Sometimes when we don’t like certain artists we mock them for whatever reason appeals to us the most. Justin Bieber went through that exact same thing at the beginning of his career, and, let's face it, he still is. But for reasons that I still can’t come up with, I can’t help to say that I love Justin Bieber.
His story is one of fairy-tale galore. It’s one of those stories that artist managers dream of. This guy (Scooter Braun) receives an e-mail with a link to a YouTube video with a 12 year-old kid singing his heart out. And suddenly the stars aligned. He convinces them to get them to fly to Atlanta, and then the adventure began. Justin sang for Usher, who basically fell in love with the kid, as many other would as well, myself recently included.
Sometimes we mock these people because they have everything that the rest of the world would kill for. But we forget that they do have a journey as well. This kid, was literally, and in every sense of the word, born with talent. (If you still find yourself incredulous, I HIGHLY recommend watching his movie “Never Say Never”).
What interesting connection I found between the film and this month’s class (Product and Artist Management) is that and online presence is what makes and/or breaks you. In this case, it made Justin Bieber. He wasn’t even playing on the radio; instead he played one song on different radio stations across the country. But while he did that, he created himself an online personality through twitter. And on top of that he was already a very famous YouTube artist. So, its safe to say that by the 10th acoustic presentation on a radio station, he already had a following. When he started using twitter, everything just exploded. He exploded. He became a pop star.
But what we seem to forget that just because this kid suddenly came into an immensely fortunate situation, we can underestimate his hard work, and the fact that he’s so gracious with his fans. On to of that, when you have stars on the scale of Usher, Snoop Dogg, Drake, Sean Kingston, Jaden Smith, Will & Jada Smith – the list goes on, behind you, supporting you; that has got to mean something. When you have fans around the world, crying at the very sight of you, defending you from the worst critics in this business, because there are a LOT of those, THAT has got to mean something.
This kid is what I like to think of as special.
When you see this movie, you see a kid who luckily found his calling early in his life. That it is what it is, is just a pure coincidence. You see a kid, who respects his parents, his grandparents, respects the people who know more than he does (specially Mama Jan).
You see a kid who is gracious about the opportunities that he has been given. You see a kid, who loves his fans, and actually feels indebted to them. You see a kid, who has been given the world, and actually shows humility, or whatever works for a 17 year old, haha! At that age is pretty clear that we all thought that we were invincible.
So this is my praise to him. I only saw the movie for the first time last night, or this morning's more likely (I went to bed at 6:55 AM), and I can safely say this: I am a Belieber.
