Justin Timberlake & Christina Aguilera Missfire

Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly shared his thoughts on both *NSYNC star Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, and their urban transformation. Regarding Timberlake, Hardy said, “Groomed and shaped first by Disney, then by creepy boy-band impresario Lou Perlman, Justin (day job: ‘the cute one’ in *NSYNC) is a wigger. Eminem, groomed and shaped first by an unstable home life, then by the nihilistic/misogynistic fury of hip-hop, is not. Both are poseurs, of course, but Justin’s pose is the result of test-market results, demographic charts and immersion in mass culture via MTV.” And on Aguilera: “She’s unable to transcend clichéd – and often self-defeating – definitions of freedom and female power. The result is an album that shape-shifts from one femme prototype to another with grim determination: She wants to be Madonna, Wendy O. Williams and a weepily defiant Mariah, all at once. In the end, Christina herself barely registers at all.” Read more.