A quick wiki seems to show that that’s being generous. On his album (debut? most popular?) My World, he’s credited as a writer on 4 of 9 tracks, all four of which were collaborations with many other writers. That’s not a songwriter, that’s overly produced pop pablum. Ten to one his contributions were restricted to adding a few lyrics. It’s worth pointing out that wiki says he got four hits out of this album: One Time, One Less Lonely Girl, Love Me, and Favorite Girl. He does not have a writing credit on any of those songs. Thus he has earned no credit for any of his hits. No doubt he writes the crappy filler on his albums that nobody buys on iTunes.
By contrast, a same cursory wiki of Katy Perry’s debut album One of the Boys, Katy Perry is credited as a writer on every single track, including several where she was the sole writer credited. She writes both lyrics and music, and in her Howard Stern interview she described the process of writing I Kissed a Girl. (The hook came to her one morning, and she let it simmer for a year or two until she finally sat down and hammered out the beat and fleshed out the lyrics. IIRC, she wrote everything but the bridge.)
Perry is a singer-songwriter; Bieber is a pop star.
As an afterthought I did the same search for Ashlee Simpson. Credit where it’s due, she appears to be a legitimate songwriter. (Though she collaborated with an American Idol judge, which is a mark against being considered an artist, IMO.) Singer, not so much.
Bieber’s writing credits pale compared to either of them, and based on the linked youtube videos, his singing voice is as crappy as Simpson’s.
On his current, second and most successful album he has a writing credit on every song, and thus can claim to have had a hand in the hits from this record. As for how much he contributed - unless we’re in the room with the writers we have no way of knowing how much he wrote.
On Katy Perry’s second, current album she also has a writing credit on every song. I suppose what I mean by pointing this out is that it’s the norm for pop singers these days to have a hand in the writing of their own songs, and your original post seemed to imply Bieber had no hand in the writing of his songs, a “muppet” if you will. I don’t doubt he’s a muppet in some senses but he made his start as a kid writing songs and singing on YouTube - not plucked out of a casting call solely because of his looks and moulded into a star like some people (not necessarily you) believe he was.
They’re both undoubtedly pop stars - and, technically, both singer-songwriters. But I do agree that Katy is more of an “all-rounder”, with more control over her career. Who knows, maybe when Justin gets older and out of his teen idol phase, he might develop his songwriting skills and exercise as much control over his music as Katy does now.
Fair enough, but your one-liner that he writes his songs too seemed to imply that he has as much creative control as Perry, which is clearly not the case. He may yet grow into a full grown adult with creative control over his own music, but he’s almost certainly not there yet.
Plenty of people hate Katy Perry because they just plain don’t like her. No harm no foul, her presence on the pop culture scene is all her own doing. But people hate Justin Bieber because to this point he really has been a puppet on a string force-fed to and propped up by the undiscriminating market of prepubescent girls. What they really hate is the hype machinery that forces him into the pop culture scene. This is even more emasculating than his effeminate waif-boy persona. And there isn’t much as unpalatable as an emasculated man.
I call bullshit on the arguments (not made by you) that Bieber hate is so unfair because it’s just because girls like it. Not that that’s not true, but rather that there’s anything wrong with that. Young girls like safe, sacharrine bullshit, which is why everyone else reviles it. That shit is cloying and, worse, uninteresting. Boy stuff isn’t better because it’s liked by boys, it’s better because boys like more interesting stuff. It’s not sexism that resulted in a successful Transformers movie franchise while Strawberry Shortcake gets nothing. It’s that GI Joe is at least interesting, while Care Bears are not.
All I have to say is my longest-lasting memory about this kid was when he was on the cover of People, and there may have been a fold-out photo of him? I was on the bus, and a 50-something-old woman was looking at the People mag, then she turned it sideways and folded out the photo, all the while with a little upturn to her lips, and … it was so very, very creepy. No better than if it had been a 50-something-old man doing the same with a Hannah Montana foldout. It disturbs me to this day.
I’m starting to think that hair is a wig. Who doesn’t switch things up regularly, especially a teen? I never had the same hair twice, hell, I still hardly have the same 'do for more than a couple of months! He’s really gonna regret that hair when he’s a grown-up.
Could you imagine the controversy if it was a wig?! It’d be bigger than Milli Vanilli’s lip-sync, Dixie Chicks anti-Bush comments and Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction combined!
I have no idea, and it makes me sad. I don’t even know his music, all I know is that he’s a cute little sixteen-year-old boy and could pass for 13. I just want to squeeze him when I see a pic of him.
I’m not proud of it. I’ve repented of it. I’m facing it head on. I’m getting help from a professional. I have the support of friends and family and i know I’m going to beat it. But until I do, Justin Beeeeeber will squink me out.
Justin Bieber’s music is intended for kids. Although it is teeny bopper fluff, the kids seem to like it. It makes them happy. They sing and dance and smile when they listen to it. It is entertainment…for them, not for you. I wouldn’t expect my daughter to ask if she could spend her allowance on downloading a few songs from Patti Smith’s Horses. That would not make her happy, sing, dance, or smile. Maybe someday it will, but not now. Let them have their fun, it will be over soon (being a kid, liking stupid things, Bieber’s career).
I don’t really have an opinion about him, but if I were to hate him, it would be because of jealousy that he’s still a child and already a millionaire.
[ol]
[li]Bieber was told, online, quite famously, to go to North Korea.[/li][li]Shortly thereafter, we heard about the new, quite young son of Dear Leader Kim, Kim Jong-un.[/li][li]Nobody had ever seen or heard of Kim Jong-un, proto-dictaor, and nobody had ever seen a single reliable photo of him. Ever.[/li][li]3 weeks ago, it was mentioned that Kim Jong-un has had plastic surgery.[/li][li]Now he has been named heir.[/li][li]Deduction: There is no Kim Jong-un, and there never has been![/li][li]CONCLUSION: Justin Bieber is the future dictator of North Korean![/li][/ol]
Hey, hair is important to some celebs. Remember Jennifer Aniston’s early days? Or the surprisingly huge kerfuffle over that girl who starred in “Felicity”? If I had millions of dollars riding on some kid’s hair, I’d have Vidal Sassoon himself standing by with a brush and a hair dryer 24/7, because man, some audiences really care WAY too much!
I think he looks like a youngish sixteen; I used to teach secondary school, and while some 16-year-old boys would be hulking great grown men, quite a few still looked like young boys. The pictures I’ve seen of him show him in really ordinary t-shirts, shirts and hoodies, absolutely standard clothing for a 16-year-old boy, plus an odd jumper thing which is more the style of an adult than a teenager.
In the home videos from when he was 12 he looks a fair bit younger than 12, too - was he faking youth even way back then?
Britney Spears didn’t fetishise her youth? She dressed as a schoolgirl!
