Justin Bieber's resurrection: how the pop star made a spectacular return

“Child pop star goes bad” is so engrained in the modern day pop narrative that it’s ability to shock has lessened with each head shaving, each poorly drawn tattoo and each bleary-eyed mugshot. What’s often exciting and surprising about this transitional phase is the difficult rehabilitation part and, with his new single What Do You Mean? at No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, 21-year-old Justin Bieber’s spectacular return from the brink of the pop abyss has been swift and stealthy.

The rehabilitation of Bieber has been a masterclass in repositioning. From adding sex appeal to the mix – that Calvin Klein underwear advert – to apparent genuine contrition (appearing on Ellen’s chatshow, American TV’s confession booth), Bieber has done everything to either distance himself from what happened or knowingly poke fun at it.

What Bieber has also managed to do – and this is where his often overlooked talent comes in – is pull the focus back to the music.

Having pulled back from the brink, Bieber now seems on course to become bigger than ever, a rare young male star in a pop market dominated by women. Perhaps his slightly muddled journey from teen pin-up to confused bad boy to rehabilitated megastar can act as a template for future male pop star transitions, most notably Zayn Malik who has so far used his post-One Direction freedom to fight with most of Twitter and then dump his fiancee, apparently via text message. Zayn should hold on to the fact that, as long as the songs are good, there’s still hope for a perpetually doe-eyed pretend bad boy with too many tattoos.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...tacular-return

Originally posted by Bad Kid. and he broke a world record wow

Originally posted by antoine_ No way Baby is and will be his peak