For several days I’ve been visiting an elderly fellow at the hospital. Not reviewing a movie this week left me feeling like I need to deliver something to the faithful.
If you’re reading this, you’ve heard of Justin Bieber. This isn’t a music blog, so there isn’t much reason to bring him up, but if you’ve managed to find me then you’ve been around the Internet. Heck, you probably came here from my YouTube channel, and that means you’ve certainly heard of the breakout star of that site. Justin Bieber is a 17 year-old kiddo from Canada who happens to have the most hated video in YouTube history. His biopic is also the lowest rated movie on IMDB.com. Oh, and he has millions of teenage girls yearning for his affection. The kid isn’t even 18 and he’s lived more of a life than most. So what’s to happen when the diamond that is teenage youth loses its luster?
Back in the old days, the ‘90s, there were many teenage heartthrobs for girls to choose from. It was mostly a collection of singers in boy bands (a musical group consisting of members who can’t play instruments) and actors on TV. In either case the end result was a quick forgetting. New Kids on the Block were the hot boy band at the beginning of the decade, and even by then they weren’t that new on the block. At that time the world was made of paper. No one had Internet access and it wasn’t even until late ’92 that my family purchased our first computer. The printed word had great influence and the fastest news could travel was over television. That amount of media restriction meant that only the people behind the newspapers and TV networks could generate buzz. When it came time for the New Kids to take a final bow, they didn’t have a retained audience. Of the boy band escapees, Justin Timberlake has found the most fame. After N’ Sync, Justin squirmed his way into the movie business while also having an occasional hit song. I’m not saying he’s talented at either, but keeping busy is a key to successful transition. Now he’s being addressed as a movie star Justin Timberlake, and not former N’ Sync star Justin Timberlake. With that hop to a new profession, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of his current fans were are unaware of songs like “Bye Bye Bye”.
On TV, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was quite the crushworthy young star on ABC’s sitcom Home Improvement. His face was adorned on the notebooks of female 12 year-olds across the nation (I was in my awkward phase, so the world just wasn’t ready for Vaughn Fry, naturally). Even by the mid-‘90s it had seemed JTT was just one of a continuing line of boys on TV. Those who came before him met a similar fate of being removed from show business. When you’re famous for being a kid, you’re just not easy to look at as an adult. The only men to escape this paradox managed by getting discovered young, but not making a real splash until near adulthood. Leonardo DiCaprio was in some films as a youth, but his huge hit came with Titanic in 1997 and his first blip on the heartthrob radar came only a year earlier with Romeo + Juliet.
Justin Bieber looks young for his age, which could be a real problem. If maturity hits him all at once and he doesn’t look like the Baby singer, he may lose his demographic. However there is an ace up his sleeve: Twitter. With 11 million Twitter followers and the ability to create a trending topic out his whatever he’s eating, Justin has the clout to do anything he wants. Suppose his next album is no good, it won’t even matter. There are just too many girls out there clamoring for him to result in a failed investment. Even if financial supporters lose faith in slowed profits, he alone can helm the ship. Today’s stars make far too much money to blow it the MC Hammer way. You actually have to shop fulltime to go through $100 million and have quite the imagination, but for Justin his personal and direct ownership of his fans isn’t going to allow his image to be replaced as easily as it could have been 20 years ago. It’s no longer the case of a label looking for the next Justin Bieber, but Justin Bieber looking for the next course for this empire.
Can you imagine what it would have been like if the stars of the last generation had access to social media? It’s possible the New Kids could have stayed famous. We can’t be for certain until we see where the likes of Justin, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez are ten years from now. The temptation of drugs isn’t gone just yet (just read into one of the names above), and a radical shift in ideals may be pending. Right now we’re seeing the exile of the musclebound action star, but what should that return? Would a movie transition for the effeminate Biebs fail? We could be entering interesting new territory where all the old stories are retold with fresh faces while a social media movement pushes them into profit
Loading ...
Recent Comments