Bruce Springsteen vs. Justin Bieber

I went to see Bruce Springsteen in Manchester last friday night, and it was incredible. But whilst I was enjoying it, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad for the sorry state of our modern social media generation. Namely, how in the world can The Boss, the coolest man alive and one of the best performers you’ll ever see be less popular than someone like Justin Bieber? Justin Bieber whose music is nothing more than meaningless lyrics and factory manufactured tunes.

It really annoys me that this is the world today, that the biggest cultural export of the U.S.A is this glorified afterbirth. Any other generation would have laughed at the thought of a turd like Bieber, but not us, not our Twilight watching, Facebook worshipping generation retard generation. What happened to taste? Is it just that there is no music out there that can fill the void of corporate shite? Surely there must be something out there that could rival The Beatles, The Stones, The Eagles, The Who and of course Bruce Springsteen himself. Every generation has its classic music, remembered for decades to come, what is ours? Take That? No. Cheryl Cole? Sigh. Rihanna? Just laughable. The only individual I can think of who may reach this status is Adele, but even still, I don’t think she’s worthy of the presence of such music gods.

I blame the internet to be honest. Hypocritical as it sounds, I blame blogging, facebooking, googling and I blame twotting (or whatever the verb to use twitter is!). Corporations have seized the opportunity to get under the skin of our social media generation by maximizing exposure and almost brainwashing the masses into thinking they like some prepubescent spaz child.

Did anyone see the final of the American X Factor? That night I saw one of the saddest things I will ever see. A duet between Stevie Wonder, one of the true great legends of the music world and the aforementioned turd that is Justin Bieber. Surely this must breach some sort of human rights law? Poor Stevie couldn’t know what he was signing up for, he was probably just told that Justin Bieber is one of the biggest selling artists of this generation. To put a blind legend on stage and have him danced around by a scrotum with a microphone is just tragic, it was like a caged Lion having sweets thrown at it by kids. Don Mcleans classic ‘American Pie’ is never more relevant than today, every single day seems to bring something that is killing the music slowly but surely.

All I can say is I’m so glad I’m not like the rest of my stupid, ignorant generation. I don’t like Justin Bieber, will.I.am can’t sing, neither can Cheryl Cole, or Jessie J or pretty much anyone else is popular. The Queen’s jubilee concert was also farcical, picking singers like will.i.am, Cheryl and Jessie to perform even though not one of them can sing live! That Paul McCartney stole the show just goes to show what a shitty state of affairs the music world is in.

I’m curious as to what Americans think of their current stream of cultural excretions. Are you proud of people like Justin Bieber representing your great nation? Don’t you wish that the representation of the USA that the world saw was more like Bruce Springsteen and not a corporate creation? I know I do.

Read my review of Bruce Springsteen at the Etihad Stadium at http://whatculture.com/music/bruce-springsteen-smashes-manchester-with-his-wrecking-ball-review.php

Related articles