He was nodding to a group of teenagers at a table, saying how he has a lot of friends, but no real friends. I said:
"You need a friend as close as the hair of your new haircut."
(He cut his hair.)
Then we played a game that involved tossing a mint onto a person's foot - his invention.
I feel you looking at me like that, and I'm looking at me like that too.
Beiber fascinates me.
The fact that Bieber fascinates me fascinates me.
The fact that so many are deeply disgusted by Bieber fascinates me.
The innards of his voice itself have come to fascinate me.
(And neverminding him or his music, he has a pretty-colored voice. Sandy but clean. Makes me want to be a teenage boy all over again. (There was a phase . . . )
Right now I'm listening to Baby.
You know you love me, he sings, I know you care.
Most people I've talked to do care one way or another.
My co-worker begged me not to talk about him or she would throw up.
I guess this is the sort of thing about him that makes people nauseous? :
I screencapped it from the music video for Baby, shocked that any 16 year old male would be comfortable doing . . . whatever that is . . . without irony.
But he's so far from nauseating me, I begin to like him.
I feel you looking at me like that, and I'm looking at me like that too.
ReplyDeleteWho, what, me? *points innocently to self*
I hear you about the Biebs (is that the correct nickname?) I love the way you describe his "pretty-colored voice...sandy but clean." In a different age, he would have made beach party movies with Annette Funicello. I don't quite get the violent disgust he causes others (I too have had a friend tell me she would barf at another reference). I was going to say I also don't get the frenzy, but I do understand it intellectually. He's very non-threatening and safe and there's definitely an appeal to that; a young girl can throw herself wildly at Justin Bieber and know that he would never, ever take advantage of her adoration. Or so it seems to me...
Wow! I'd never seen or heard Bieber so I just watched "Baby" on youTube and was AMAZED:
ReplyDeletethe whole thing is so sexually and racially indeterminate.
I mean, he looks like the cutest ever baby dyke, and the girl he likes is not exactly either black or white. Then Ludacris and breakdancers appear, just to make sure you know this is NOT Donny Osmond (the Bieber of my day, but squeakier clean).
Yeah, JB seems super safe and unthreatening but he's singing about going down... So he's much more blatantly sexual than I'd expected.
Again, not quite the boy toy of my youth.
I don't see why people love to hate him, exactly. Is it that his lack of ironic shield signals a socially unacceptable vulnerability that almost invites attack?
Thanks for writing about him---I'd not have bothered to look him up otherwise. And I really like that kind of sugar pop.
my daughter thought he was "hot" before she ever heard a song or saw a video. fine with me. it's marketing. I had the Monkees, she has the Beeb. her daughter will no doubt find some androgynous boy in a flying car to swoon over, 20 or 30 years from now.
ReplyDeleteit reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons where Lisa is reading Non-Threatening Boy Magazine.
Jen:
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's low-threat - or at least succeeds at giving that impression.
I just watched a clip of him talking on stage, and someone threw a water-bottle at his head. He flicked his hair back into place and said, "Ow. That didn't feel good."
(How's he doing in Japan?)
Fresk:
There's actually a website called "Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber"! He's pretty.
Is it that his lack of ironic shield signals a socially unacceptable vulnerability that almost invites attack?
YES. "socially unacceptable vulnerability" - that's it, I think.
And then there's regular ol' jealousy . . . it seems like the people who hate JB most are teenage boys who aren't JB. (Hey, I'm jealous, too! I'd like to have an amazing voice and be magnetic and have the greatest shoes in the world and)
CC:
"adrogynous boy in a flying car" made me think of Kirk!
Nothing about Shatner's birthday? No Shatmoy? No Trek? Just Justin Bieber for about four weeks? Oh boy. This HAS become a nightmare. Mine.
ReplyDelete