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Justin Bieber · S2 E6
Bieber Fever
The hair flip, the screaming fans, the lunchboxes. A kid becomes a brand overnight
A shopping mall on Long Island has to shut down because three thousand girls are blocking the exits. Justin Bieber is inside signing autographs, and the police are on the way.
"All Around the World" ft. Ludacris (Justin Bieber, official music video, 2012). The title says it all. Bieber Fever isn't a local phenomenon. It's global, it's relentless, and the production in this track sounds like exactly what it feels like to be at the center of it.
All Around the World (feat. Ludacris), Justin Bieber (2012)
"All Around the World" features Ludacris for the third time in Justin's career, and the production is built for stadiums: massive drums, synth swells, a chorus designed to be screamed by thousands. Listen for how each section builds bigger than the last, the production escalating in waves. It's the sound of Bieber Fever turned into a song: relentless, global, impossible to tune out.
Sources
Believe album liner notes, Island Records, 2012.
The Phenomenon
The hair flip becomes the most imitated hairstyle on the planet. You can buy Justin Bieber shirts, dolls, perfume, nail polish, and singing toothbrushes. Girls faint at appearances, stampedes shut down shopping malls, and the word "Belieber" enters the vocabulary of an entire generation.
Sources
Never Say Never (documentary), Paramount Pictures, 2011.
Bieber, Justin. "First Step 2 Forever: My Story." HarperCollins, 2010.
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened at Roosevelt Field Mall in November 2009?
“I'd never seen anything like it. The screaming was so loud you couldn't hear the music. These were twelve and thirteen-year-old girls, and they were louder than any stadium crowd I'd ever been in.”
— Scooter Braun, paraphrased from Never Say Never documentary (Paramount Pictures, 2011)
Bieber Fever: The Scale
The Flip Side
For every screaming fan, there's someone who hates Justin Bieber with the same intensity. The internet splits into camps: Beliebers who would do anything for him and trolls who make him the punchline of every joke. He's sixteen, and he's living in both extremes at the same time.
Sources
Bieber, Justin. "First Step 2 Forever: My Story." HarperCollins, 2010.
Stuck in the Moment, Justin Bieber (2010)
"Stuck in the Moment" is a My World 2.0 deep cut about being swept up in something you can't control. After hearing about the mall evacuations and the global screaming, this track takes on a different meaning. Justin is stuck in the moment too. The whole world is watching, and he can't press pause.
Stuck in the Moment, Justin Bieber (2010)
"With you, with you, I'm stuck in the moment." Justin wrote this about a crush, but read the lyrics knowing he's sixteen and the whole planet is watching. Every line about being overwhelmed, about not wanting a feeling to end, sounds like someone describing fame from the inside.
What happened at Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island in November 2009?
Justin is selling out arenas, but his team wants proof that this is more than a phase. Next episode: a 3D concert film, a sold-out Madison Square Garden, and the night Justin Bieber silences every critic in the room.
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