On Justin Bieber's single "Boyfriend"

So I'm going to start out by saying that since I've come to college I've been a bit slow on listening to recently released music. I saw that he had a clip of it on Ellen and decided to give it a listen.

I'm not going vilify him here so if that's what you're looking for, I'm sorry. I think that in the past couple years, Justin Bieber has been more famous for the fact that he has a famous girlfriend and for the fact that a lot of people hate him. Neither of which says anything about his abilities as an artist.

So let the formal analysis begin.

The song begins with a rather annoying siren sound while he raps in a weird rhythm. I thought that he was going to go with a syncopated rhythm...but then he didn't. So that was a bit of a surprise and kind of cool, I guess. There is literally no hint of tonality in the first verse whatsoever, just the siren and rapping. So far nothing particularly catchy but I guess I have to listen to the entire thing. I will admit the repetition of "swag" is mildly irritating. Then comes the guitar/vocals section, which has an R&B kind of feel which is not ground breaking but not unpleasant. He seems to be doing the most singing here; as far as being a vocalist, he's fairly mediocre and the sound is breathy which I'm guessing is supposed to make all the girls out there love him.

The chorus is somewhat forgettable, I had to play it a few times to even try to remember it; mainly just moving stepwise. Not particularly catchy. The siren thing is starting to get on my nerves though.

So the rest of the song alternates between the chorus and him rapping about how awesome he could be if the anonymous girl he's singing to would only go out with him. It's supposed to be a song of seduction which has it's roots in the bard songs of the Medieval European courts. So...again. Nothing ground breaking.

It seems glaringly obvious that this song was contrived by songwriters to help perpetuate his image created by his publicists: a charming, "gentleman" with "cash to burn". Essentially, he's supposed to be the guy that young girls will fall in love with...and then use their money to buy his songs and make everyone who works with him really really rich.

Now, I know art is created for a variety of reasons, one of which is to sell money. But for me, the purest form of music expresses something about the artists' thoughts and feelings. All I can tell about Justin Bieber is that he wants to please everyone, namely his fans so that they will continue to support him financially. Other than that, we have no idea who he really is or what he thinks or feels. I almost wish he wrote a song about Selena and how happy she makes him or something like that to preserve some of his integrity. I guess I also feel a bit of pity that he has to keep up this image to continue supporting himself...and then I remember that the money he brings in from this one song is enough to put me through four years of Wellesley. And then I don't feel as bad for him.

So all in all, this is a very mediocre song from a mediocre artist. I don't think this qualifies him for the hero worship given to him by girls ages 11-16 or so, or to be torn down by everyone else. I don't find it particularly entertaining or catchy, which is what I think most people expect from pop music. So I'm going to give it a C. Kind of just meh.