Justin time

 

2020 may very well have been an interesting year for the world in general and music in particular, 2021 is arguably no different. In the US, things started off with the triumphant return of rising Country star Morgan Wallen, whose second — and double — album Dangerous readily took over the Billboard 200. A few weeks later, it was revealed that the artist had used racial slurs in a now infamous video and he was swiftly dropped by his label and radios alike — although his record sales actually rose… and he kept his #1 spot on the charts. Until now, that is.

While Wallen’s hold on global charts might have come as a bit of a surprise (even in the beginning), that is admittedly less the case with pop superstar Justin Bieber. This latest release, Justice, is the man’s 6th studio album — and his 6th straight #1 studio album at that. That’s not even all: he also had a couple more #1 works over the years, a 2011 remix album and a 2013 acoustic project. In other words, Justin Bieber has had more #1 albums than he has had albums… That being said, success is never a given, repeated success even less so. Although Bieber is arguably the biggest teen pop sensation of his generation, the way Britney Spears was before him (and Billie Eilish could be for the next), history has shown time and again that sustaining such a level of success is very near impossible.

In the end, the fact that Bieber is back on top is mainly due to the fact that his most recent work favorably compares to earlier projects. At it happens, the (still) young artist was able to navigate the pitfalls of fame, the brevity of trending topics and come out more resilient on the other side. This new album, as showcased by its most recent single, “Peaches” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, offers a highly satisfying and utterly contemporary-sounding Electro-RnB-Pop (what we call Hip Pop) set of tracks, highlighting the artist’s near-innate ability to create bone fide earworms. The other thing that helped was the “Anyone” music video with a boxing Bieber. And a couple new tattoos.

Anyway, happy Justin Bieber week, everybody!