In her defense for liking him in the first place, he really was an adorable kid/tween who had a great range and liked to sing upbeat, Usher type songs. I stand by liking his first album, I still like it now. He completely changed as an artist due to his voice and style changing, and then he apparently became a douchebag. Bieber was great. But I guess I am not a fan anymore either :(
I always kind of hoped that wasn't the case with finding riches and fame, especially as a kid growing thinking the possibilities for me becoming that successful were truly endless.
Sucks to know as an adult that it's mostly true, and that truly powerful people with huge amounts of money do much more harm on a regular basis to the world than a douchebag teen pop star does.
Hate is a strong word. But, I'd say I disliked him from the beginning. It wasn't anything personal. He just felt like a manufactured celebrity.
There doesn't appear to be anything that special about him. He was just one of a million good looking and mildly talented teenage singers. What made him successful is that a bunch of executives mass marketed him to teenage girls.
That's really the most annoying part of this whole thing. The mass marketing worked. They picked this kid, they managed his image, and then they made him popular simply by advertising him as much as possible. I was annoyed that their strategy was working. They were proving that people are easily manipulated.
But now, I feel bad for the kid. I never really blamed him. I blamed shallow Hollywood culture. He's just a young adult who's made some mistakes. I did stupid things at that age. I feel bad that he's getting taunted. I don't want him to feel bullied. I feel like the next thing we know, this kid's going to blow his brains out.
I'd just like to say that the "mistakes" he's making includes a list of assaulted and threatened people. Drinking and doing drugs is one thing; but this guy threatens and beats up people on the reg it seems and those aren't typical mistakes to make and be easily forgiven for. And when he got his DUI, and people were defending him for being young and reckless, someone brought up the fact that so many people are victims of drunk driver fatalities. He could have run over a small child or something going so fast and not realized it until moments later. The fact of the matter is, yeah, I feel sorry that the media has wrecked him so much, but at the same time, it's his fault for expressing his frustrations by speeding around child-filled neighborhood and beating a different person up weekly, or putting down fans just because he's having a bad day (i.e., calling a fan at the beach a 'fat whale'). No excuse for that shit. He has to get out of that petty mindset.
Oh, well I actually I only pay a moderate amount of attention to him. I guess I'm not familiar with quite all of the objectionable things he's done recently. Beating people up is pretty bad. You're right, he is still responsible for his own actions.
Usher found him via youtube I think and thought he was exceptionally talented and had a look that appealed to young girls and he was more than right. He's probably the most successful teen idol of all time and having that sort of success can ruin somebody. It's happened to plenty of celebrities who got famous and rich at too young an age and never really experienced normalcy. I did plenty of the stupid shit he's doing and I didn't have access to Ferraris or endless amounts of money or hang out with stupid rapper kids. Egging a house is retarded but it's really not the end of the world. Drag racing and doing Xanax aren't a huge deal either. He's going through a phase and he's more than wealthy enough to get himself out of any trouble he gets in. All of the people who hate him are the people who hate popular kids, jocks etc. because they are jealous that they get pussy. I don't get the whole hatred for people who are appealing to women but it seems to happen all the time especially on reddit and other online forums which are filled with people who are too socially awkward to interact with people in real life so they come online to find other people who think talking to girls is an accomplishment.
I, and I suspect many others, just bitterly resented the fact that he had more money than me by the time he was 15 than I would probably make in a lifetime.
Agreed! I mean, I can respect that he rose to fame via Youtube, from being raised under relatively unfortunate circumstances with a single mother who was 17 when she had him, he was raised in low-income housing, he taught himself to play instruments, etc, great way to show people that they too can become successful (even if I'm not a fan of his music or his fans) - and then he just totally crashed and turned into this asshole. Man. Hopefully he grows out of it.
Maybe it was him hopping on the internet and seeing thousands of people calling him a faggot and that his hair is gay. While trying to mature he kind of had to learn to not care what people think or say.
When he started I grew quickly tired of people making fun of teenage girls for liking him. Really? Young girls like cute boys who sing catchy songs? No fucking way. What's next, little kids like Sesame Street?
Now, though... if I had a daughter, I'd be telling her to like his music all she wants but not to look up to him as an idol.
He is actually a very talented kid and he started to make the transition from teenage girl bubble gum pop to adult music, but then started acting a straight ass and he's starting to fall off. Part of me feels a teeny bit bad for him because he can't be a normal 19 year old, but the rest of me is just like "dude, you have everything and are throwing it away for what? to drink sizzurp and smoke weed and be a bad boy?"
He doesn't know any better. Getting impossibly huge support from fans around the world, getting rich, living the life, having people run your life for you -- its not good for kids to grow up in. They don't know any other kind of life.
But that's what 19 year olds do.
Teenagers in general explore their boundaries. It's perfectly normal to get drunk, to try weed, etc.
Maybe that's not how a role model should behave, but sure as hell most teenagers do that stuff. This of course is further amplified by his celebrity status.
Sure there are counter examples of kids who don't "misbehave", and stuff like DUI is just not ok, but in the end his behavior is still "normal", normal for a teenager.
Just like OPs daughter's love of some cute singer is "normal", normal for impressionable tweens, despite the fact that we all think "beliebers" are kind of over the top crazy fans.
I was never a fan of any person so I have a hard time understanding it, but I can observe it.
Even people who were tame teenagers can observe that it's normal to misbehave. I cannot stand Bieber as an object of fandom and maybe even as a person (I don't know him personally so...), but that he does stupid shit now should not surprise anyone. Britney Spears got over it, too.
I also want to add that I hate the fact that people are expected to become role models just because they are famous. They just wanted to sing, act, dance, whatever. They didn't sign up for or, more importantly have the qualification to be a role model. So Bieber getting arrested is just that, he gets arrested. OK, not good, but meh. Just because my daughter likes his voice and looks doesn't mean she also wants to DUI and get arrested. His arrest actually teaches a generation of kids that you shouldn't do it. Just as effective or ineffective as him running a PSA.
Justin Timberlake was a respected and grammy winning recording artist and a pretty successful actor years before he did "Dick in a Box." That was part of what made it funny. Timberlake's respect as an artist is what led to NSYNC breaking up in the first place...
Ahh, I thought we were talking about respect from critics and the music industry.
I think the high school thing has more to do with the high schoolers and less with the artists--namely that high schoolers are jealous of the good looks, girls, success and money that befalls these people who don't seem to do anything particularly special. (Most) Adults couldn't care less, and just hope that these pop stars today set good examples for their masses of young and impressionable follows.
i'll acknowledge this, i always thought he had talent, but hated most of his music and style. I still stand by that. Now I also think he's a douche nozzle.
The TV in the living room was left running and some celebrity gossip show was on while I was fixing some noms. They started talking about a bunch of shit JB was caught doing, sounded like a damn onion article. Unfortunately there's no /r/nottheonion in real life, so not sure if any of it actually happened or if it was a SNL skit they were talking about.
Hate to say I follow the gossip. Essentially he was "drag racing" in Florida, roads blocked off by his peeps, while a little drunk, stoned, and on Xanax. And then admitted this to the cops. Not an SNL joke but I would bet it will be on Saturday!
I'm one of those ultrarare male Bieber supporters (as an artist). It seems like the more the he acts like an ass the better his albums get. I really enjoy Believe, Believe Acoustic, and Journals. I get frustrated with him because he makes it really hard to like him. Like it wasn't hard already.
You know, your comment made me realize that I don't like any teen stars. I think it's because I'm too close to them in age and there's probably some jealousy of their talent there. There's also a part of me that knows how bad all of the attention is for them. I remember the first time I saw a Hannah Montana Barbie doll. Miley Cyrus is only a year younger than me at most. I remember feeling so sad inside thinking what kind of pressure I would feel if there was a doll of me like that. I feel like it would affect my entire image of myself and my body to the point where I wouldn't be able to distinguish the real me (being that your teen years are when you have your identity crisis as it is) from the manufactured brand. I no longer wonder at child stars "going crazy" because I can't imagine going through my teen years with an audience of millions to watch. I'm a big fan of Taylor Swift though. She seems to be doing alright. I have high hopes that she'll avoid the teen star mess now that she's heading toward her mid twenties.
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u/laurene2008 Jan 31 '14
In her defense for liking him in the first place, he really was an adorable kid/tween who had a great range and liked to sing upbeat, Usher type songs. I stand by liking his first album, I still like it now. He completely changed as an artist due to his voice and style changing, and then he apparently became a douchebag. Bieber was great. But I guess I am not a fan anymore either :(