Justin Bieber: How The Music Genius Is Turning His Bad Boy Image Around

A recent CNBC article exalts the Justin Bieber transformation from a bad boy to a more responsible adult. It argues that despite all the negative publicity about the music impresario, the Justin Bieber light shines brighter than ever. As a case in point, the report goes back to the year 2014, a tumultuous year in Bieber history.

“In April 2014, a petition to the White House calling for the deportation of Justin Bieber went viral. At the time, the young singer found himself embroiled in a slew of negative circumstances, including driving under the influence and allegations of drug use, that suggested his career might be on the verge of implosion.”

“Fast forward to 2016, and Bieber is once again on top of the world,” the CNBC report goes.

“The singer has won his first Grammy, embarked on a tour for his fourth album that spans more than 100 cities around the globe and has at least two chart-topping singles this year.”

The Bieber transformation is definitely nothing short of magical. But what’s even more amazing is that all the negative publicity has not created any significant dent on Justin Bieber’s bank account or net worth as a musician. According to CNBC, Bieber’s net worth stands at $200 million while his most recent full-year earning (2015) hovers around the $80 million mark.

This puts Bieber in the same class as Taylor Swift, who, powered by tour earnings from her 1989 album, also approximated the $80 million mark for the same year. What all these figures prove is that no matter how much bad press an artist gets, the bottom line is, true talent can still manage to prevail in the end.

The Swift talent is unassailable, knighted by the launch this month of the prestigious BMI Taylor Swift Award, which has been established to recognize an artist’s exceptional musical ability as well as extraordinary success in the music industry. Swift’s ability lies in her genius at composing her own music and subsequently performing it. The Swift recognition catapults the total performer to the level of Michael Jackson, the only other artist honored with an award category under his own name.

And while Justin Bieber still has no similar recognition under his own name, a look-back at an MTV article will demonstrate Bieber’s own brand of musical versatility. In a nutshell, Bieber plays all the major instruments exceptionally well: drums, piano, guitar, trumpet, and of course, the artist’s own musical pipes.

MTV has so thoroughly documented the Justin Bieber genius with regards to instrumental music. Truly, there is no pretender to the throne here. MTV even recounts one naturally occurring incident, the one where The Biebs takes over the James Corden band drumming duties on the Late Late Show.

“Beliebers, are you over the alarming shock and absolute bliss of seeing Justin Bieber’s surprise cameo on ‘The Late Late Show’ last night? In case you missed it, all you really need to know is that Biebs helped close the show by taking over drumming duties in James Corden’s house band. And he did it without any prior announcement or even any acknowledgment.”

Thus, it’s funny how true talent acts as a natural insurance against the negative forces that can undermine an artist’s hegemony such as bad press, vices (e.g., drinking, drugs, smoking), bad attitude (lack of punctuality, laziness), and acts of God (illness, accident, growing old). To illustrate, when Julie Andrews lost her voice as a result of a throat surgery, the artist’s career was effectively finished.

But with someone like Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, there is still so much to get by with, even if the voice were to be lost. Swift can still rely on her guitaring and song composing skills. And then there’s Bieber’s strumming, drums, piano, trumpet and song composition skills as well. Not all musical artists are as lucky.

Finally, there is such a thing as creativity and style, which will set apart, say, Taylor Swift from Justin Bieber. Bieber’s “Baby” is by far the best example of the artist’s originality. Look, anyone can sing the same song, but the bottom line is, it will not have the same unique style and subsequently, the same impact on the listening or the watching crowd. In fairness to Justin Bieber, nobody can render “Sorry,” “What Do You Mean,” and “Love Yourself” better than The Biebs himself.

[Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images]