it was quite literally britney spears that made justin timberlake popular post-n'sync. for being part of the united states biggest boy band in history, his solo career started off limply, with his single “like i love you” peaking at 11th. that wasn’t great for somebody who was already an american household name lol
his solo career kicked off because him and his publicists used his break up with britney spears to promote himself throughout his promotion for the justified album. you can look at the barbara walters 20/20 interview and the cry me a river music video for examples. the early 2000s was full of britney spears slander because of the breakup which in turn brought major publicity for timberlake. you think he wouldn’t take advantage of that, with arguably the most famous woman at the time? the woman that sold more than 30 million copies for one (1) album?
what’s funny is that for years he would use britney spears name in magazines interviews whatever to get sales and, as you’ve said, relevancy. the ellen show, that radio interview where he talked about oral sex with her literally years after they broke up. he would even bring her up again just when it came to promote futuresex/lovesounds. even 6 years after his solo began he embarrassed her by calling her a madonna wannabe. the guy even brought her up in 2013 always rehashing that one stupid breakup that everybody has moved on from conveniently when it was time to promote whatever recycled music he was promoting
JT relied on her name for album sales and media attention for years. without her he would be nothing. and anyway the message of my post was what do the one direction guys have to milk the public’s interest in their solo endeavors anyway? nothing. they don’t have america’s most successful female artist (britney in late 90s/early 2000s was a force 💯) to exploit
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