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Underground > Radio & Music >

Justin Timberlake on his gay fanbase

14:47 / 07.11.02

The Boy Band heartthrob gets prolix:

On the telephone, no one can see you blush. Justin Timberlake's adult cool was briefly punctured during his phone-in teleconference when an HX.com reporter asked whether he was aware of his gay fans and whether he thought they would like "Justified."

The "g" word reduced the self-assured star to bashful gibberish: "Um . . . honestly I've never really, uh, I've never really . . . something that I've thought a lot about. . . Something that I will say, you know, about, you know, the whole community is . . . that I appreciate is that . . . and the people that I've met that are, I mean, it's so nondiscriminating where music goes that it's . . . it's all . . . sometimes it's almost inspiring that there's people out there who just like music because they like music."

He continued, "I don't know, for some reason I find it in this community more than one another is that . . . you know, um . . . honestly I don't know. I think, uh . . . I never really thought about it. I hope that, uh, all types of different people, they like it, I mean, 'cause uh . . . it's kinda somewhere in the middle of . . . of . . . of the styles that are going on right now. So um, you can only hope for the best.

"I don't want to come off sounding pretentious," he said a little later.

14:51 / 07.11.02

Or capable of composing a coherent sentence. Was he recieving special kisses at the time of the interview?

19:09 / 07.11.02

He was unprepared for a question the reply to which could have drastically affected his fan-appeal and the immediate future of his multi-million dollar pop career. Hardly his fault such an inconsequential question bears so much weight.
If he'd given a bland much rehearsed answer that his publicist had taught him, would you feel better about him?

No wonder I feel such sympathy for celebrities with people like you two around.

19:19 / 07.11.02

He was unprepared?

Ex boy band boy, early twenties, moderately good looking and moderately talented, would have to be mad not to have his pitch for marketing himself to us queens well rehearsed.

He has a photoshoot and several page interview in Brit gay magazine Attitude as part of the huge advertising blitz his minders have launched over here. Sounds more like he falls over his tongue when he departs from the script. Several bits of press blurb recently about him over here and each makes mention in the rubric of the strictures about what may and may not be asked. I find it hard to share D's sympathy, given the blessings life has strewn in his path thus far. Perhaps it was expressed ironically.

19:21 / 07.11.02

How's about this for an idea - rather than giving "a bland much rehearsed answer that his publicist had taught him" or pathetically trying to squeeze out an answer that's designed to cause no offence to anybody, anywhere, he tries saying what he actually thinks? Radical, I know...

20:36 / 07.11.02

I think that probably was what he really thinks.

21:47 / 07.11.02

If I was him I'd say that I hope that they (the gay community) will like my new album.

Actually if I was Justin Timberlake I'd probably shoot myself.

21:51 / 07.11.02

Yeah. Young, wealthy, beautiful, talented, beloved... he's got nothing to live for, does he?

Twart.

22:43 / 07.11.02

His single, as I never seem to tire of saying, is brilliant.

'Justified' is a great album title, isn't it?

What he said was okay, wasn't it? If not, why?

22:55 / 07.11.02

At least he didn't prattle on about owing it all to Jesus or the hard times to get to the top of his profession. I guess ERD's right, nothing offensive there and perhaps the fact that he is prepared to be spontaneous, if a little unintelligible, is a welcome change.

I'd barely heard of him till the marketing assault began here a few weeks back and viewed that rather cynically and negatively. Hope his tunes are as good as people say they are. I should give him a listen, maybe, and not be so kneejerk in my response to boy bands milking the gay market.

00:00 / 08.11.02

How's about this for an idea - rather than giving a... pathetically trying to squeeze out an answer that's designed to cause no offence to anybody, anywhere, he tries saying what he actually thinks? Radical, I know...

Do you work for any particular company?
Imagine you do, your boss is listening over your shoulder whilst customers ask questions about your opinion of the firm. You wouldn't feel the slightest bit pressured to bite your tongue every so often lest you upset the customer and/or your boss?

Tryphena Absent

00:08 / 08.11.02

Poor little Justin's just doing his job, to look pretty and make OK music written by someone else. The gay audience is very in to its millions of icons and he's never ever going to live up to Take That on the 'iamsogaybuymyrecords' front anyway. He's treading in footsteps already worn away.

He can't be too pro-gay audience in case all the little-girl-fans think he's gay and stop buying the records. He can't be anti-gay because that would make him a complete tosser and he'd be shunned (rightly) for all eternity. It's a fine balance and he clearly wasn't briefed on the best answer because no one who be that foolish on purpose. So I feel sorry for the poor little boy band geek.

Anyway I bought his last single.

00:47 / 08.11.02

Interesting position, D, given that in the past you've expressed yourself from a moral platform that would seem to be so rigorously defined that behaviour like Timberlake's would be unacceptable. Isn't it better for him to be honest, or do you really believe that honesty and morality should bend to the wind of corporate pressure?

As for the topic at hand, I'm quite suprised he's not answered that before, with a simple "Yes. I hope so."

00:57 / 08.11.02

To answer the question, of course not videodrome.
This is not necessarily about Timberlake having done the right thing but whether he's any more wrong than the majority of the rest of us are in our respective roles in the world. Of course he's a much easier target for mass criticism, we all know him.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

01:54 / 08.11.02

After reading his reply (and knowing next to nothing about him other than he was manufactured by the Disney Pop Star Factory) I have to say that I feel sorry for him. He has been so sheltered by handlers and image consultants that he can't think on his feet. The guy has to balance his gay fanbase, his teen girl fanbase and the rising tide of anti-gay political pressure to try and be both appealing to all and offensive to none.

It's got to be hard to try and court mass appeal in the increasingly demographic Balkans of the US.

04:24 / 08.11.02

What would you say if I told you I had reliable information that JT maintained a well-known ficsuit in these parts? He's much smarter and more tasteful in his private life than we are given to believe. Wouldn't you just crap yourself with glee? It'd be better than the first time you read Will Wheaton's weblog.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:16 / 08.11.02

Ssh, Qualyn, loose lips sink ships.

The text quoted in the intial post above is an interesting example of how journalistic conventions can be used or discarded in order to create a certain impression of the subject of an interview. It's standard practice in journalism to edit out all those elipses and verbal tics - the basic assumption is that since written and spoken discourse are two separate things, when you transcribe an interview you do not do so exactly, but rather eliminate the tell-tale symptoms of speech which would, if reproduced as text, quite possibly make the speaker look incoherent.

However, the above convention is often disregarded for the purpose of doing just that: making someone look stupid. It's actually quite frequent practice itself nowadays, and pretty easy to spot after a while. There was quite a famous case wherein Brian Harvey's remarks about Ecstasy were reproduced in the *news* section of a UK paper complete with "yeah" and "y'know" and superfluous "just"s aplenty - a very obvious example, but it goes on all the time...

Once you take a look at what Justin Timberlake is actually saying, and put it in the context of his current attempts to win respect from an r&b/hip-hop audience as well as a pop one, I think what he's saying is actually to be applauded.

14:06 / 08.11.02

But what *is* he saying?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:36 / 08.11.02

Essentially, that he's flattered by the support that he's received from the gay community, that he believes music does not discriminate, and that it's a good thing the way his music can appeal to a wide range of people.

So not what the topic abstract states at all.

17:16 / 08.11.02

in case all the little-girl-fans think he's gay and stop buying the records.

I'd guess a substantial minority, at least, of girl boy-band fans are proto-slashers and will buy more records if they think he's gay. Google for boy band slash. (I mean, I'm not recommending you read it, just... there's a lot of it about. Honestly, Robert Smith and that other one out of the Cure* can't be in the same tour bus for five bloody minutes without their hands touching and a jolt of electricity running through their bodies as their eyes meet tenderly-yet-warily... Sorry. Sorry.)

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:47 / 08.11.02

Yep, what she said. Screaming girly fans of boy-bands/idols are notoriously alot more clued-up than the popular press/media perception would have you believe.

Went to a Take That gig years ago, and some of the biggest screams were for the finale - the boys dressed only in PVC chaps+thongs, and horns, basically getting as close as they could get to simulating oral sex onstage before the coppers would rush in. The hysteria in the place was incredible. These girls *know* their posterboys are gay... and they Love It

As Richard Smith notes in Seduced And Abandoned: Essays on Gay Men and Popular Music, 'the girls (at the gig) are filthier than the gayboys'...

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:52 / 08.11.02

gah. haven't got my copy of the Richard Smith thing at the moment, but he makes some very interesting points about the enduring popularity of 'unmanly men' with teenage and middle-aged women alike, and how this tends to be ridiculed/ignored by the mainstream music press, rather as female teenand middle-aged sexuality is ignored....

18:44 / 08.11.02

Flyboy: Essentially, that he's flattered by the support that he's received from the gay community, that he believes music does not discriminate, and that it's a good thing the way his music can appeal to a wide range of people.

So not what the topic abstract states at all.

If I was editing that interview, that's not something I'd feel comfortable editing his words into.

I'm not saying that's not part of what he was trying to say, maybe, but for someone who's been a public figure for the past 10 years it's a bit surprising that a fairly obvious question from the San Francisco entertainment media would lead to such a confusing reply.

19:35 / 08.11.02

It's standard practice in journalism to edit out all those elipses and verbal tics

I can't see any way in which his response can be turned into intelligent, intelligible comment without rearranging it to the point where it becomes creative paraphrasing.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:58 / 01.04.03

Justin Timberlake to guest star in Will & Grace.

The part, which has been written especially for him, will see Justin camp it up as a gay gigolo who scams flamboyant Jack out of a pile of cash, then breaks his heart... [H]e plans to donate his $50,000 pay-check to an AIDs foundation.

Not that Will & Grace doesn't have its own problems, but... I'm just saying.

(Story courtesy of pin, child of two vampires.)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:08 / 01.04.03

Does anyone know how he usually comes over in interviews? Maybe he's that rambling and incoherent the whole time. Maybe he's just not very good at public speaking.

Goodness Gracious Meme

07:40 / 01.04.03

oh, and rereading this, I also see where Xoc's coming from, in that alot of the time stars won't touch the gay press when they're on the way up, but when they're sliding, it's all 'I love my gay fans', translation:

'my gay fans are the only ones still buying, and I've got a PA in G.A.Y. next week'.

Though this is changing to an extent, as per the marketing of JS...

08:00 / 01.04.03

Hey, the Cure aren't a boy band...which other one?

I cannot listen to Mr. Timberlake. His squeaky falsetto vocals make me want to ram a pencil into one ear and out the other side. He scares me. Like Daniel shagging Bedingfield. Urrk. But yeah, at least he didn't say anything evil, he just sounded a bit dense.