It's not hard to hate the kid whether you are a huge music lover, one who collects all music from The Beatles or who holds a record so dear they'll listen to it all the way through, or a person whose theory that there is no such thing as bad music brings in the exception to teen pop or pop iteself. Yet it's hard trying to ignore the kid whenever you hold up a conversation with the person bringing him as the subject or whenever the internet feeds you with praise or hate of him.
Where the egging occured was at Acer Arena in Sydney, 30km from where I live. I knew what was going to happen with Bieber when he appeared in Australia especially in Sydney. Remember last April where he appeared in a promotional gig for a morning breakfast show. He appeared where more than a thousand fans went in, scream when seeing his hair. Unfortunately the experience was ruined. The irony? They ruined it by causing a stampede that riot police will remember as "the most bizzare incident they'll ever cover".
The egging I think was pretty much irresponsible given that throwing small stuff at live acts would've ruined it for everyone. Besides I would feel sorry for the performer (Bieber) if someone threw stuff at him but I won't be sorry that the performer was responsible for ruining his own show for the fans.
The teenager who aspires to be a music critic (hint: an Almost Famous copycat) was given provisional bail by a local court. And believe me he and what I presume every music lover is starting not just a war towards Bieber but the whole of mainstream music.
Mainstream music had started to become dumber whenever you turn on a popular radio station that plays what they want you to hear. Acts like Britney Spears (who'll I'll say was responsible for the decline of Music Civilisation), Usher, Ke$ha and Katy Perry are just making us cringe listening to lyrics that insult our intelligence, music that feels like a total rip-off of certain music we love and how satuated the music industry too afraid of hearing the word 'download' and more eager to hear 'sex appeal' than 'big voices'. The only hope I think there is would be ADELE who has such a natural voice with her album 21
So the rebellion began when indie acts like Arcade Fire, The Black Keys and Esperanza Spalding win their first ever Grammys with the former winning Album Of The Year. That is good for them only because it was more on creative and artistic form than popular form. Despite winning, they get a lot of backlash by the mainstream since they've never heard of the orchestrated band before their big win. There starting a Tumblr instead of just searching up their music.
There's no such thing as a music rebellion, but I think its more to do with the anti against music that are runned by fat cats who believes in looks rather than talent. Last week I bought a copy of Is This It? by The Strokes and I wonder if they would've gone mainstream then music would've been saved. If it wasn't for 9/11 , our minds would've forget The Strokes as an excellent band that played on raw emotion and bringing back garage rock.
I wanted the days where music is for everyone, that is not idiotic and does not think who they're aiming at are dumb bitches too sloppy and easy to buy their crap. Music I consider raw and meaningful and what I favour will be in ghettos around alternative and cult radio stations and around alternative websites and the people listening to that kind of music are undeservedly targeted and are labelled 'hipster' which is just hateful and almost as close as calling someone a Nazi.
But then the result will be 'you're a hater' and we should learn that music is subjective as it should be. The truth is that so many radio listeners are on the highest level of lazy and are 'dinosaurs'. So there will be in several occasions that your favourite song whether independent or idiosyncratic could crack the Top 40.
Anyway, about Justin Bieber....
As a person, I should like him because there's a hint of talent in his body. Yes he can sing (but only mediocre) and he can play the drums. His Wikipedia page states that he can also play the trumpet. The problem I have with his music is that it's always the same song and contain repetitive and cliched lyrics (I wonder whether they're lyrics since they're more of a pick up lines.). None of the songs I've heard by him sometimes make me feel good about myself for a guy whose the same age as him (fact: he sings Baby 56x). More so playing the drums by himself occassionally and by himself, it's strange to see him do that when he's not in a band for which I would've grew more respect for him.
To put Bieber in the same sentence with another musical act that are great now and then is insulting in so many levels. Here's are example:
- Justin Bieber and Nine Inch Nails rules Golden Gloves
- Heard of Beatlemania: here's Biebermania
- Justin Bieber is this generation's Bob Dylan
Are you any angrier?
But Bieber is not about his music. he's more of a marketing robot. He would reminds me of Napoleon, the great French emperor. The dude's empire will grow like oil of a ground, revolutions for and against ignite like wildfires, but at some random point he'll fall. The difference between this comparison is the latter. Bieber won't be fallen unless something tears down his squeaky clean image. But he's expanding to his fans selling his new nail polish (go ahead: WTF), made a movie about himself, appearing at the Golden Globes and countless talk shows for nothing.
He cares all about his fans so much that he tries to stretch his niche audience into one big mass by being everywhere and shoving down our throats. That's the biggest flaw about him. It's more of his fanbase and yes fanbases that consists of tweens (Miley Cyrus, Glee, Twilight) are becoming so big and literally crazy. 13 year olds opening their Twitter and naming themselves after Bieber like he's some kind of god. These people are the same girls who threaten to hack our accounts, sent death messages to anyone affected by Bieber and those who cannot give me a huge justification into why they like him.
Another thing that bothers me about his fanbase is how much they worship him and this links to his political views. In a Rolling Stone article, he quotes "rape happens for a reason" and something about how abortion should be illegal. The first quote almost captures everything I would hate about Justin Bieber. He has the same views that are maligment as Sarah Palin and to say rape happens for a reason that would leave so many rapists in the Middle East and everywhere off the hook and are unlikely to get a life sentence. With his political views and so has his religion of 'no sex before marriage' on the hook, his fans would become more conservative as a redneck but it also means that Bieber would use his approaches as an ironic euphemism for sex. That's parallel to the South Park episode about the Jonas Brothers.
Ultimately though, Bieber is apparently a marketing virus who writes songs that are generic as pure milk. Like many teen idols including Aaron Carter, Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC (though Justin Timberlake actually has a proper career), Bieber will not remembered for shaping music or ruining it. He will be remembered for having his 15 minutes of fame quadrupled to an hour of fame. IN ten years time whenever we think about him, we'll just remember his hair.
No comments:
Post a Comment