Think Image, Baby (baby, baby, oh)...
Newspaper columnist Richard Cohen has a preacher's post* up this morning, ostensibly out of concern for Justin Bieber's marijuana use... Talk to the handlers, Dick.
You see, somebody figured out:
there's an awful lot of money to be made, selling... sin, essentially -- especially to a yet-fully tapped youth market.**
Something tells me this is not so much 'free choice' on the Biebster's part, as part of the marketing package he was contracted into, ever since Scooter Braun 'discovered' the Canadian youth singing online, overcame his mother's initial resistance, and signed the white boy to his label after a bidding war with other interested parties.
First you sell him as a solo-sensation superstar, using the typical boy-band marketing tools. (Remember Menudo?)
Then once you've got an audience built up, you mix up the genres, hoping enough of the original crowd will follow, and you'll gain some new fans too, drawn by the name and liking that game...
Soft drug use, tattoos, guns, sex, vandalism, and lil gansta wannabee's flashing finger signs... the culture figured out America's affluent suburban white children can be hooked on 'dangerous' images, and sometimes white boys can make inroads still, where black youth would never get through the door...
In some circles, this is all bad for his image, but in other circles? Not. Repeat (to the sound of the beat): Not.
"Justin Bieber was in full party mode last night [Wednesday, Feb. 5] when he showed up at Diddy's Deleon Tequila launch soiree at Vanquish nightclub in Atlanta" shirtless, and sporting silver chains.
Remember, our boy -- born March 1, 1994 -- was properly turned away from post-Super Bowl parties in New York for being underage. This one was presumably private though... (Betcha his appearance was mandatory.)
Something tells me:
Only when he's 6-feet under incapable of making money, or like a teen star of yore: totally forgotten by the the media attention that shows no signs of letting up any time soon, will he be worthless, no matter what you think of his values.
In short, so long as there's still good money to be made selling this artistry, don't expect to see Ms. Miley, say, or Justin Bieber himself getting to cover up or clean up their acts anytime soon.
I don't think personal choice plays much of a role in the marketing campaigns of either, at this point. That's the price you pay for fast fame, maybe. Especially if you get signed on when you're still a child, a tabula rasa to be written upon...
Justin maybe was serious even, when he kinda tried to walk away from it all and 'retire' around Christmastime last year, remember?
He told the Power 106 DJ, "(After) the new album, I'm actually, ah, I'm retiring, man. I'm retiring. I'm taking ... I'm just going to take some time ... I think I'm going to probably quit music."Did he -- does he want out?
Lest you think I'm trying somehow to excuse or defend the Biebster, it's not that... Personally? I pity the fool.
-------------------
* On the off chance that he is not already a subscriber, I urge Justin Bieber to take a look at the current issue of the New York Review of Books. There, in addition to an article about his fellow musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, is one about marijuana. It was written by the eminent Jerome Groopman of the Harvard Medical School who says, basically, that marijuana is not a benign drug. Smoke it at your own risk.----------------
This disquieting news about the weed that for so long has been considered a drug without consequencs is supported by 19 footnotes from such tomes as the Journal of Ethno-pharmacology and comes from a man who has studied marijuana and its effects in his very own laboratory. Citing the scientific literature and with his own findings in mind, Groopman can tell you what you might not want to hear: Richard Nixon may have been right.
Groopman is not arguing that marijuana should not be legalized, which is certainly the trend. He is merely saying, in the customarily cautious way of a cautious scientist, that the drug many of us considered an innocent diversion may be anything but. It is linked to certain kinds of behavior — the DSM has an entry for “cannabis use disorder — and can be particularly pernicious when it comes to young people. It has a big effect on their little brains.
** "Hook 'em, horns" ;-)
I sorta kid, but while some people can say, smoke reefer while at, or right before going into, a high school class, and still grow up to do great things, others don't have the same kind of ... structural support that disappears their poor decision-making skills so easily.
The best way to help the majority of kids is to protect them from adult temptations while they're young. The rich, with banker grandmothers and decent educations to fall back on, might easily overcome, but for some, this nonsense they get hooked into early really does have consequences....
Still, where Cohen's preaching to a regular guy making his own decisions might have some impact, I think he's missing the real power-crowd influence here.
<< Home