Three years ago, Justin Bieber was arguably the most famous pop star on the planet. In June 2012, fresh off his third studio album “Believe,” Bieber had sold over 3 million copies and gone platinum in the United States, Canada, Australia and Sweden. He had the most-viewed video on YouTube and had been the artist for pre-teen and teenage audiences. What happened?
Bieber’s album received mixed critical reviews and did not receive any Grammy nominations. He remained rather quiet for over a year, releasing a compilation album in December 2013 to capitalize on the Christmas rush and marketing phase. This album flopped, at least when it came to major pop star levels. It was released in a song-per-week format, with no songs reaching the top 25 on the Billboard charts. The album also failed to reach the Billboard Top 200 because of the way it was released.
Since then, Justin Bieber has become more infamous for his actions than famous for his music career.
You hear his name all the time in the news. His bad behavior has been publicized over television, in magazines and on the Internet. In the past few years, Bieber has been accused of vandalism, reckless driving and throwing eggs at a neighbor’s house. He was arrested after being pulled over for a DUI, for resisting arrest and having an expired license. Bieber was arrested again for assault and dangerous driving. It is more and more bad publicity for Justin Bieber. Yet, his popularity continues to grow larger and larger.
Now, if you want to take this string of events as a publicity stunt, that's up to you. Bieber has continued to stay relevant despite performing on just seven songs in close to two years. None of those songs were his own singles, and only one had good commercial success — the Skrillex/Diplo song “Where Are You Now?” The rest failed to rank on any U.S. Billboard chart.
There are no announced plans for a Justin Bieber album in the works. Finally though, a snippet of a new song was just recently leaked online entitled "What Do You Mean." He announced the single on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, and it should be released within a month. Right now, Justin Bieber is the world’s most well-known male personality. Love him or hate him, his popularity is so large that it is not going away.
It really is surprising how relevant he has stayed considering everything that has happened in his career recently. Bieber has not trailed off like many teen pop stars do. Most people will not remember the names Aaron Carter, JC Chasez or Kevin Richardson. Most music pop stars aimed at younger audiences tend to fade, with only the biggest of fans remembering and even caring about the singer.
With no way to know the future, will Justin Bieber fade away? Probably not, considering he has over 70 million fans on Facebook. Justin Bieber is one of the exceptions to the rule. He does not even need to come out with music anymore …everybody knows who he is. At just 22 years old, it is all but up for the mega pop star.
