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Batten down the hatches, Brooklyn! Justin Bieber is playing Barclays Center tonight and, if the past few months are any indicator, he’s going to be running buck wild! Since the start of the year, the 19-year-old has gone from Granny-approved teeny-bopper to a one-man wrecking crew.
Last month, he grabbed headlines after video footage of him emerged cussing at a picture of Bill Clinton and taking a leak into a mop bucket on the way out of a New York restaurant. He’s been collecting tattoos like most kids collect baseball cards, the latest one being a creepy rendering of his mother’s eye placed on his arm. Just last weekend, he was pictured spitting at fans from a hotel balcony in Toronto. The rebel-without-a-cause is causing so much concern that even Miley Cyrus has suggested that he take a break from the limelight.
The fear is that Bieber has turned into Canada’s answer to Keith Richards. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing.
Before any of this happened, the life of Justin Bieber was of minimal interest to anyone over the age of 16. Aside from the odd catchy number, all I could see was another sanitized pop puppet on the end of several music business strings. But his breakup with Selena Gomez was a watershed moment, and now Bieber is growing up and actually breaking free of the control exerted over him. His flaws have surfaced, and as a result, they’re showing him to be a far more interesting and three-dimensional person. It’s something I never thought I’d say, but finally, I’m a Belieber!
Parents might decry his shenanigans, but the idea of Bieber as a role model needs to be nixed. He’s 19, for God’s sake! Young men around his age should raise hell, screw up and figure themselves out.
Think back to all the stupid decisions you made when you were his age. Embarrassing, isn’t it? Now think about how much more you would have pushed your luck if you were also stinking rich and an A-list celeb.
With all the opportunity for misbehavior, what’s he supposed to do? Stay at home, watch “Downton Abbey,” and have his lights out by midnight? That would be much more of a cause for concern than anything he’s actually done. Bieber has earned the right to create his own version of the high life — and the vast majority of people who call him out for being a bad boy are just wishing they could have had the chance to do the same.
And why would anyone want their pop stars to be just like us? Eccentric and extrovert behavior used to be the rule in rock ’n’ roll — and fans coveted that lifestyle. Think of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie. They are icons partly due to their unabashedly hedonistic lives, which ran parallel to their musical experiments.
The current crop of big name bands are painfully bland in comparison. The Killers’ Brandon Flowers recently confessed in an interview that he was tired of hearing “songs about f - - king.” Next thing you know, he’ll be whining about pesky kids trampling over his lawn. The only time Coldplay’s Chris Martin grabs anyone’s interest is when his wife prattles on about how important it is to avoid gluten. The only thing that’s bucked that boring trend is the news of Liam Gallagher’s extramarital love child, and that’s bought him more attention than any of his post-Oasis albums. So while it might seem odd that Bieber is the one courting controversy, at least someone is doing it.
If he could only make his music as daring as his personal life, then we might have somebody who appeals to a broader audience than just middle-schoolers.
But for all his high jinks, he’s probably just going through a phase. Bieber contacted Clinton to apologize for the restaurant footage. According to reports, Clinton laughed it off, saying, “If that’s the worst thing you have ever done, all is well.” Grammys and Teen Choice Awards are fine, but nothing says, “I’ve lived an interesting life,” much louder than a presidential pardon. Right now, Justin Bieber is having way more fun than most of us will ever have. Suddenly, I feel the urge to get a tattoo. Who’s coming with me?!
