Michael Jackson debut 'Love Never Felt So Good'

The music video for the Michael Jackson posthumous duet with Justin Timberlake "Love Never Felt So Good," debuted on Wednesday morning, and it's a careful visual tribute of the late pop singer's lasting legacy on future generations. The classy disco-soul number is on Jackson's just-released second posthumous album "Xscape," features eight songs originally recorded between 1983 and 1999, and showcases why Jackson remains an indelible influence on contemporary artists today. The track was debuted during the iHeartRadio Music Awards live on May 1 with Usher shows off his cool dance moves while performing a tribute to Jackson's brand new dance number.
Jackson originally wrote this disco confection in 1983 in a session with Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka around the time they recorded "This Is It." Jackson's demo was leaked in 2006 and a higher quality version leaked four years later. The contemporized recording is a magic combination of the new and the original production that retains the track's analog, early 80s feel, while also sounding right at home with the disco-soul inflected music of today. USA Today wrote, "old school snap and tingle with warm leaping strings that recall the melodic and rhythmic punch of Jackson's work." TIME called song as "an opulent, warm disco-soul number, which evokes Off the Wall as much as dead-on 2014."
The single edit was also reworked as a duet with Timberlake and this remix was released as a digital download on May 2, a day after Jackson's solo version was debuted on the iHeartRadio Music Awards. It was Jackson who initially encouraged Timberlake to go solo during his 'N Sync days. "I think it's the first idea that I ever got about doing something on my own because it was the first time I ever really felt the confidence to do it," Timberlake explained in an episode of Oprah's Master Class.
The posthumous "Xscape" duet nostalgic video for "Love Never Felt So Good" carefully cuts archival footage with crowds of young hip-hop dancers breakdancing to the song and attempting the late pop singer's most memorable inspired routines while fans lip-sync along to the new jam, as the vintage footage of Jackson busting his signature moves in various old-schooled sets are shown in a wall behind. The 'Sexy Back' star Timberlake also appears in the visual, getting close-up shots whenever the director thought it was required.

Justin Timberlake seeks love in 'Not a Bad Thing'

Justin Timberlake is taking another unconventional approach to the art of the music video with "Not a Bad Thing," debuted Thursday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and this time using the airwaves and social media to solve a romantic mystery. As the host explains, the "documentary about finding love" is based on the true story and the video is actually a search for them. The mid-tempo cheery "Mirrors"-esque pop ballad, the third single off his fourth album "The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2," is a simple declaration of love that Timberlake tells a girl that it's "not a bad thing" to fall in love with him as he will make her dreams come true.
The new video shows two documentarians, a couple setting out to find a man who using this song and proposed to his fiancée on a Long Island Railroad train en route to New York City around 8:20 p.m. January 12, 2014. "They were so in love - you almost never see that," says a female filmmaker. "We don't know who these people are or what their story is, but maybe you do. We're making a documentary about finding love. Have you seen this couple?" It turns out the man played a Timberlake song to his lady love - the proposal is simulated at the beginning of the video - and "Not a Bad Thing" plays as the filmmakers search for the elusive couple. Timberlake's voice is the only part of him present in the video.
The rest of the video follows their endeavor to find the man and woman and also enlists real-life couples to talk about their reflections on love, their proposals, marriage, relationships, the struggles in their unions as well as what they think of the couple. The documentarians are also shown flooding the NYC streets with flyers with the hashtag #haveyouseenthiscouple, stopping by a radio interview and texting each other from borough to borough, with the messages showing up on the screen, "House of Cards" style. The question became a hastag used by Timberlake to promote the pursuit and his video.
In the meantime, a Twitter account called "Find This Couple" and its respective tumblr "HaveYouSeenThisCouple" have crowdsourced the effort. The video ends with the documentarians getting out of a van to chase down another lead. "Might be them," the female filmmaker said, "Let's try it out." Then "To be continued" is super-imposed on the screen. After the premiere, DeGeneres echoed the filmmakers' plea. "So obviously if you know this couple, contact us, because Justin is trying to find you, and we'll put y'all together," she said.

Justin Timberlake gets a little banged up in 'TKO'

Justin Timberlake snuggles up with Riley Keough in the music video for his latest single "TKO," serves as the second single from the Memphis-born star's latest fourth studio album, "The 20/20 Experience (2 of 2)." "TKO" is largely a retread of Timberlake's past work with longtime collaborator Timbaland, opening with a tired hype-man routine that finds the producer idiotically chanting, "She kill me with that coo-coochie-coochie-coo," over a familiar mid-tempo shuffle circa 2006. The video is a knock-down, drag-out good time in a slickly produced and thematic seven-minute clip.
The song's lyrics add little to an already massive pantheon of pop songs built around a love-as-boxing metaphor, as we find Timberlake describing the flooring feeling of spotting his former girlfriend out with a new man. He addresses his former flame by telling her, "I'm out for the count/Yeah, girl, you knock me out/With a TKO." Other boxing metaphors that Timberlake utilizes on the club banger to describe his emotions at seeing the girl with another guy include, "you've been swinging after the bell," "hit the mat," and "below the belt." To cap it all, Timberlake also includes a beat-boxing breakdown.
The song works as a mid-tempo club track that doesn't have much of the old-school lover-man slickness that Timberlake brought to the last album, and the melody doesn't quite stick the way you'd hope a Timberlake melody would. "TKO" contains heavy drums and "scratchy" studio effects, which according to a staff writer of Consequence of Sound, is reminiscent of a "slightly more refined Justified." However, Timberlake isn't recycling old music material, but giving it a modernized update. There is something about how the heavy bass and snare blends with Timberlake's signature voice that taps into the soul of every pop music fan when Timbaland is in the mix that simply cannot be denied.
The 32-year-old entertainer tries to win the heart of his girlfriend, played by Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough, 24, as his love interest, in the cinematic visual directed by Ryan Reichenfeld. She didn't actually kill him with her "coo-coochie-coochie-coo", but she killed him anyway. After making out in the kitchen, Keough turns down Timberlake's further advances. She doesn't want to give him her "coo-coochie-coochie-coo" anymore. So Keough immediately develops a plan. First she knocks Timberlake out with a nasty hit on the head with a frying pan. She then drags hims through the desert on the back of a truck that she's driving, and ultimately.

Jay-Z raps about pitfalls of fame in "Holy Grail"

Jay-Z continues his dive head first into high-culture performance with a music video for the Nirvana-sampled track "Holy Grail", the first single, featuring Justin Timberlake crooning the silky-smooth hook, from hip hop artist Jay-Z's latest  twelfth studio album, "Magna Carta... Holy Grail." The pair just finished their joint stadium tour "Legends of the Summer" earlier this month, so the premiere of the "Holy Grail" visual comes in appropriate time. In a surprising move, Beyoncé's husband decided to unveil the song's music video first via his Facebook page, rather than the money-making platform of VEVO.
The build-up to this release was nothing short of perfection. The smooth and mellifluous "Holy Grail," album's surprisingly moody opener, featuring the sickest lyric laydown the 20/20 Experience man has perhaps ever done. Initially premiered by Funkmaster Flex tonight on Hot 97, the song features a powerful hook from Timberlake which was co-written by The-Dream and a pulsating beat from Timberlake which switches up several times. Midway through the song, Jay-Z and Timberlake interpolate lyrically sampled rock group Nirvana's 1991 hit single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Courtney Love has said in an interview that she gave permission to use the lyrics earlier this year. In exchange, Jay-Z allowed Courtney to cover "99 Problems" for her performance at the Sundance Film Festival. The Holy Grail was the cup or chalice rationally used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, which was the subject of much medieval legend and romance. As Jay-Z mulls over the pitfalls of fame and introduces a time capsule - lyrics from Kurt Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - "We are all just, Entertainers , I feel stupid and contagious," Jay-Z also raps while Timberlake cycles through every tortured artist cliché short of a crucifixion metaphor.
Director Anthony Mandler chops up the song to tell a cautionary tale of what happens when it all falls down. While they may appear to have everything, we see that their life is not as glamorous as it seems. Behind the bright lights and lavish lifestyle hides the dark side of fame. The rapper and the singer mostly stand (or sit) around and rap and sing in the dark interiors of a giant mansion; there are slick camera movements, expressive lighting and shadows, candelabras, and an upside-down car in flames. Modern dancers draped in billowing sheets up the artsiness quotient, as does the enormous room that is empty save for a single painting on the wall.

Justin Timberlake trys to "Take Back the Night"

Justin Timberlake mixes dancing in the streets with a concert performance in his New York-inspired video for his sensual Disco track, "Take Back the Night," the lead cut to be lifted from his upcoming fourth studio album and the second volume of "The 20/20 Experience," due out September 30 through RCA Records. Timberlake, the pop music maverick and self-appointed legend of the summer, is pretty enthralling in itself and the horn-fueled new millennium disco tune lays down the right groove for Timberlake to entertain crowds all across the New York city that never sleeps.
"Take Back the Night," is a disco and R&B song that lyrically addresses a potential love interest as the 32-year-old singer sings of trying to woo a would-be lover and begging the object of his affection to join him on the dance floor. The track carries a sleek, rhythmic pop production with instrumentation consisting of stirring strings, percolating percussion horn stabs, thumping bass and waka-waka guitars. It also has a distinct Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" heavy disco vibe, and throwing back to soul's post-disco evolution, infusing dance floor rhythms with impeccable class.
Shortly after the song was released, the Take Back the Night Foundation, an anti-rape organization, expressed concerns about the similarities between the song's title and the organization's name. Timberlake apologized saying that he was unaware of the organization and has come forward to support them: "I wanted to take this opportunity to let all know that neither my song nor its lyrics have any association with the organization. As I've learned more about The Take Back The Night Foundation, I'm moved by its efforts to stop violence against women, create safe communities and encourage respectful relationships for women—Something we all should rally around."
Filmed in New York, the "Take Back The Night" video was directed by Jeff Nicholas, Jonathan Craen and Darren Craig and "harkens back to the days when nightlife ruled the city and beckons everyone within earshot that the night holds endless possibilities," according to a whimsical press release. In the video, Timberlake walks the streets of Chinatown and performs in a black-and-white outfit on the sidewalk, riding in a classic car during the night, have a dance-off with a smooth-moving little boy on the streets from Yankee Stadium to Chinatown before he walks into a club to throw some moves, while interspersed with live footage from his 'Legends of the Summer' world tour, which he is currently traveling on with Jay Z.

Justin Timberlake has "Tunnel Vision" for love

Justin Timberlake is doing more than just "bringing sexy back" with his racy new video for his latest single, "Tunnel Vision," the third single off of the 32-year-old singer's comeback album, "20/20 Experience." The seven-minute epic sets a new bar which featuring legions of undulating, nude models has returned to YouTube after it was temporarily removed from the website for its abundance of rear and full frontal female nudity. Timberlake warned his fans about the video on his Twitter account Thursday: "Check out the new video for Tunnel Vision and be ready...it's explicit."
But Timberlake isn't promising us anything other than a very sexy video about how hot and graphic obsession can be, sometimes. The electro-tinged jam "Tunnel Vision," is a mid-tempo R&B song with EDM influences, and it has an instrumentation that features beats assisted by producer Timbaland's signature ad-libs, vocal record-scratches, heavy drums, bass melodies, wide-ranging orchestrations and synths. Lyrically, the song finds Timberlake proclaiming that he has a tunnel vision for the love interest and features several voyeuristic references. The song's lyrics proclaim that the singer is in love.
The song title refers a medical condition in which one cannot see objects other than those straight ahead. Tunnel vision can be caused by glaucoma, alcohol consumption or hallucinogenic drugs, but in this instance the reason is a girl. "A million people in a crowded room," sings Timberlake, "but my camera lens is only set to zoom and it all becomes so clear." "Tunnel Vision" is the crown jewel of "20/20 Experience," the one instance where the ambitious track length sustains the intrigue laid down by the intoxicating, dense funhouse production, and Timberlake's lurid plot of lovelorn obsession.
Directed by Jonathan Craven, Simon McLoughlin and Jeff Nicholas, the video features Timberlake dancing languidly in front of a minimal, white background and bold typography displaying the name of the song, as well as a trio of very naked models writhing around in smoke to the beat of the track and projected onto his face. The set pieces in which projections of Timberlake interact with the nude dancers is a fractured dynamic that mirrors "Tunnel Vision" itself and basically submissive throughout. Is this plagiarism, a knowing-nod, or a coincidence?

Justin Timberlake wooing a lover in "Mirrors"

After taking the stage at the Grammys with Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake pays tribute to his grandparents and their 63-year marriage with a new music video for his latest love song, "Mirrors," the second single from his just-released comeback album, "The 20/20 Experience." The over-eight-minute-long surrealistic clip centers around an elderly couple as they "reflect" on their past. We wondered whether Timberlake had created the most narcissistic love song ever.
The Timbaland-produced string-laden mid-tempo pop ballad, is a typical 2006-era vintage combination of Timbaland's classic contemporary rhythmic stylings with Timberlake's Neo Blue-eyed soulful vocals. This eight-minute vulnerable epic finds Timberlake wooing a lover. "You're shining something like a mirror," he sings, "and I can't help but notice you reflecting this heart of mine." Timberlake adds that he has come, "to the realization" that she is his "other half." The singer references "taking a break from the relationship."
Unlike lead single "Suit & Tie"s sultry and retro vibes, the selfie-taker's new jam reminds us a bit more of Timberlake's smash sophomore LP, "FutureSex/LoveSounds" days with layered synths and ridiculously club-ready pop production courtesy of Timbaland. That said, Timberlake's lush, harmony-laden vocals remain the core of the track and displaying his strong vocal attributes over a poignant R&B-style production. The tempo is mid, the falsetto is there and so is Timbaland. The 32-year-old singer renders the song more like a pop performer than a R&B, and he is making a serious comeback.
The clip was directed by Floria Sigismondi, as Timberlake dedicated it to his grandparents William and Sadie, and tells the story of an old couple at different stages and reflecting on the ups and downs of their relationship, allegorized in a funhouse. Timberlake makes an appearance towards the end of the video, dancing in a house of mirrors. The love of his life is present, but always on the other side of the mirrors, making him able to see her but not able to touch her. The result is a video that blunts the seeming self-indulgence of the song's lyrics and actually adds a new layer to the song with a visually striking and evocative story.

Justin Timberlake is well-dressed in "Suit & Tie"

Justin Timberlake is all dressed up and took to his Twitter page on Valentine's Day to announce the online premiere of the super sexy and slinky music video for his Jay-Z-featured comeback track, "Suit & Tie," his first single in six years after taking time out to focus on his movie career. This R&B throwback features a guest verse from Jay-Z, and the bass-heavy production stylings of Timbaland, is set to appear on Timberlake's upcoming long-awaited new record, "The 20/20 Experience," due out March 19.
The horn-tinged track "Suit & Tie," is a mid-tempo R&B song and a sleek dance number, finds singer singing about his love for being well-dressed. It begins with a slow-drawl intro consisting of slowed down synths and slightly out of time drum claps. The song then goes into a hypnotic, engaging outro before a great, cold ending. Lyrically, the song is an ode to the joys of being handsome and well-dressed.
According to the 32-year-old Timberlake: "The inspiration for this really came out of the blue and to be honest, I didn't expect anything out of it. I just went into the studio and started playing around with some sounds and songs. It was probably the best time I've had in my career... Just creating with no rules and/or end goal in mind and really enjoying the process."
The black and white clip appears very grandiose with its vintage look and elaborate set design, helmed by famed director David Fincher, finds Timberlake get down in stylish and totally channels his best the Pack's president Sinatra impression in a Tom Ford tuxedo and bow tie, where he performs with a full band and back-up dancers in a concert hall, similar to what he brought to his Grammy performance on Sunday. Then, when Jay-Z joins him for his rap verse in the song, they move to a swanky night club set complete with sexy backup dancers.

Esmée Denters&Justin Timberlake "Love Dealer"

Dutch rising star Esmée Denter is one of the first artists signed to her mentor and producer Justin Timberlake's Interscope imprint, Tennman Records and she premiered a music video for her third single, "Love Dealer" from her debut album "Outta Here" and featuring Timberlake premieres Wednesday on VEVO. "Love Dealer" is a light, refreshing electro jam, as her next official US single and will be available for download on iTunes May 4 and will impact radio on May 25.
The Malloys produced video was shot in downtown Los Angeles on April 18. Unlike the other artists who take their recording sessions inside recording booth, this former pancake house waitress chooses to craft the song with Timberlake on the rooftop. Collaborating on the feisty, urban-flavored hit is just the tip of the Denters/Timberlake connection. This is not the only song which features Timberlake as the former member of NSYNC also hooks up with her in another track called "Casanova."
The 21-years-old Denters fascinating story began a couple of years ago with a webcam and a dream. She rose to YouTube celebrity-dom by performing and then posting covers to her favorite hits. Her urban flavored pristine vocals quickly captured attention internationally and among her list of fans was Timberlake. Not long after he discovered her talent the two began collaborating on her debut album "Outta Here" which is set to be released later this year.
Hollander Denters called working with Timberlake as a dream comes true. "It's an honor to even meet him and to have him produce my songs and write with me and really give me the attention as an artist," she said. It's only a matter of time before "Love Dealer" will take the airwaves by storm and solidify Denters's place as a star in Pop music. The new video will clearly get a much larger promotional push and get a glimpse of what all the buzz is about. Enjoy!

Timbaland Ft. Justin Timberlake For "Carry Out"

Super producer Timbaland teamed up with Justin Timberlake in the video for their duet "Carry Out," which was originally filmed in December 2009 consisting mostly of live performance footage of Timbaland and Timberlake performing the song, it was supposed to premiere in January 2010 before it got shelved. In late January 2010, it was announced that a new video is going to be shot with director Bryan Barber, and premiered Friday on VEVO. This new video witnesses both super-sized talents feast on an assortment of eye candy and flirting with the ladies in the drive-in food outlet.
"Carry Out," a southern term used for restaurants where customers primarily pick up their orders, is Timbaland's third single from his third album "Shock Value II." The song was co-written and features Timberlake. Timbaland has said this is his favorite track on the album. This particular video showcases Timabland and Timberlake's chemistry as they dance and rap while models dressed as waitresses and French maids take their orders. The pair chant during the second verse. The clip ends with each model biting into a piece of chocolate cake and cherries with a smile, proving that food is still the way to a man's heart.
Timbaland recently said that he's done with hip-hop production and Timberlake have a long history of collaborating together, most notably on Timberlake's No.1 sophomore solo album, 2006's "FutureSex/LoveSounds" where the duo played with Prince-like rhythms and electronica, culminating in the ubiquitous single "My Love" featuring T.I. Last month during the producer/rapper's Hollywood show at the House of Blues, Timberlake joined his friend onstage for a performance of "Carry Out" along with "SexyBack" and "My Love." Timberlake also recently showed his clothing line, William Rast, during New York Fashion Week. The singer described the collection as a bridge between music and fashion. "Well, I think since the beginning of rock and roll, people have wanted to dress like rock stars," he told MTV News backstage at his label's fashion show. "I still find old Mick Jagger jackets that I wish I could pull out of his closet or something. Of course, they wouldn't fit me very tight. I think we all want to dress like rock stars."
Yeah, the man may have turned his back on all Hip-Hop not featuring a certain Shawn Corey Carter, but Timbaland still proves he can win with Pop as his profession. If you haven't find yourself humming this melody at any given moment, just wait. You will. Infectious like the plague, a lil' cowbell, triangle and Timberlake go a long way to leaving a stain in your memory bank.