“Not A Bad Thing” by Justin Timberlake

song info

    “Not A Bad Thing” by Justin Timberlake (official video) is a pop song.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/no/notabadthing.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Not a Bad Thing” is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake for his fourth studio album, The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2 (2013). It was written and produced by Timberlake, Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley and Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy. It was released as the third single from the album on February 24, 2014 through digital download, following a contemporary hit radio release on February 25. The song is a mid-tempo pop ballad, that makes use of an acoustic guitar throughout, with its lyrics centering around the semantic field of love.
    “Not a Bad Thing” received positive reviews, with several contemporary music critics noting the song’s production and lyrics being reminiscent of past material produced by former boy band ’N Sync. The song’s music video premiered on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show on March 20, 2014. It is a mini documentary, that follows two documentary filmmakers searching for a couple that got engaged on January 12, 2014, while heading to New York City on the Long Island Rail Road train, with the man proposing to his girlfriend to “Not a Bad Thing”. The video concludes with the filmmakers being lead to several false leads, with a second part of the video to follow. Timberlake performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and during The 20/20 Experience World Tour.

Writing and production
    “Not a Bad Thing” was written by Timberlake, Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley, Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon and James Fauntleroy. The song was produced by Timbaland, Timberlake and Harmon. Timberlake arranged and produced his vocals, which were recorded at Larabee Studios in North Hollywood, California. Harmon provided keyboards for the song, while Elliot Ives and Timberlake played the guitar. The track was engineered by Chris Godbey, and mixed by Jimmy Douglass, Godbey and Timberlake, with assistance from Alejandro Baima, at Larabee Studios.

Composition and lyrical interpretation
    “Not a Bad Thing” is a mid-tempo pop ballad, with a running duration of eleven minutes and 28 seconds; the album version has an included hidden track entitled “Pair of Wings”. “Not a Bad Thing” makes use of an acoustic guitar throughout, with critics noting its resemblance to songs by former boy band ’N Sync, and the song’s focus on the theme of love. PopMatters’ Brice Ezell saw “Not a Bad Thing” to share the same characteristics as ’N Sync’s 1999 “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You”, using the same “emotional earnestness” which made the latter song the “heart-melter” it was during its release. Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times described the song as a “dewy, blue-eyed soul number” that was realized when Timberlake was discovering the “emotional possibilities of his singing” during his time with the boy band. Popdust’s Jacques Peterson noted the track’s “’90s vibe” and ’N Sync influence, while Amy Sciarretto of PopCrush saw that Timberlake’s voice “blooms over a soft pop groove”. Sciarretto saw the song’s lyrics to be Timberlake “promising not to be ‘that guy’; he’s loyal, he’s in love and he’s going to stick around.” Holly Gleason of Paste interpreted the lyrics as endorsing love, with the song contrasting the previous tracks on The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2, celebrating the “happily ever after trope for all its worth”.

Critical response
    Jeremy Thomas of 411mania.com selected “Not a Bad Thing” as one of the stand-out tracks from The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2, using it as an example of a song from the album that “has a gentle side that can be appreciated”, noting it as a “lovely close” to the album. Similarly selecting the track as a stand-out, Chris Bosman of Consequence of Sound saw the song serving as the “pitch perfect” nostalgic track, pointing out its ’N Sync influence. As well as depicting the latter influence, Melinda Newman of HitFix awarded the track an A grade, labeling it as a “lovely, lilting straight-up pop tune.” David Meller of musicOMH described the track as “arduous” due to its length and it having “any sort of edginess or intrigue”. Along with several other songs within The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2, Dave Hanratty of Drowned in Sound dismissed “Not a Bad Thing”, writing that it contains “sun-kissed and forced smiles”.

Music video
    A preview of the song’s music video made its debut on The Ellen Degeneres Show on March 20, 2014, before the full video premiered online later that day. Justin Timberlake does not make an appearance in the video; the video involves two documentary filmmakers searching for a couple that got engaged on January 12, 2014, while heading to New York City on the Long Island Rail Road train, with the man proposing to his girlfriend to “Not a Bad Thing”. Throughout the music video, couples are interviewed, sharing their reflections on love, marriage and their relationships, as well as what they think of the unknown couple. In conjunction, the documentarians are shown in the streets of New York City with flyers with the hashtag “#haveyouseenthiscouple,” as well as them stopping by a radio interview and texting each other from borough to borough, with the messages showing up on the screen. The search produces several false leads, as they ask strangers and friends for help, with the video ending with a “To Be Continued” title. Following the video’s premiere, Ellen Degeneres explained that “Obviously, if you know this couple, contact us, because Justin is trying to find you and we’ll put you all together.”

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