Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. He is recognized as one of the most iconic and influential artists in modern-day pop music and one of the highest-selling artists of all time, with over 150 million records sold worldwide.
Bieber was signed in 2008 after record executive Scooter Braun discovered videos of him singing on YouTube. His debut release, the EP My World, was released in 2009 when he was fifteen years old. Within a year, his fame had snowballed, with the release of his follow-up debut album My World 2.0 catapulting him to global stardom. He was easily recognized in this phase of his career for his catchy songs, his haircut, a dance-pop sound typical of that time (with some acoustic detours), and a voice that was still a boy soprano. Over the next few years, his voice dropped to an adult tenor, he had more hits and he moved away from his early boyish image.
The rise of social media was also important to Bieber's Teen Idol stardom. Other artists had benefitted from it before, but Bieber's popularity on there was unprecedented. He was so popular on Twitter that his name trended there almost non-stop, until the platform changed "trends" to favor novelty over volume. Like a '90s Boy Band but maybe on a greater scale, he drew a massive and devoted fanbase (nicknamed "Beliebers"), but also equally massive ridicule and hate. That being said, he generally got good reviews from music critics.
After his early run of success stalled in 2013, Bieber's 2015 album Purpose reinvigorated his career and spawned three big hit singles ("What Do You Mean?", "Sorry" and "Love Yourself"). It moved him to a more mature image and a new sound with more R&B and hip-hop influences, which he has continued in to this day to the tune of more success.
His wife is model and media personality Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin); the two married in 2018 (having an official ceremony in 2019) after an on-off relationship beginning in 2015. He previously had several public (and publicized) relationships, the most prominent of them likely being with Selena Gomez.
Discography:
- My World EP (2009)
- My World (2010)
- My World 2.0 (2010)
- Under the Mistletoe (2011)
- Believe (2012)
- Purpose (2015)
- Changes (2020)
- Justice (2021)
- Freedom EP (2021)
If I was your boyfriend, I'd make you a list of tropes:
- Angry Dance: In the video for "Love Yourself
", a couple's passive-aggressive fighting over tiny things—hogging the blanket, making the bed, one closing the refrigerator just as the other tries to look in it—is elaborately choreographed. - Boastful Rap: Was known for doing these as a guest artist on other artist's records from about 2011 to 2014. "Lolly" by Major Ali is one example. Many people called his verse on "Maria I'm Drunk" by Travis Scott and Young Thug where he does this as a highlight of the track.
- Child Popstar: "Never Say Never" featured clips from videos dating back to kindergarten which showed him singing and playing different instruments. He also became famous at age 16.
- Death by Cameo: He appears at the beginning of Zoolander 2 just to be killed off.
- Forced Meme: Everything about the PR campaign surrounding the single "Yummy" made it clear that Justin and his record label's marketing arm were pushing as hard as they possibly could to make the song go viral. Upon its release, Justin posted a special TikTok edition of the song and also took to social media, asking his fans to promote and mass-purchase the song to get it to the top of the charts, even giving detailed instructions on how to inflate the listening numbers on the most popular song streaming platforms. Other promotional material included the release of autographed CD variants, seven different videos for the song, and the launching of an official "Yummy" game. The success of this was decisively mixed. While the song started out in relatively strong positions on the charts internationally, it ran just shy of the #1 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 that Justin and his label were unambiguously gunning for, and it started floundering across all charts almost immediately afterward.
- Found Footage Films: The music video for "Beauty and a Beat" has the found footage trope as its Framing Device, pretending to be "personal footage" that was "leaked by an anonymous blogger".
- Mad Bomber: Justin had a guest role on CSI as a serial killer and serial bomber.
- The Movie: A 3D documentary on him, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, was released in theaters in 2011.
- New Sound Album: Purpose sheds the bubblegum pop genre he was previously known for in favor of a more mature and edgy sound.
- Punctuality Is for Peasants: He was famously two hours late for his own concert in 2013, allegedly because he had a tantrum over a computer game, causing many of his child fans to miss his belated appearance completely.
- Shirtless Scene: Tends to have at least one shirtless appearance in a music video per album cycle, often more.
- Shout-Out: To his ex Selena Gomez multiple times during and even after their relationship ended:
- "Ghost" blatantly contained a shoutout to Selena's song "Ghost of You" as well as several Freeze-Frame Bonus to Selena's name
- His appearance in "Pop Star" with Drake contain lyrics reference his ex Selena
- His voice mail to Selena was included in an alternative version of her song "Love Will Remember".
- Take That!: Two somewhat unfortunate, likely unintentional example to his wife Hailey Bieber.
- Given the several reference to his ex Selena in the music video for "Ghost", the lyric "That if I can't be close to you, I'll settle for the ghost of you" is... unfortunate given that Justin married his wife only 2 months after his and Selena's public breakup.
- With the list of his ex in the song "Pop Star" include his significant relationships to Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez. And his wife? "My visa".
- Teen Idol: He started out as a bubblegum pop star meant to appeal to adolescent girls. This became deconstructed in 2015 when Purpose gave him a more mature sound.
- Vocal Evolution: Sometime in late 2011, his voice started to deepen a little, losing the childlike inflection it had when he rose to fame with "Baby" in 2010. By the time "Boyfriend" was released, it became apparent that the Child Popstar is now an adult.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Ludacris in "Baby" and "Around The World", Big Sean in "As Long As You Love Me", "Memphis" and "No Pressure", Nicki Minaj in "Beauty and a Beat", Lil Wayne in "Backpack", Busta Rhymes in "Drummer Boy", Travis Scott in "No Sence" and "Second Emotion", Post Malone and Clever in "Forever", Quavo in "Intentions" and "Wish You Would", T.I. in the unreleased leaked remix of "Hey Girl", Chance the Rapper in "Confident" and "Holy", DaBaby on "Know No Better", Lil Uzi Vert in "There She Go" and Bieber himself on "Ladies Love Me" by Chris Brown.
