Justin Bieber: A Different Perspective

Songsta41 Well, I just read Justin Bieber's letter to heavy metal fans to see what was so terrible about what he was saying. I went into it expecting to be disgusted by immature and thoughtless words coming out of his mouth, but that's not what I found. Go to http://mabmeddowsmercury.deviantart.com/journal/Letter-from-Beaver-Offending-Metallica-and-Megad-223186261 to read the letter and come back here once you're done (unless you've already read it). Sometimes we metal fans have to ease up a bit and think from someone else's perspective. As a musician and person, I dislike him just as much as the next guy. But this letter was not nearly as bad as pissing on fans. He only wrote it because of people like us who incessantly talk about how bad he is. I mean, saying he's not your favorite and you don't respect his morals and actions once is one thing, but there are kill lists and tons of hate lists about him, I mean no one will shut up! Think about if you were him. You sold out to make cheesy pop songs and are liking the lifestyle but hating yourself inside. Now you can live with that if you try really hard to suppress it, but then you come to TheTopTens and find all of these people who want to drown you or set you on fire. If that continues to happen over the next few years, it's reasonable to write a letter telling the people not that they're terrible, just to back off so you don't become suicidal. And that's the thing, most people think he wrote the letter saying we're the scum of the Earth and we deserve to die because of our terrible taste in music. Read closely, what he's really saying is that he never had a reason to associate with us, so why should we only say he's the worst person on Earth? Any one of the million people who openly wants him to die deserves the hate they have coming back to them. And again, it wasn't hate! it was just him saying he doesn't like our taste, and we don't like him, but to live and let live and just not openly say you want to kill him. And the portion of the letter where he talks about Metallica and Megadeth is just him expressing why he doesn't like them, not why he doesn't like us. Sure, as a metal fan, I agree that he is a terrible musician, I love Metallica and Megadeth, and the same reasons why he doesn't like metal are the reasons I do. I'm just saying the same thing I have this whole post: live and let live and stop criticizing him. After all, we're always in an uproar when people say they hate us and our taste, right?

So now, after reading this, go back and read the letter again. This time, have this in mind: he's not hating, just asking for truce. Then read James Hatfield's response, which was perfect. To sum it up: he said that Justin should respect metal, but we also have to respect him if music brings him happiness.

Yours truly, a huge prog/heavy/thrash metalhead.

Comments

I have read the letter, and I agree that we shouldn't blow it out of proportion. But I still think Justin's put absurd things in there. I say that he used the fact that he was attacked as an excuse to attack a whole group of people, which is like attacking people with black hair because you were mugged by someone with black hair. He didn't even have proof that it was the metal culture that organised for him to be attacked. He also said things that aren't true, such as that metal musicians are trying to sabotage his music career, and implying that metal musicians don't have adequate musical talent, or justification as a genre. I would call what he was doing unreasonable, hateful, discriminating and arrogant. We all have our own musical tastes, but if anyone's trying to eradicate it, it's Justin who first suggested it. So I don't blame the metal culture for disliking this they have good reason to challenge this, and James Hetfield did this in the mature manner which I would want to see from them all. But don't blow it out of proportion it only gives you a bad rep like Justin got. - PositronWildhawk

Yeah that's a better explanation than what I said - Songsta41

True, that's a much better explanation than what I said. - Songsta41

I read Justin's perspective. I also read James' perspective. If I'd judge, Justin Bieber may have had some good intentions, but you still can't forget the hypocritical insults that he made. I don't intend to debate about this topic. I just have to defend my side.

He gets hate on many parts of the internet, especially on this site. There are many reasons. But this letter would fuel up the hate. He "tried" to make a point, but it's still not as convincing to me. Why?

First off, read this:

"The people to whom I refer are followers of a style of music they call heavy metal. These adolescents are violent, express themselves poorly and live their lives as a punishment, something bad. I just want to spread the world of music with my happiness and they try to cloud my work with their mournful thoughts. I never disrespected them. I have never mentioned them until now, because I, like any human being, have a limit of what I can tolerate and what I can't."

They express themselves poorly. Well, do you see how much they say that their favorite bands "saved" them? I may not agree with this, but they don't express themselves poorly. They show their uniqueness in society. Being a fan of bands isn't bad. He's talking about the actions of the people who are fans of metal, especially the Black Metal subgenre. He's talking about the attitudes of the people, which could have many causes. It could be the music, or because of other problems that the person is facing that's why they claim that the band has "saved" them. Nothing bad with that. I believe that they don't kill just to express their support for their favorite band. Only some insane people do that. They either say that they're fans of the band because there's talent in them or that they want to burn churches and stuff. I'd approximate. He's just talking about 25% of metal fans. Justin made some point on this, but the word "poorly expressing themselves" and the words "violent" to describe metal fans in general is very hypocritical, considering the fact that his "Beliebers" are obsessed, idiotic, and douchebags. And yes, I'm judging on how he's judging metal fans.

"I have discovered that many people of this nefarious group are willing to have YouTube delete my videos. At learning this, I felt very bad. And bad for you, whose desire is to restrict the freedom of expression of an artist, which I am. Is it good to suppress what you dislike? Your Machiavellian plan will not succeed, Youtube will not delete a runaway success that is good fun, like my songs."

This is actually true. Yeah, I understand your point. People dislike the videos because the people have an opinion. But to ban the videos? Yeah, I think that's pretty much a violation of freedom of expression. This is why I blame MTV for only showing pop/rap and discouraging rock/metal most of the time. JB has a point here.

"Moreover, I inform you that although I have nothing against you except for how you have hurt me, I profusely reject metal. Why? Because the music is dark, violent, and dull and encourages young people to walk the path of sin and become increasingly enclosed in a melancholy reverie, melodramatic and pointless. I will not lie, I heard metal bands and have rejected them."

Rejecting Metal. Just because it's dark and violent. Metal is not all dark and violent. Plus having dark music is actually great! You get a more diverse way of songwriting, a deeper atmosphere in music and it's unique! Same with violence! It's not like it does promote violence! It's a pretty interesting topic and it was creatively made by the bands! I don't know what's your definition of sin here because metal fans aren't pointless. Don't you know that they're smart? Yes, it's contrary to popular belief. It's fine that he rejects metal bands, but he speaks as if he rejects the WHOLE genre, which is worth of him getting hated.

Melodramatic? Read what James Hetfield said:

"What struck me, of course, is your criticism of my public, to whom I owe everything because they made me who I am. They helped me achieve the transformation from being a nobody to being James Hetfield from Metallica. You cannot classify them as depressed, melodramatic, and dark. By doing that, you are trying to say that our style of music influences them to feel hatred. In the end, you're completely disqualifying our [musical] style."

So Justin is clearly being jealous. Yes, jealous, from the reasoning of Beliebers.

"To give an example, I will mention Metallica. The singer, Hetfield, is mediocre and shouts excessively, completely lacking the melody with which I was born. And the guitarist only makes noise. Where is the music, then? Another band that I've also heard is Megadeth. I thought it was different, but I was wrong. The singer uses a vocal style that I dislike, like something that makes me feel like crying. And the other musicians in the band... I'd rather not give an opinion."

Mediocre? He doesn't know that James has a great talent in screaming. Screaming is actually a unique style of singing and cannot be done by just some guy right there. He thinks that guitars only make noise. I believe that he didn't listen to the solos. Because solos take a greater skill than slowly playing an acoustic guitar repetitively. Playing acoustic guitars may take a lot of talent, but playing guitar solos are incredibly hard. You can't just simply call that noise because you can feel the melody in it. Denying the fact that they got a lot of talent and the skill which is very evident in their songs and their live performances in which they had been doing for thirty years is just very ignorant.

And he dislikes the vocal style. If he dislikes it, he can state his opinion that he dislikes it but at least he didn't say that the singing style is stupid and talentless. Or maybe except for how he criticized James' screaming.

"But beware, this is not aggression it is a constructive criticism based on the many years of vocal training I've had, thanks to which I have become what I am. In short, live and let live. Coexist. Support diversity. If you respect me, I will respect you."

Constructive criticism. I hope he knows what he's saying. Because if he was doing constructive criticism, he should have been comparing screaming styles between genres, and the technique itself. And I believe that he may have had some vocal training but he uses autotune too much. I don't hate autotune, it's okay, but if he had been criticizing the music style and James' screaming, he should have done more research and actually asked people who tried doing the musical style who loved it.

Plus Justin Bieber had only been popular because of his hit songs. If he didn't make music for a long time, they won't be that remembered like how Metallica was.

Support diversity. If you are rejecting the musical style of metal, and the vocals, then he is not supporting diversity of music genres. This is why metal fans hate him even more. He had stereotyped the genre and the subculture and if he rejects the subculture itself, and not the actions, which he had failed to emphasize, then it shows rejection, which is contrary to what he says. I would have respected him if he weren't a bad role model. I may think that Katy Perry makes bad music, but he's worthy of more respect. But on JB's case, it's gonna depend on his future actions.

So what he said was not agression. It's not constructive criticism, either. It's hypocrisy.

And from how James said it, here it goes:

"I have seen the need to respond to the insults received yesterday from Justin Bieber, since his words have hurt my pride for referring to my art and my music negatively. The truth is, I felt really bad last night when I learned this because with all my years in music, I don't know what to do. I honestly do not know that all my years in this career have been disqualified by inexperienced people moving masses in a way that does not please me."

So here we go. We all know that we have been hypocritical at one point, but this thing he said blatant hypocrisy and arrogance. He has disrespected not only the fans (where I think wasn't bad because the metal fans hated him) but to one of the greatest metal bands in the world. He couldn't even justify his dislike for metal. But it has still taught us metal fans that we have to appreciate all genres, and be more open-minded. So I hope this argument ends now. As I said, I don't intend to fight, but I just had to defend our side. - visitor

As a metalhead, I see what he said about hetfield 10 times worse than pissing on fans. - visitor

As a metalhead,
Pissing on fans >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> what he said about hetfield - visitor