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Justin Bieber · S2 E4
My World
The debut EP breaks sales records for a new artist. He’s fifteen years old
November 17, 2009. A fifteen-year-old's debut EP enters the Billboard 200 at number six, and within weeks, every single track on it will chart on the Hot 100.
"Love Me" (Justin Bieber, official music video, 2010). The last single pulled from My World, built on a sample most of Justin's fans have never heard. The Cardigans' "Lovefool" from 1996, flipped into something that sounds brand new. A fifteen-year-old borrowing from a different generation and making it his own.
Love Me, Justin Bieber (2009)
"Love Me" samples The Cardigans' "Lovefool," a 1996 Swedish pop hit that Justin's target audience has never heard. The production flips the original's chorus into a hook that sounds entirely new. Listen for the layered harmonies in the pre-chorus: they're all Justin, stacked the same way he'd stack vocals in those early bedroom recordings. The Cardigans received a songwriting credit.
Sources
My World liner notes, Island Records, 2009.
The Numbers
My World drops on November 17, 2009, and debuts at number six on the Billboard 200. It's certified platinum within weeks. Justin is fifteen years old, outselling artists who've been in the industry for decades. The music industry is now watching YouTube in a way it never has before.
Sources
Billboard chart data, November 2009.
RIAA certification records.
TAP TO REVEAL: What chart record did Justin Bieber break with My World?
“Everything happened so fast. One minute I'm singing on a sidewalk in Stratford. Next minute I have a platinum album. It didn't feel real for a long time.”
— Justin Bieber, paraphrased from "First Step 2 Forever" (HarperCollins, 2010)
My World: By the Numbers
The New Model
The music industry has a new playbook. You don't need radio to break an artist. You need YouTube, social media, and a kid who can sing. Justin Bieber is the proof of concept, and every label in the world is suddenly searching for the next one.
Sources
The Hollywood Reporter, "Justin Bieber Cover: The Team and Strategy Behind Making Him a Star," 2010.
That Should Be Me, Justin Bieber (2010)
"That Should Be Me" is a jealousy ballad from My World 2.0, but listen to it in the context of this moment. A kid from Stratford watching his own life accelerate past anything he imagined. Later reworked as a duet with Rascal Flatts, proving Justin could cross genres as easily as he crossed borders.
That Should Be Me, Justin Bieber (2010)
"I wanna hold you, I wanna kiss you." The lyrics are teenage romance at its most direct, but Justin's vocal sells the emotion in a way that most sixteen-year-olds can't. No irony, no distance. Just a kid singing like the feeling is going to kill him if he doesn't get it out.
What song does Justin Bieber's "Love Me" sample?
My World proves Justin can sell records. Now he needs a song that makes the entire planet know his name. Next episode: Ludacris picks up the phone, and "Baby" changes everything.
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