My Justin Bieber Rant and Rave

[CensoredAlso]

If you don't like 'im, don't listen to 'im or watch 'im. No one's making you. Change the channel. Leave the room. You have a choice not to engage in certain media.

The problem we have collectively allowed our popular culture to go down the toilet in recent years and will have very little left that's worth preserving in the future, IMO. We get exactly what we ask for and no more.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't see any problems with people becomming famous overnight without having to suffer for years. Some are in the business for years before hitting it big, and some became famous shortly after starting (though I don't exactly know of any examples of people who literally got instant stardom... Maybe the Olsen twins...).

But I hate Justin Bieber. He's way too overrated. I'm glad he hasn't worked with the Muppets yet (though my opinions of the Muppets wouldn't lower if he did... it wouldn't be too different from all the celebrities in the Studio DC specials). I can't believe he put out an autobiography within a year of stardom (a biography so soon by somebody else is one thing, but I would have waited until maybe five years of fame before writing an autobiography). I don't like that he was parodied on Sesame Street (in my opinion the only reason to parody him is to brutally make fun of him). I hope that Weird Al Yankovic's inclusion of "Baby, Baby, Baby" in his "Polkaface" medley was because of the singers popularity and not because he particularly liked him (though I also felt surprised someas great as Yankovic liked Lady Gaga, who's only slightly better than Bieber). I was surprised when I heard he was discovered by either Usher or Usher's agent, thinking it's odd that a professional rapper would like him... But then again, Usher isn 't really that much more talented, is he?

I remember when I first heard of Justin Bieber, somebody at Hot Topic was talking about him, because they sold Justin Bieber merchandise. The people there hated him, and told me that he did videos on YouTube, so I decided to check out one on YouTube to judge fairly (and normally, I hate a lot of popular things without actually watching them). But then I started watching a Justin Bieber video... And I felt it was so bad that I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing. Can't remember what I hated about it... Maybe the visuals, maybe the music/lyrics, maybe it was all bland, maybe it was a combination of things.

In my opinion he has only one fanbase, tween/teen girls. Maybe he does have more fans outside of that demographic. And maybe that is his intended target audience (I'd rather target different demographics). If I'm right about his only fans being girls aged 12-16 I wonder if he's aware of that, and how he feels about only attracting one age group (well, I guess he wouldn't have minded much back when he was a minor). You could say he's the teenage girls equivilient of Barney the Dinosaur.

And has anybody noticed that he has the same initials as the most-hated Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks? Coincidence?

 

[CountFan1998]

And has anybody noticed that he has the same initials as the most-hated Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks? Coincidence?

Maybe that's what he'll look like when he grows up (if he grows up! )!

And of course, for the sake of the current music industry, OFFENSE INTENTED!!!!

 

[newsmanfan]

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Well, agreed that one can turn it off...sometimes. It always annoys me when I go into, say, Spencer's looking for Muppet stuff and hear that sort of bland, tasteless pablum whining over their speakers. Yeah, I know, shop elsewhere...

Crap "artists" have been around for centuries. Remember the hugely popular mid-1800s composer Meyerbeer?...No?...my point. (Incidentally, my ears tell me that the unjustly popular "composer" Andrew L Webber stole a heck of a lot from Meyerbeer, among others...but I'll leave it to a scholar more versed in obscure classical music than me to definitively state it.)

The general populace doesn't want any sort of entertainment, be it music, books, film, etc, which actually forces them to think. The tastes of the hoi polloi will always be for bread and circuses in any form...be it Twinkies and American Idol, or something even worse down the road. I don't know why. To me it's always been a baffling fact of existence that most people would rather not use their brains, even to appreciate genuine talent in the arts. *shrug*

Who knows what lack of taste lurks in the heart of the American?
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[Sgt Floyd]

The thing people do not realize is that there are plenty of good bands that are around. But it is easy to target the small fraction of bands that get overplayed and are popular and say the music industry sucks these days. If people took the effort to do a little digging, they can find plenty of modern bands that suit their taste.

Really, each decade has that fad that is immensely popular and then there is an over saturation of it. I happen to like hair metal, but the 80s had more hair metal bands than hairs on your head, but plenty of other bands that just kinda scooted under the spotlight

my point is it is easy to target what is popular and say there is no good music. But you know what? it just takes one person who is sick of whats popular to start something new. So really, over saturation of something that is popular is a good thing.

The Ramones started because they were bored of the popular music of the time and wanted to make music that was more reminiscent of the surf and pop bands than the same jam rock that lasted seven and eight minutes long. Instead, they pioneered punk, starting a whole new movement.

Instead of complaining about how everything sucks, is the same, and boring, be like the Ramones and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Get out there and play what you want. You never know what can happen. Of course, these days it is much harder to get signed but thats not the point. Save a few thousand dollars and make your own CDs. Bowling for Soup's first two albums were self produced, now they are moderately famous. I like to think of Bowling for Soup as the modern day Ramones...and now I am veering off the point so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead with this post

 

[minor muppetz]

The thing people do not realize is that there are plenty of good bands that are around. But it is easy to target the small fraction of bands that get overplayed and are popular and say the music industry sucks these days. If people took the effort to do a little digging, they can find plenty of modern bands that suit their taste.

Yeah, while most of my favorite groups/bands/singers started out decades ago (if not exclusive to a decade), there are still some good current performers, like Kelly Clarkson (though I'm not really sure whether she's still current), Nora Jones (ditto), Katy Perry, and OK Go. So not all current stars are bad.

 

[Drtooth]

The problem we have collectively allowed our popular culture to go down the toilet in recent years and will have very little left that's worth preserving in the future, IMO. We get exactly what we ask for and no more.

Entertainment goes in cycles. There's always a period where they make utter crap, or at least the utter crap outnumbers everything else. Movies are actually a little bit better now than the 50's, but that's because they were struggling with the rise of television at the time. Sure, there's a lot of bad stuff out there now, but it didn't become so insanely terrible that it's unintentionally hilarious. And if we didn't have those terrible sci-fi/horror movies of the 50's, we wouldn't have one of the greatest shows of the 90's, MST3K.

Music's the same. We love to think about how wonderful the 60's were... we forget about the crummy little obvious Beatles ripoff bands. We're focused too much on the greats like The Who and the Stones we tend to forget about those who only had like 1 hit and were never heard of again.

And as I've said before, I think the 70's was the worst ever decade for animation. That's a time when sitcoms were getting smarter, better written... movies were becoming artistic and or classics in their own time again. Star Wars and Rocky came out of that decade.... but the cartoons were mostly awful.

That stuff just happens. I see no difference between Bieber and New Kids on the Block... I dislike both, actually... I don't even care for NKOTB as an ironic nostalgic trip like a Rick Roll does.

And yet, some terrible things actually get campier and better with age. Like I said, MST3K. I always hated N*Sync, but I'm really growing on Justine Timberlake as a comedic actor. Try to tell me "I'm Bringing Sexy Back" wasn't a comedy song. He just proves there's life after a fad music gig if you shake things up.