I have little to no interest in Justin Bieber. I can honestly say I don't enjoy his music and don't understand the pubic obsession with him. The Ann Frank comments were a little off putting to me, however I can sort of understand his rationalization, she probably would of been a fan. The odd part is that after spending a few hours in an Ann Frank museum, the first thoughts to come his mind were , " Hey, I think she would have been a fan of mine". That exposes a wee-bit of egotism I think.
When thinking about his situation, I cannot help but think that I am watching just another child mega-celebrity at the beginning of the "plunge" stage of their career. When looking at past trends with child stars, there is almost inevitably a fall from grace, a "train wreck" phase. The Michael Jackson, Drew Berrymore, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Macaulay Culkin types all had their peaks, and all had their tremendous plunges into irrelevance and disgrace. I think Bieber is on his way down from the top of the mountain. If I am going by these past trends, my bet is that somewhere in the next 2-6 years Bieber will be out of the public eye and irrelevant (maybe rightfully so).
Of course I don't garner any personal hatred for Bieber and I hope he lives a happy and fulfilling life, but the "celebrity empirical data" is against him. Unfortunately child stars like him have a tendency to have issues in their later years. It is an unfortunate phenomenon. I think in a lot of these star's cases, they have been used by adults in their lives as investment tools. These businessmen/managers/parents use them for money and notoriety, but deprive the kids of anything close to a normal childhood. It seems to be a rather nasty form of child abuse/neglect. Only time will tell if Bieber can beat the odds and hold up to the pressures and scrutinies of fame.
"Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary."
Marilyn Monroe
I agree with you. I don't care very much about Justin Bieber, but I am also not one of those people who absolutely hates his guts. I wish him the best, as you said, too, but, also as you were saying, it is very hard for celebrities to keep their status and he is most likely toward the end of his peak or on the way down. Good points, I enjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteHa, I was going to ask if we could watch that video in class today. Its so funny. I totally agree. Sure he is a little bit of a punk, but so are a lot of people. He is making a successful life for himself and that is great, but things like that are usually short lived.
ReplyDeleteOh, I had already decided that we will watch the video today, so no worries there.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to think of celebrities who did make the successful transition from child to adult stars. I guess Fred Savage is one noteworthy case, although he also made the transition to directing. Perhaps part of the problem is that the faults of people who started out as symbols of innocence are magnified as they age more than others' faults would be. I wonder if there is actually any research about the reason for the "curse of the child star." I wouldn't be surprised if there is.