deferential – Live & Learn

“Justin Timberlake, 32, is playing the long game. He’s the Kasparov of showbiz. He has survived far longer than most artists, tracing an arc from pop-culture absurd — first appearing on the Mickey Mouse Club at age 11 — to pop-culture sublime, a solo career that has triumphed at a time when entertainment, and celebrity, have become more disposable than ever…

Timberlake, it has been said, has gone far on likability, which is also a way of mildly patronizing him…But what has let him bridge over multiple iterations and now three generations of fans has been a certain kind of generationally specific decorum: gracious, polite, patient, deferential. He may have you naked by the end of this song, but he will do so using Antioch rules.”

(Timberlake) ‘Y’know, life doesn’t happen in black and white.’ The gray area is where you become an adult . . . the medium temperature, the gray area, the place between black and white. That’s the place where life happens.”

~ The New York Times Style Magazine: The Enduring, Multigenerational Appeal of Justin Timberlake