Last Wednesday, with absolutely nothing better to do, I decided to watch the pre-show for the ESPY awards to see which athletes and famous people would show up. While some of the sports world’s finest, such as Aaron Rodgers, Dirk Nowitzki, Ray Allen, and Jimmie Johnson showed up, the only person any of the broadcasters could talk about was not an athlete at all. Sure, he had won MVP honors at the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game, but that was not on merit, but because the only people voting were 13-year-old girls. Of course, I am talking about the biggest recording artist on the planet right now, seventeen year old walking hair product advertisement, Justin Bieber. I found it absolutely stunning to see the likes of Hannah Storm, Erin Andrews, and Colin Cowherd bow at the altar of Bieber and throw all notions of objectivity to the wayside. The way these professional broadcasters talked about him, one would have thought that Barack Obama was attending the event, but this unapologetic idol worship of this diminutive pop star got me to thinking about Justin Bieber, and I found myself asking this question: how could someone who so obviously lacked elite musical talent become the most popular recording artist on the planet? This is a question that requires so much analysis and research that it could fill an entire book. What is the impact this notion has on our society? What is the significance of the fact that grown adults are obsessing over a child? Is Justin Bieber the right person to serve as a role model for children? All of these questions and countless others merit discussion, but none of them are really concerned with what made Justin Bieber so popular in the first place: his music.
I decided to attempt to objectively listen to some of Bieber’s most popular songs, both recorded and live, to understand why so many teenage girls fanatically follow his every move. Of course, I understand that I might not be the best person to judge Bieber’s merits as an artist. I am a 22-year old male with a preference for classic rock and rap, so my taste in music does not reflect that of Bieber’s target audience, but I feel that my knowledge of musical forms that I have accumulated over the years can contribute to building an informed opinion of his work. Also, it was just over ten years ago when I was the age that Justin Bieber’s fans are now, that I was listening to the likes of N’SYNC and the Backstreet Boys, arguably Bieber’s late-90’s equivalents from a popularity perspective. However, after listening to some of Bieber’s biggest hits, I found that my initial judgment was in fact correct: he truly lacks extraordinary musical talent, or even average talent for that matter.
In all of his songs, he uses auto-tune, the increasingly abundant crutch that many artists today lean on to correct their pitch to the right key. However, what Bieber and other artists fail to realize is that while auto-tune might technically correct pitch, it removes the aspect of music that allows it to profoundly affect its listener: emotion. Auto-tune makes the artist sound more robotic, as though he or she is merely singing in the style of a young pop ingénue instead of inflecting the song with true emotion that allows the listener to associate a feeling with the music.
For example, the hit single “Never Say Never” is supposed to be a rousing motivational anthem encouraging the listener to follow their dreams and not give up. However, the way Bieber sings, the message comes across as hollow because the auto-tune removes any semblance of conviction from Bieber’s voice, and the message of perseverance ultimately rings hollow.
But a recording of a song can only measure the caliber of the artist to a certain extent. What separates the ordinary artists from the extraordinary ones is their ability to perform live, and Justin Bieber’s skills in this department are not even average, they are undoubtedly abhorrent. Even with auto-tuned microphones, as I watched several YouTube videos of him performing live, it became clear that Mr. Bieber even lacks the primitive ability to carry a tune for three minutes. Yes, he occasionally hits a note on pitch, but the vast majority of the time, his pitch is excruciatingly flat, though judging by the cavalcade of cheering tweens in the audience, I seem to be the only one who notices something wrong.
Since Justin Bieber became a star back in late 2009, I have heard plenty backlash among my peers who share the same opinion of his talents as I do, but the media has failed to produce even one solitary voice of dissension against Mr. Bieber. The broadcasters at the ESPYs should have made him a footnote and kept the focus on the athletes, but much like the minds behind the NBA Celebrity All-Star game, the only things that the brass at ESPN saw when Bieber decided to attend the awards ceremony were dollar signs. His appearance on any talk show or at any arena brings extra money and, more importantly, ratings to anyone who can procure the pleasure of his company. He can walk on stage without saying a word, and people of all ages will turn into teenage girls.
But the idea that the media views him as a cash cow obscures the true reason that it avoids criticism of him, one that I can understand, even if I do not agree with it. The real reason that the media does not criticize Justin Bieber’s talent is because he is a seventeen year old kid. His youth makes him critic-proof because nobody wants to be the person who calls out a child for their lack of talent. Adults would find it unfair to be so hard on him, and kids would just think it was wrong to criticize their idol. For the media to cop out like this exposes a double standard. An artist who is of age, like Britney Spears or Fergie, can be criticized for making bad music or having a bad live performance, but Justin Bieber cannot be accused of the same mistakes because of his age. In all fields, as people climb the ladder to the top of their professions, prepare themselves for a greater level of responsibility and the criticism and increased focus on their every move. Since Mr. Bieber is at the top of the music world right now, why should he be treated differently than a CEO of a Fortune 500 company? We should be more critical of him because his level of exposure is so high, and yet the media has retreated from its responsibility as the dispensary of truth. Hopefully, when he actually becomes an adult in five years and loses the safety net of childhood, critics will reveal their true feelings about Justin Bieber and recognize him as just another wannabe musician without the talent to stay at the top.
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