Response to http://beavertailsandrecordsales.blogspot.com/2012/03/bleiber.html

Justin Beiber compared to other young people in the media who are teen moms, is doing more very well and has been very influential, his records sales are through the roof, and his movie did very well as well. I also didn’t see it because personally I am not a fan, and in class was the first time I had ever seen the music video Pray. When I saw it, what I saw was a music video with a distorted perspective, of over self promotion and similar to the ads of the Coca Cola Commercial “Reason to Believe”  comparing really life political international issues to mother making cakes. In this sense Bieber and his team, do the same thing. Because lets not forget that Bieber is a commodity and there is a question of authenticity, and a question of how much input Bieber really gets in the first place.  I feel that the message in Pray  although on a superficial whole which can only expected from a commercial pop icon  can be good  however I feel it is an  over simplifies complex issues, and does it in an excellent marketing way, which can be dangerous for the target audience. Similarly to the Kony2012 phenomenon (but that’s another blog)

 Yes although Bieber is visiting kids in the hospital, and there can be aid at the local level, the video makes you think that Bieber is actually in Haiti, that the nurses (that are actually in Haiti, aiding)  are dancing ( which they are most likely not) to his tune and everything is alright, that his song will aid in all the international devastation, it seems it has this repeated narrative since colonial times of the “first” world saving the “third world.” I don’t think that by being critical of a pawn is by any means cynical, it is just another way of looking beyond what is presented.