As a 23-year-old guy, I would not be considered in the core demographic of Justin Bieber's fanbase. And to be clear, I am not necessarily a fan. But neither am I a hater and dislike him either (I am neutral). As the Bieber Guy, I will explore the Justin Bieber phenomenon and understand why he may have lasting power in the biz.
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We've already been able to listen to a few of the songs off of Justin Bieber's Christmas album, Under The Mistletoe, in stores tomorrow (Tuesday November 1): "Mistletoe," "The Christmas Song," and "Christmas Eve." Now, how about listening to the album itself?
AOL Music has the Under The Mistletoe songs up on their website. But from the looks of it, it doesn't look like they have all of the songs up and they're not in the correct track order as you'll hear on the album. Not sure why. But at least we get to listen to most of the tracks, right?
I tried embedding the tracks into this article, but it kept embedding the same song over and over again. At least I tried. But click HERE to go to AOL Music and listen to the songs.
Here's the songs featured over there: "Only Thing I Ever Get For Christmas,"Home This Christmas" Feat. The Band Perry, "Fa La La" Feat. Boyz II Men, "Christmas Eve," "Little Drummer Boy," Feat. Busta Rhymes, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" Feat. Usher, "All I Want Is You," "All I Want For Christmas Is You" Feat. Mariah Carey, "Mistletoe," and "Silent Night."
'A Very Bieber Christmas' will begin at the end of November here at Bieber Guy.
Under The Mistletoe will be released tomorrow, November 1, and is available to pre-order online in both standard, CD/DVD Deluxe, and CD/DVD Box Set editions, To pre-order a copy, below are the Amazon product links (or pre-order them directly from the Bieber Guy STORE).
Song: "U Smile" (Promo Single #2/Single #3) From Album:My World 2.0 Release Date: August 24, 2010
Almost half a year after My World 2.0 came out, the third and final single (though it was also released as a promo single right before the album) was released. The song: "U Smile." Let's take a look...
I'm impressed with Justin and his label for choosing top quality songs one after the other: "Baby," "Never Let You Go," "Somebody to Love," and "U Smile." Sometimes with artists, you may only have one or two great singles. But Justin's have all been excellent.
Before listening to the album for Bieber Guy, I had only heard three of the songs on the album before. And "U Smile" was one of them. I'm not sure exactly where I heard it; it might have been on TV sometime. And here we have yet another fantastic song. It has great mass appeal similar to "Baby" and "Somebody to Love," along with the hook and catchiness of them as well.
The chorus, "You smile, I smile / Cause whenever you smile I smile," is very simple, in terms of the lyrics. But the song is structured so that it can allow Justin's voice to really shine in a great way. Some songs are all about the beat or the hook. And "U Smile" has that hook, but it adds the vocal element as well, where we can just listen to his voice without any heavy use of instruments or anything else.
Here's what Justin said about what the song means to him and the connection to his fans (via MTV): "'U Smile' is one of the best songs I have ever recorded. It really is a throwback to the great records I listened to growing up. ... I wrote it for all my fans who got me here."
He continues by saying, "U took me from a small town in Canada to this amazing opportunity I am living now. I am so grateful for everything and so blessed for all of your support. I wrote 'U Smile' with my friend August with that in mind. ... So this one is for U. Enjoy it and know that u the fans give me my strength in a lot of this."
Now for the music video. The video is both similar to and different than his other videos. The similarity is that it's, of course, about a girl. But the difference is that it's set up sort of like a movie. There's a few opening credits. There's part of a scene before the music even starts. And the video goes back and forth between shots in black and white and shots in color. Also, it seems like a handheld camera was used quite a lot too.
Justin's leaving a building (I assume the theater that's featured later) and a group of girls notice him and want autographs and pictures and so forth. He meets with one of those girls later on and they hang out inside the theater.
Is life imitating art here? Does anyone else notice the similarity? Remember a month ago when Justin rented out (for free) Staples Center, and he and girlfriend Selena Gomez were the only two people there for a private screening of Titanic? In this music video, he and this fan of his have the theater all to themselves. I wonder if Justin ever thought of how similar it is?
But anyway, since the song is dedicated to his fans, it only seems appropriate that the video does that as well: "I took the opportunity 2 make a video 4 the fans, about a fan, and how we could fall IN LOVE." It's a good thing that this video is something not to be taken seriously, because really, if this was happening in real life, it's not the best idea. Justin picking up a fan and being alone with her? They're doing all these fun things, yet he doesn't know her at all. And to the girl: you shouldn't be alone with a star. Just kidding - we all know Justin's a good and wholesome guy (but if he were a rocker, not a good idea).
Next week, I will be reviewing Justin's book, First Step 2 Forever (and by the way, we're about a month away from "A Very Bieber Christmas" here at Bieber Guy; more details will follow later).
To stay updated on everything related to Bieber Guy and when the next blog article and/or review will be online, follow me on Twitter @Bieber_Guy.
Justin Bieberrecently talked to MTV about his next (non-Christmas) album, due out next year, and the new sounds they're trying out to make that transition from teen heartthrob into adulthood.
Now we've got some big news regarding that album. It has been confirmed that the new album will be called Believe! And he'll be working with some big names (via AceShowBiz):
"Very soon [it'll be released], after my Christmas album ... It's going to be coming out. It is called Believe. I'm working with a lot of cool people. I'm working with Kanye [West]. Drake is going to work on the album with me."
Justin's manager, Scooter Braun, has said that the album will be released by summer 2012.
We've already been able to listen to "Mistletoe" and "The Christmas Song" from Under The Mistletoe. Now, we've got a first listen for Justin Bieber's "Christmas Eve."
Check it out here:
There was a YouTube audio clip of Justin's rendition of "Drummer Boy" with Busta Rhymes, but has been taken down (were they forced to take it down?). So I guess you should hurry up and listen to "Christmas Eve" above before that's taken down as well.
Under The Mistletoe will be released on November 1 and is available to pre-order online in both standard, CD/DVD Deluxe, and CD/DVD Box Set editions. To pre-order a copy, below are the Amazon product links (or pre-order them directly from the Bieber Guy STORE).
Well, this is the second time during this first season of The X Factor USA that a contestant has performed Justin Bieber's "Baby." Tonight, the show went live for the first time, and the Top 17 performed. By the end of the night, each of the judges had chosen which 12 acts (three for each mentor) will perform for America's votes beginning next week.
Last time, it was 14-year-old Drew Ryniewicz performing "Baby," during her audition. You can check that out HERE. By the way, Drew is still in the competition and will be here next week. But she now just goes by Drew.
This time around, it's 13-year-old Rachel Crow. Her version was a mash-up of "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby." Check out her performance here:
So, what'd you all think? Personally, I think Drew did a better job with her version. But she wasn't half bad either.
Next Wednesday (8-10pm), the Top 12 (including Rachel and Drew) will perform, and America will vote for the first time. There will be five ways to cast your vote; find out the details HERE.
The other day we got a sneak peek of the song when a video was released of the duo in the recording studio. And now we've got the premiere of Justin Bieber's second Christmas single, a duet with Usher on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)."
Here's your first listen of the song:
What'd you think of this second single? Is it just as good as "Mistletoe"? Better? Worse? I'm looking forward to reviewing it in December as part of 'A Very Bieber Christmas' here on Bieber Guy.
The song is not yet available to download on Amazon yet. But when it is, it will be added to the Bieber Guy STORE and tweeted out to all of you.
"The Christmas Song" will be featured on Bieber's upcoming Under The Mistletoe, which will be released on November 1 and is available to pre-order online in both standard and CD/DVD Deluxe editions. To pre-order a copy, below are the Amazon product links (or pre-order them directly from the T.W.O. STORE).
Song: "Somebody to Love" (Single #2) From Album: My World 2.0 Release Date: April 20, 2010
About a month after My World 2.0 was released, Justin released "Somebody to Love" as his second single from the album. So let's talk about it...
Let's say there's a show being performed and you have multiple performers coming out one after the other. You don't want to be the one that has to follow the showstopping performance of the evening, or follow the biggest star there. But somebody has to, usually, and that's the way it goes. I could say the same goes for Justin and "Baby." "Baby" is his most successful song of his entire career. How do you top that? I say, it's darn near hard to do. But Justin was able to match it.
The first time I heard this song was when it was covered during season 2 of Glee. When I did first hear it performed on that show, I thought, this is a great song. It's got a catchy hook. It's a song that transcends teen pop (since there's R&B influences once again), and can be enjoyed by people outside of his fan base. I always say that it doesn't matter whether you like a certain artist or not; a good song is a good song, plain and simple. Even if I were a full-on non-Bieber fan who couldn't stand him, I would still have to recognize the significance, quality, and hook of songs like this one as well as ones like "Baby." There's no getting around that.
The hook, what grabs you in where you go, that's a catchy song, is of course in the chorus. There's also some other moments during the song where you hear Justin singing the lyrics a little bit faster; those parts are used to great effect as well. And "Somebody to Love" received positive reviews among the critics, which solidifies the standing of the song further.
Apparently, "Somebody to Love" was originally supposed to be on one of Usher's records. But that was scrapped, and was eventually recorded by Justin. Usher provided background vocals to the song. And not too long after Justin released the single, the two of them did a remix of the song, and Usher ended up having considerably more vocal time. I listened to this remix, and enjoyed that version as well. I don't think any of the changes affected the quality at all.
And they did a music video for the remix version. With the storyline of the song, they could have easily translated that story into a music video. But instead, it was just as if they were performing on a stage; the focus was very much on the choreography and dance moves of Justin, Usher and the background dancers. And they pulled it off quite brilliantly, I thought.
