After reading Rebecca’s blog post about the wonders of Justin Bieber, I still had mixed emotions about the guy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a diehard fan, nor am I a diehard hater. I’m also not musically talented or qualified enough to judge the quality of his music. But I can observe. And what I have observed for the past few months is that virtually none of his music gets played on the radio!
I listen to The Beat and Virgin Radio quite often, and never once have I heard a Bieber song (not even “Baby”). The argument that his songs are old doesn’t stand, because they don’t play him even when he has new releases. Keep in mind this is purely observation: I haven’t trawled through their playlist history and control- f’d “justin bieber”.
This isn’t one bit surprising to me. It’s no newsflash that the wide majority of Justin Bieber’s fanbase is girls in their teens. But how do other age or gender groups view him? Although his talent and charm is apparent, haters are going to hate. And again, it’s not surprising to envision a hard working man in his 40’s, seeing a pubescent boy dancing around a stage yelling “kiss me, kiss me”, earn a hundred times his salary being a little peeved.
So despite Bieber’s success, radio stations still don’t play him often, if not at all. I guess stability-wise, this makes sense. It’s much safer to replay stereotypical songs again and again to satisfy the entire population than to massively appeal to one specific market, while simultaneously destroying the ears of their counterparts.