cry me a river

Cry me a river is the second single from Justin Timberlake first solo album Justified, released in 2002. The album came after the break up of popular boy band N*sync in the spring of 2002, of which Timberlake was once a part of.

The video is very performance based, with Timberlake singing almost all the lyrics into the camera. This video shows some what of a darker side to the performer and has been widely viewed as a re-telling of his split from Britney Spears, another massively successful super star on the pop circuit. The video depicts him exacting revenge on a girl, who looks incredibly similar to Spears, by breaking into the woman’s home filming him self with another woman and watching as she returns to her home to find the video playing on her television, a reference to the notion of looking. There is also a narrative in which the story unravels as the lyrics start to link with Timberlake’s performance of a heartbroken man out for revenge.

The video also features producer and hip hop star Timberland, marking the first in many collaborations in which the two would later share. In the video, Timberland plays somewhat of an evil sidekick, lurking in a car and playing watchman, as Timberlake plays out his plan.

The scenes are cut very much to the beat of the music and the close ups of the star seem very eerie, a perfect match for the theme of video and song.

Surprisingly, the video features very little dancing from Timberlake, a natural motif of the singers image. Instead, the brief amount of dancing that is done is made to look sleeker by visual affects of him defying gravity as he moves around the house.

An example of the lyrics being amplified by visuals would be when Timberland sings “The damage is done so I guess I be leaving” and Timberlake hides in the house as the mystery woman comes home without realising he is there. At this point it seems he has broken the plan to leave but cannot resist getting close to the woman one last time, showing a definite flaw in his character. We see a broken man lurking behind the woman he loves but wants desperately to feel pain.

A scene of sexualised display comes near the end, when the woman gets in the shower, in time with the chorus, unaware that he is behind the shower screen.

The album Justified was a definite transition period between boy band member and successful international solo artist. This video shows more of the artist he was to become in the future and is more evident in his later work. It also marks the transition from pop genre to more urban and R ‘n’ B.