Culture Crash: Are J-Lo And Justin Timberlake Old News?

WELCOME TO CULTURE CRASH, WHERE WE EXAMINE WHAT’S NEW AND OLD IN ENTERTAINMENT.

It has been an interesting few months for two superstars of the 90s and 2000s, as audiences received new projects from both Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake, proving it can be difficult to age gracefully in a pop landscape that has largely moved on to younger artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande.

In February, JLo released “This is me… now,” a throwback R&B album that was actually received pretty well by critics but largely ignored by audiences. The album debuted at #38 on the Billboard charts which.. Isn’t great. Along with the album that was heavily inspired by the artist’s long history of relationships in the spotlight and her rekindled relationship with Ben Affleck, Lopez released a movie version of the album called “This is me… now: A Love Story,” which was self-funded and released on Amazon Prime Video. If that all wasn’t enough, Lopez finally released a documentary called “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” about the making of the album and movie. This is the part of the whole project that has captured the public’s attention, and that’s because on TikTok, the reception has been quite frosty, with many users pulling clips that show Lopez in a bad light with users accusing the pop star of being self-obsessed.

In March, Justin Timberlake released his sixth studio album “Everything I Thought It Was,” which was released during a tricky time for JT after his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears discussed their own 2000s tabloid-frenzy relationship in her memoir, which turned a lot of social media users against Timberlake. Still, he plodded ahead with his album, released on March 15 to mostly middling reviews. Anecdotally, I will note that I actually find a lot to like on Timberlake’s album, even if the runtime is a bit long and a few songs maybe should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Still, his album debuted at #4 on Billboard, which isn’t too bad but is quite the drop-off from the man whose four preceding albums all debuted in the number one slot.

While Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez were both two of the most popular artists of previous decades, their 2024 releases have made it clear that fame alone won’t always get artists to the top of the charts. It appears little bit of aging and a little bit of social media backlash can go a long way in cooling some of that popularity.