Every New Zealand #1 single…
5
Love Yourself by Justin Bieber
Topped the NZ chart: from 7 December 2015 for 10 weeks.
Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber was discovered via YouTube. His mother had uploaded videos of Bieber singing onto the video platform, and eventually one was seen by entrepreneur Scooter Braun. Bieber hit the US top 20 with his debut single ‘One Time’, released at the age of 15.
I’d have picked him to be a flash in the pan. But Bieber’s successfully maintained a blockbuster career in the fickle pop industry. All of his six albums to date have topped the charts in both the UK and Canada, I have strong opinions on many other blockbuster pop artists of the 21st century. I’m on the fence about Bieber so far.
Bieber dominated the #1 spot on the NZ single charts during the final quarter of 2015. His singles from his fourth album Purpose mostly supplanted each other in the top spot. Only three weeks from Adele’s ‘Hello’ provided relief from Bieber fever.
‘Love Yourself’ was the third single taken from Purpose, and the most successful. It topped the NZ single charts for an impressive 10 weeks. It’s an impressive feat from a piece that doesn’t sound like a chart-topping song. It’s pared back, Bieber accompanied by a twanging electric guitar. There’s an unexpected interlude, with multiple trumpets playing a nice tune.
Bieber’s vocal performance is endearing, with the right amount of emotion to fuel the piece without overwhelming it. ‘Love Yourself’ was written by Ed Sheeran, who I often find trite. He’s better served by having Bieber’s more characterful voice deliver the song.
I don’t always enjoy how pop has become more direct and crass over the years. It’s partly because I’m a prude, but also because it’s less creative to be direct. I appreciate how the insult is veiled on ‘Love Yourself’. “Love yourself” serves as a euphemism, both for masturbation and for dismissing the subject of the song with a nasty insult. However, the best insult is “My mama don’t like you and she likes everyone.”
Ultimately, ‘Love Yourself’ sounds more like a decent album track than a 10-week chart-topping single.
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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
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I think Bieber came of age musically on “Purpose”, which featured the first songs I ever liked from him.
I’ve heard other Bieber songs I like more – he has some personality in his voice.
I liked “Love Yourself” at first, but I’ve heard it so many times over the years and that stupid interpretative dance music video ruined the song for me.
It’s kind of refreshingly minimal. Do you like Bieber’s other stuff?
Not really. I’m one of those people that only prefers his music before he hit puberty. ‘My World’ and ‘My World 2.0’ are the only ones I like. What about you?
I’m not very well acquainted with Bieber actually. There are some more songs coming up (eventually) in this series. I remember being impressed by his hair when he first arrived.
Ah I see. He did have good hair back then. Man, I miss his hair flip!
Love Yourself…I can listen to it and it’s better than much of the other music I’ve heard from him. I just don’t like whatever they do to his voice…and most voices in modern pop recordings. Maybe it’s autotune or some computer VST I don’t know.
This one though…is by far the best one I’ve heard by him.
I think I’ve grown more used to autotune over the years, and it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to.
A friend gave me the VST of it. He had his 3 year old at the time…to basically scream out something and he made it in tune…that was scary.
It stretches voices and puts a hump in it on a modern recordings…Cher is the one I remember it by first.
We’ve had this conversation before I think, but I reckon perfectionism is OK on some genres like pop and hip hop. Kills others like rock and rootsy country.
It’s a preference for each person I agree….I guess that is the reason I don’t go for prog rock (not all of it anyway) because of the perfectionism…I like flaws