J. Biebz

Justin Bieber, the international 17-year-old teen pop-star phenomenon, has experienced an unprecedented amount of worldwide fame and success over the past year. His career is a perfect example of how social media has proven to be a major vehicle of globalization over the past decade. As the world continues to become more interconnected and geographic distances continue shrinking due to our growing use and dependency on the internet, social media and entertainment sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are thriving.  Justin Bieber comes from a small town in Canada where he entered a singing competition and his mother uploaded videos of his performances on YouTube to share them with family members who lived in other cities. Scooter Braun, a young rising record executive in Atlanta, was searching the web one day to look for interesting videos on YouTube and he came across a video of Justin that had reached a couple thousand views. After hearing the angelically pure voice of this fourteen year old boy, Braun knew he had to get a hold of this undiscovered raw talent. He hounded the family via contacting Justin's school, family members, friends, and even local government officials until Justin's mother agreed to come down to Atlanta on an all expense paid trip to explore Justin's potential future in the music business. Justin recorded a few songs in the studio, met some record executives and producers, signed with Def Jam Records, and the rest is history. Topping the charts of iTunes downloads and making appearances on the front cover of  the most popular magazines every week, Justin has gotten a taste of what it feels like to be on top. With the recent wrapping up of his worldwide My World tour, the premier of his MTV film "Never Say Never", and a rapidly growing fan base following him on Twitter, Facebook, and of course, YouTube, Justin shows no signs of stopping. He has collaborated with music sensations such as rapper Ludacris, Sean Kingston, and most recently with Rascal Flatts in his song "That Should Be Me." While he is the teen heartthrob that has captured the hearts of people spanning from all nationalities, ages, and musical tastes, Justin still acknowledges and respects his roots. He knows that he would not be where he is without the support of his fans, who feel as though they were the very ones who discovered him on their home computers on YouTube a couple of years ago. His humility, irresistible charm, incredible musical talents, and of course that gorgeous head of hair has caused the multitudes to experience an epidemic that can only be described as "Bieber fever" and it seems as though there's only more "Beliebers"to come in the future.