Justin Timberlake and Friends

The first three concerts Justin Timberlake attended as a kid:

1) The Beach Boys, who played "Pet Sounds,"

2) Crosby, Stills and Nash,

3) Janet Jackson, during the "Rhythm Nation" tour.

As one might surmise, the dude isn't too big on genre distinctions.

"Everything's become pop music, and what trips me out is that there's people out there who are still afraid to be in that category," Timberlake says a little bemusedly. "If you're really going to be honest about it, race plays such a huge part of the whole thing of getting genre-fied. Sometimes it's unfair to the artist, but I think if you can grin and bear it, it doesn't matter. I think I learned about that the hard way. With my first album, I got super emotional because I set out to really make an R&B record. It came out, and it was like, 'Listen to this pop album.' And I was like, 'Huh?' "

Few artists ever like to be categorized.

Most emo bands hate being called an emo band; there's a perpetual war of words among fans, artists and critics about what qualifies as rap and what constitutes hip-hop.

It's all semantics, really, something that a guy like Timberlake knows all too well.

He came to fame as the baby-faced boy band heartthrob your kid sister crushed on, a designation that he's mostly been able to move beyond. But there's always been a little inertia when it comes to giving the guy credit for at least attempting to push beyond any kind of signature sound.

"What I came onto the scene with was sort of a genre to people, and it was kind of a phenomenon if you think about it," he says. "But if you really took the time to think about how I grew up versus that, I mean, I grew up in Memphis and my folks used to take me down to Beale Street in the middle of the day to watch live bands play. In my experience growing up, I sang all different types of music, from popular music to country music. Just being in Tennessee, you'll get kicked out of the state if you don't sing at least one country song."

Timberlake's tastes are reflective of the more heterogeneous character of '80s radio, on which he was weened.

Back then, it was not uncommon to hear a Tina Turner torch song next to a libidinous Prince come-on next to a fist-pounding Bruce Springsteen anthem. Today, the airwaves are a bit more compartmentalized, and mainstream music reflects as much -- "pop music" is much more of a codified sound, a loaded term, than it was back in the day when "pop" was simply shorthand for "popular."

Still, Timberlake likes to think of himself as being above this particular fray, and he can make a solid enough argument to support his case.

To wit, the second installment of his Justin Timberlake and Friends benefit concert for Shriners Hospitals, which returns to Las Vegas this weekend, is an eclectic affair, pairing drawling rapper Snoop Dogg with the likes of young country starlet Taylor Swift, R&B vocal group TLC, playing a rare show after the passing of singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in 2002, powerhouse pianist Alicia Keys and others.

Last year's show, which took place at Planet Hollywood Resort, was a similarly diffuse affair, with some of Timberlake's boyhood favorites -- Lionel Richie, Boyz II Men -- performing alongside the likes of Rihanna and Leona Lewis.

It was the rare show where the Jonas Brothers and 50 Cent shared the same stage.

It was also a marathon of a concert, with Timberlake turning in a full set at show's end.

"We're not gonna go for 31/2 hours, I can tell you that," Timberlake sighs of last year's long-winded gig. "That was more impromptu. I kind of just told my band, 'Let's keep going.' I hadn't played a show in a while, so it was fun to do. I will scale back this year. I'll be there. I'll be cracking jokes in between acts. I'll just be honest up front and say that I'm not going to play for an hour like I did last year."

And it's just as well, because these days, Timberlake isn't focused on his own music as much as he is writing and producing for others.

The week that we spoke with him, he was heading into the studio to finish a remix for the Kings of Leon as well as to mix some tracks for the aforementioned Lewis and Rihanna.

"I'm a kid in a candy store right now," he gushes. "When you do your own music, you have to sit around and talk about it all day, just to get it out. It's like asking a director about a film or an actor about a performance, it's like, 'I don't know what to tell you, man, just listen to it or just watch it and you can deduce your opinion about it.' The beauty of being able to work with different artists is being able to let your creative juices run wild, but also, you don't have to sit around and answer questions about it."

Who knows, then, when Timberlake will get around to making another album of his own -- or what kind of album it will be when he does decide to hit the studio.

"I think it's important to go into the studio as an artist and go, 'You know what? I can pick any color out of this crayon box and make it my own,' " he says. "That's what makes an artist. You ask me right now, and I feel like I can make a country record if I wanted to. That's an important feeling for an artist."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476 .