SexyBack
"SexyBack" is a song recorded by American singer Justin Timberlake for his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds. It was released on July 18, 2006, to US mainstream and rhythmic radio stations by Jive Records as the lead single from the album. The song was written and produced by Danja, Timbaland, and Timberlake. Discussing "SexyBack", Timberlake revealed that he went "left", singing the song in a rock style, not an R&B style. He described the song as musicians David Bowie and David Byrne "covering" James Brown's 1970 song "Sex Machine". The track features Timbaland on backing vocals while Timberlake's voice is distorted. The instrumentation used in the song includes a pounding bass beat, electronic chords, and drum machine sounds.
"SexyBack" became Timberlake's first number-one single as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100, staying seven weeks at the top spot. It also topped several of Billboard magazine's other charts, including the Mainstream Top 40, Hot Dance Airplay, and Hot Digital Songs, and entered the top ten on most singles charts. Internationally, it became Timberlake's first single to reach number one in the United Kingdom. In Australia, the track was Timberlake's second number-one single, spending two consecutive weeks at the top. "SexyBack" was certified three-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and three-times platinum by Canadian Recording Industry Association.
The track won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 2007 ceremony. In addition, the song won Timberlake the People's Choice Award for Favorite R&B song and the Male Artist of the Year at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. The music video was filmed in June 2006; Timberlake decided to work with director Michael Haussman based on the latter's work on Madonna's 1994 music video "Take a Bow".
Production
Timberlake began working on his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, in December 2005. Within three weeks, "SexyBack" was one of several songs that were recorded for the album, having been recorded in less than a day. Timberlake told The Weekend Mail in 2006 that it was the "second or third song" he did with Timbaland in a list of 10 songs they recorded for the album. The song was written and produced by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Nate "Danja" Hills, and mixed by Jimmy Douglass, using Pro Tools.Mixing took place in April 2006, using a Neve VR-series console.
Hills played the Akai MPC3000, as well as virtual synths on his Macintosh computer, while Timbaland performed instruments on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling keyboard. Bill Pettaway played the guitar, his part taking only two minutes to record, while Darryl Pearson was the bassist. Both the guitar and bass were digitally imported in Pro Tools during mixing, and only a section of the guitar recording was copied and pasted throughout the song.
Composition
Music
Timberlake described "SexyBack" as "an experiment gone right from the sort of synthesizer influence to the distorted vocals", adding that it was "one of the songs that the more you listen to it its just hook after hook after hook. Its just one of those 'flow off the top of your head' tracks, in terms of melody. We wanted to keep it loose and not too rehearsed, it's one of those very experimental records though." Timberlake revealed that he went "left", regarding going more rock, not in how he developed the song, but in the way he sang the song. "I wanted to sing the song like a rock and roll singer, not an R&B singer. That's the approach." The day before recording, Timberlake and Timbaland had listened to David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and the Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers". Timberlake wanted to achieve the songs' "raw energy". Timberlake said that he modeled himself on Bowie and Prince, and described the song as Bowie and David Byrne "covering" James Brown's 1970 song "Sex Machine". Timberlake said that the song "doesn't qualify as rock or straight funk" and that he was happy with the description "club funk". He was "keen for a new musical direction" following the release of his first album, Justified. "I listened to the radio for a few months and thought, 'All this sounds like shit, what do I want to hear?'. That's really all I did. Everything's got so repetitive, everything sounds the same. I had to create something unique otherwise there's no point putting it out.""SexyBack" is an "urgent, pulsing track, a cocktail of soaring, distorted vocals and heavy, electronic chords threaded together with rap", according to Camilla Long from The Observer. The song is performed in the key of F major, and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 117 beats per minute. The song's musicscape includes two-note dirty electronic riffs, "leapfrogging keyboards", beat box sound, and incorporates the "same leaky faucet" sounds of musician Obie Trice's 2004 song "The Setup". In addition, the track features Timbaland on backing vocals.
Timberlake's voice in the song is processed, slowed down to where his voice is unrecognizable, with muffled vocals. The song also features Timberlake's "low register distorted vocals." Timberlake revealed that the vocals in the song were influenced by Prince.
Lyrics
Douglass explained the title of the song, and how it affected the concept: "Justin goes in the chorus 'Go head be gone with it', I called the song 'Be Gone With It', just to label it. So they're developing this song and they're going nuts and loving it, and as they play it, and I'm like: 'I don't think this hook is strong enough.' But then, at the very last minute, Justin very, very cleverly decided to call it 'SexyBack'." He admitted that the song was not going to be titled "SexyBack", saying, "We weren't originally going to call it 'SexyBack'. I definitely didn't think it would become the most worn-out phrase of 2006. It just sounded like a nice opening to the song."Adam Graham of The Detroit News noted that Timberlake sings about whips and chains, while Bill Lamb of About.com said the song has a "bit of s&m tease about shackles and whips". Furthermore, The Georgia Straight
Critical reception
In the Billboard magazine review of the album, contributor Katy Kroll wrote that Timberlake "claims to be bringing 'sexy' back to pop music, and indeed he is. You can almost feel beads of sweat rolling off the title track and 'SexyBack' featuring Timbaland". Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly was complimentary towards Timbaland, producer of the song, writing that Timbaland offers "tougher, trickier rhythms, minimal live playing, a plethora of hip-hop cameos, and a self-consciously hard, edgy club sensibility" to "SexyBack". Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald noted, "The producer's angular synthesizer crunch is all over it – at best on the single 'SexyBack' where they dispense with a chorus, leaving the song sustained by its vocal fireworks, electrofunk and Timberlake's repeated declaration that 'I'm bringing sexy back. PopMatters' contributor Quentin B. Huff wrote that "SexyBack" was the "fraternal twin" to Nelly Furtado's 2006 song "Promiscuous". Andrew Murfett of The Age wrote that the song was a "raunchy club banger that slyly suppresses" Timberlake's customary falsetto. He continues, "it's introduced a new phrase into the pop cultural lexicon". Glenn Gamboa of Newsday was complimentary towards the song, writing that it was "Timberlake at his best, mainstreaming a combination of the wild, edgy dance-pop style of Basement Jaxx with Missy Elliott's more experimental hip-hop to create a boldly inventive sound that still pleases the masses."Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote: "...'SexyBack', a twitchy, emaciated track that shot to the top of the charts and also became an irritating catchphrase. " Dagny Salas of North by Northwestern commented that Timberlake and Timbaland trade ridiculous lines, with "Get your sexy on/Go ahead, be gone with it" and "Dirty babe/You see these shackles/Baby I'm your slave/I'll let you whip me if I misbehave." Salas continued in her review that it was not a song that should be good, "but does that really matter when it's good in the way that songs are during the summer That kind of good makes songs like 'SexyBack' completely irresistible." Matt Burns of The Post wrote, "Take the polarizing summer single 'SexyBack', a repetitive song with little structure that doesn't know when to stop, all centered on a ridiculous declaration. Somehow, it works." The Diamondback
Upon the song's release, it received divided opinions, which pleased Timberlake. "This is such a departure from the first record," said Timberlake. "More people might like it, less people might like it, but you can't call me a chicken."