The Song America Needed

By | May 9, 2016

This post originally appeared on Medium

Ask just about anyone over the age of 18 how their life is and chances are you will hear some level of discontent. Money, work, politics, whatever it is, it seems that a majority of Americans are in some kind of a funk these days. And not to play amateur psychiatrist, but we’ve got to snap out of it before it gets worse.

Enter Justin Timberlake.

On Friday, May 6th, he released a new song, his first since 2013. The song, “Can’t Stop The Feeling”, which he wrote and produced along with the prolific Max Martin and Shellback, is the pick me up we need right about now. A pure pop future classic-simple, fun, and without the drama so many are living through.

“I got that sunshine in my pocket/got that good soul in my feet/I feel that hot blood in my body/when it drops, ooh!”

And if that isn’t enough, the song was delivered with an uplifting, joyful video featuring the cast of the upcoming movie Trolls, in which Timberlake stars and supervises the music. Gwen Stefani, Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Iconia Pop, Ron Funches and Kunal Nayyar are seen dancing, singing into hairbrushes, and generally being carefree, something we don’t see a lot of these days. We even get to see JT’s mother and stepfather having a great time that ends with a kiss.

RCA Records/Vevo/YouTube

“Can’t Stop The Feeling” isn’t just a catchy tune that will dominate Top 40 radio all summer long, it isn’t just another in a long string of hits from JT and the producers that spit out many of the hit songs we hear, and it isn’t going to save the music business like the Adele album did. It’s deliciously pleasurable in both lyrics and melody, you can dance to it whether you’re 18 or 81, and it could not have “dropped” (as they say in the music business) at a better time.

The politicians say America needs a lot of things. The pundits say America needs a lot of things. The disenfranchised say America needs a lot of things. But on Friday, America got something it really needs, a chance to escape for 3 minutes and 56 seconds.

 

RCA Records/Spotify