Pop Idols - A Disgrace To Musicians Everywhere?

I don't really care about Justin Bieber. He just got really lucky. To me, hating him is like hating someone who won the lottery. He's not really a disgrace, because it's not like he's stealing listeners from the bands I like or think are better. People don't say, "Oh, I listen to Justin Bieber, I can't listen to X genre anymore".

What is this nonsense I keep hearing about "the Jonas Brothers are nobodies now"? Their '09 album has sold around a million copies and they've done plenty of film/television work in '10.

Do me a favor: just look at this picture for 60 seconds. Then tell me you don't think his very existence is wrong.

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

I don't think his very existence is wrong.

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

I think the very existences of his yellow hoodie and stupid bowlcut and doofy smirk are wrong, but the kid himself? Meh.

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

He looks like a lot of middle/early high schoolers, really.

However, I hate  ^*

all teenagers, so I don't really bother making much of a disctinction between them.

edited 17th Jan '11 12:04:57 PM by Wheezy

Project progress: The Adroan (102k words), The Pigeon Witch, (40k). Done but in need of reworking: Yume Hime, (50k)

Hey!

I'm a teenager.

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

I very happily and shamelessly listen to Kelly Clarkson, despite describing my musical preference as "rock" whenever asked. Does that make me a bad person?

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.

Kelly Clarkson is a (pop) rock singer, so no.

I don't see why it would, anyway. I describe my music preferences as "rock" normally for simplicity's sake, but even many of my favourite bands and artists are not rock.

edited 17th Jan '11 3:32:52 PM by BobbyG

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

I would be inclined to use "pop" (even though I do listen to quite a bit of classical music) but that seems to be a dirty word nowadays, so "rock" substitutes.

The best thing to come from Justin Bieber is seeing guys who dress themselves up as him in an attempt to pick up girls. Fuck, is that ever classy.

^ Good God, just imagine that it works...

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

"Unsavoury" doesn't even begin to describe it; the kids are pawns in a giant money-making scheme run largely by the Yakuza. Visual kei/Idol Singer culture in Japan is nothing if not exploitative and abusive.

Also, what's with the popularity of $5 Wal-Mart bowlcuts among teens these days? It looks retarded. Justin Bieber looks like his mother cut his hair with one hand using a pair of gardening shears after three shots of tequila.

edited 18th Jan '11 10:50:58 AM by WoolieWool

Out of Context Theater: Mike K "'Bloody Pussies' cracked me up"

I think Justin Bieber should become a cross dresser. It'd at least be something he's suited for.

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.

From what I hear, it's nowhere near as bad today as it was back then.

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

You never see very much hate for Motown, even though it basically was a hit factory that churned out songs for idol singers to perform. It all seems to be levelled at contemporary artists. I suppose that's how it's always been, though.

In the west, at least, the practice of actually manufacturing groups seems fairly recent.

Maybe it's because the idea of Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross being Idol Singers is too much for people to process?

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

Because the present acts are the ones that are advertised for at the moment.

There was a lot of dislike for Motown back in the day, but you just don't see it anymore, all of the subpar acts faded from memory, and the good ones became legends.

So it goes.

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

It doesn't seem that hard to imagine in regard to Diana Ross, at least. As I understand it, she was promoted to being the face and lead singer of the Supremes because Berry Gordy decided she would be easy to market as a solo singer with backing vocalists, even though a lot of people have suggested that Florence Ballard had the better voice (I can't comment, though, because I don't listen to much stuff by the Supremes).

^ True, although I have seen people express disdain for contemporary pop idols because they are manufactured while comparing them unfavourably to Motown. Perhaps those people are simply failing to do the research.

edited 19th Jan '11 6:10:09 PM by TheGloomer

Will Justin Beiber hold the same position in the popular culture of 50 years from now that Marvin Gaye holds in the popular culture of now?

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

Boney M. But do they really count? They were the previous project of producer Frank Farian, who went on to commandeer Milli Vanilli.

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

I thought that Boney M actually sang on their records.

It's really difficult to say, at least in part because I don't know what "serious music fans" thought of Marvin Gaye before he began to record music like What's Going On? Marvin Gaye was a session musician and songwriter before he became a star in his own right, and he was obviously a few years older than Justin Bieber is now when he did. He had room to expand while there's a good chance that Justin Bieber started too early, which is probably one of the reasons why he's acquired such a truly fanatical Hate Dom.

Still, Stevie Wonder started when he was about twelve and he's managed to do very well.

Motown, I suppose, was designed to have widespread, crossover appeal, which I think is really a consequence of the segregation that you still had in the American entertainment industry at that time. Justin Bieber's music aims at a particular demographic and doesn't really seem to be well-liked by people outside that demographic.

Yeah, that might not have been the best comparison I could've made; I should've picked Michael Jackson (in his Jackson 5 days) or, as you mentioned, Stevie Wonder.

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

In those cases, while Stevie Wonder's work before he found really came into his own was fairly generic Motown soul-pop, I think it's regarded pretty highly because he was a multi-instrumentalist at the age of twelve in spite of his blindness. To a certain extent the same goes for Michael Jackson; his talent as a youth is very much overshadowed by his later work and the knowledge that he was seemingly abused by his father might colour perceptions of his music.

I'm not sure about how sufficient those two are as examples either, really. Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder both went on to enormously successful and creative careers as adults and that's what they're remembered for.

What this means for future perceptions of Justin Bieber isn't clear. It really depends on whether or not he can shake off the teen popstar image a few years down the line and come into his own as a mature artist. Personally, I think he could be talented enough to pull it off, but there's a very good chance that, ability notwithstanding, the Hate Dom he's developed barely a year after appearing on the scene doesn't bode well. A lot comes down to the way the somewhat cut-throat way in which the modern music business functions; fifty years ago Stevie Wonder really struggled to break into the mainstream after his initial success as "Little Stevie Wonder, the Twelve Year-Old Genius" but Motown was willing to give him time to develop his sound. Today, you have to have success and maintain it, or your label drops you; if you falter because you want to develop your sound, that's tough - you aren't making money so the company doesn't want to know you.

Maybe that's just a very cynical misrepresentation. I really know very little about the music industry.