Was hoping you'd write about Bieber's performance. Glad to be on the right side of history together. I don't get the lazy allegations. Was his team was lazy for not hiring a choreographer and backup dancers or building a more complex set? IMO what he did probably took a lot of time to conceptualize and nail down, and was sooo narratively rich. Or are people pointing a finger at Justin specifically... because that was not the performance of a man who had been skipping rehearsals. Do people really think he ad-libbed? I don't know another artist that could have pulled it off to the same effect. It was such a moving way for him to engage with his early work and public persona, especially given his seemingly fraught relationship with fame. 10/10, no notes.
Agree about NIN being flawless, but to these GenX eyes - Beiber's set looked like all that's wrong with Millennial era pop. Lazy, dis-intermediated, and wildly risk-averse in its insulation from the audience and any sort of audacious performance of old material. It was populist/poptimist nostalgia and put everything on the audience for engagement. It's music for scrolling, to be half-listened to while scrolling and forgotten as soon as the scrolling is finished. Which is a statement about alienation to be sure, but compared to NIN -- it feels boring and lame.
At Sabrina Carpenter’s set (and generally speaking) yes. NIN felt way more conceptual and operatic - like seeing Salome or Tristan at the Met. The Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine are over 30 years old, and the Noize collab made it feel timeless - not nostalgic.
Bieber just felt very Comfortably Numb to me - like watching Pink get pushed out on stage. Riveting for 5 mins maybe. But it’s so joyless and sad. Perhaps the fact that I have zero stake in his career or his music makes it less impactful?
Was hoping you'd write about Bieber's performance. Glad to be on the right side of history together. I don't get the lazy allegations. Was his team was lazy for not hiring a choreographer and backup dancers or building a more complex set? IMO what he did probably took a lot of time to conceptualize and nail down, and was sooo narratively rich. Or are people pointing a finger at Justin specifically... because that was not the performance of a man who had been skipping rehearsals. Do people really think he ad-libbed? I don't know another artist that could have pulled it off to the same effect. It was such a moving way for him to engage with his early work and public persona, especially given his seemingly fraught relationship with fame. 10/10, no notes.
No one really has the time or patience for fake shit anymore.
AMEN & Hallelujah ❤️
Agree about NIN being flawless, but to these GenX eyes - Beiber's set looked like all that's wrong with Millennial era pop. Lazy, dis-intermediated, and wildly risk-averse in its insulation from the audience and any sort of audacious performance of old material. It was populist/poptimist nostalgia and put everything on the audience for engagement. It's music for scrolling, to be half-listened to while scrolling and forgotten as soon as the scrolling is finished. Which is a statement about alienation to be sure, but compared to NIN -- it feels boring and lame.
Don’t you find that all the dancers and pyrotechnics feels a little done to death? I was riveted by what he did.
At Sabrina Carpenter’s set (and generally speaking) yes. NIN felt way more conceptual and operatic - like seeing Salome or Tristan at the Met. The Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine are over 30 years old, and the Noize collab made it feel timeless - not nostalgic.
Bieber just felt very Comfortably Numb to me - like watching Pink get pushed out on stage. Riveting for 5 mins maybe. But it’s so joyless and sad. Perhaps the fact that I have zero stake in his career or his music makes it less impactful?