projects such as Can’t Stop the Feeling! demonstrated that he could move into film, family entertainment and enormous mainstream pop without losing his identity.
And underneath all of it is a very clear musical lineage. Michael Jackson. Funk. Soul. R&B. Disco. Modern pop production.
That’s why his songs are so useful for building a repertoire. You can take one tune and suddenly find yourself exploring an entire musical family.
So if you’re learning Rock Your Body, don’t just learn the chords. Listen to the rhythm. Listen to the bass. Listen to the vocal phrasing. Then try playing it with a band.
Because that’s where Justin Timberlake’s music really starts to make sense: the groove isn’t something added to the song—the groove is the song.
Justin Timberlake Tunes | Related Pages
Can’t Stop The Feeling | Chords + TAB
You can learn Can’t Stop The Feeling by Justin Timberlake using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| C | C/A |
I got this feelin’ inside my bones…
Rock Your Body | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| F/G G/A | Em |
Don’t be so quick to, walk away (dance with me)…
Justin Timberlake on the web
