This thread has been a rather entertaining read: Conan pretty much nailed the truth of the matter on Page 4 though. Too bad things turned a tad redundant afterward.
Being that I'm something of a pop aficionado, Bieber falls into something of a middle ground in terms of quality as an aspiring whatever-you-want-to-call-him to my ears: expensive studio wizardry certainly wrings out the best out of him at times vocally, but he's inconsistent at crafting a good hook that doesn't irritate you, which is unfortunate since he actually does sound different from most of the excrement that manages to get airplay on Kiss FM. For example, I find it puzzling that 'Baby' was chosen as a lead single over a track like 'Runaway Love': the former comes off as annoying while the latter is a fine slice of atmospheric R&B pop. Bewildering, but then again I'm not the pop-deaf, neutered demographic that his label was aiming for to begin with. Higher management don't care about hooks as much as they used to in prior decades.
Is Bieber some kind of pop genius? Probably not, being that he needs everybody to hold his hand (a common trend in the industry) and that he doesn't give me the impression that he's going to use his popularity as a springboard to actually get some potentially interesting, yet catchy music into mass circulation for whatever his next album is. Unless he manages to pull it off though, any success he'll have in the long run will be noteworthy, yet fleeting -- much like the attention spans of those who appear to genuinely love his material but who will eventually gravitate toward other things.
But then again, I have been surprised before: for example, I found out recently that Alter Bridge's latest album is actually quite excellent...and here I was thinking post-grunge was irredeemable since the mid 90's. Who woulda thunk it?
Therefore, let's give this welpish performer the opportunity to put out some more studio material before we throw him to the dogs.
