The Spectrum

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: A & E

On September 12, 2006, musician Justin Timberlake released his album "FutureSex/LoveSongs." The former boy band member of N' Sync is now changing music with a new beat-driven sound.

July 7, 2006 was the date Jive records distributed "SexyBack" to radio stations. The song became an instant summer hit with a new upbeat tune, co-written and produced by Timbaland. The hot new single then became number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song is all about sexiness and is aimed towards an older audience, unlike 'N Sync's teenage girl spectators. Newsday calls "SexyBack" "a stunner, a bold, a new mix of Basement-Jaxx and Timbaland's spacey hip-hop."

The track was the opening performance for the MTV Video Music Awards. The performance was exhilarating and pact with choreography and television screens flashing all around the stage.

The 12 tracks on "FutureSex/LoveSongs" is some what like special club mix that flows together featuring other artists Three 6 Mafia, T.I., and will.i.am. Other co-producers include Rick Rubin and Da Young 1.

The first week of sales for Timberlake's new album debuted at number one selling 684,000 copies according to the Nielson Sound Scan. The album was also the biggest album for pre-orders on iTunes.

In July he plans to tour around Europe and Japan and an American tour is dated to launch in August. With Timberlake's appeal to a younger crowd, his music career is now jumping into a totally new direction and audience.

"I wouldn't consider myself a fan but I do like this sound better than the boy band music," said Marvin Daniels, junior, Providence, RI.

His first solo debut album Justified came out in November 2002 and sold 439,000 copies in its first week of sales and eventually went to sell 3.5 million copies in the US. The album is very R&B influenced and features tracks produced by the Neptunes.

From then on his celebrity status has soared. Timberlake is rising even from the previously high plateau from his former boy band career.

"I like the song a lot, it has a good beat. It is more club-ish and upbeat and I think it is definitely better for his career because he attracts more groups of people," said Nadia Tomasi, freshman, Huntington, N.Y.

However, even though the numbers show great success and new fan groups are being created, Timberlake's popularity could be changing people's view of him as a musician. SexyBack's sound is a much more electronically enhanced beat based using a smooth synthesizer.

"I feel he's trying to move into the urban community. He is modifying his voice and the track is mostly Timbaland. I like the song but I feel he's trying to just gain more fans that aren't part of his boy band audience. He is just becoming famous for his gossip," said Tatiana Garcia, junior, New York, N.Y.

Timberlake has been in the entertainment business for fourteen years, having started out in the Mickey Mouse Club in 1993

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