JUSTIN BIEBER PORTFOLIO

Ashley Dy Chynna Lim

Ysabella Marquez Chino Tolentino

Vianney Jo Tovilla

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Know about Justin Bieber 01

Who is he?

Understanding the Self 02

What can we understand of the self in Justin Bieber?

Deconstructing the Self 08

Explore the different dimensions of Justin Bieber

Personal Flourishing 15

How did Justin Bieber flourish?

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KNOW ABOUT

JUSTIN BIEBER

"Believe in something bigger than yourself and find your purpose" - Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After his mother posted YouTube clips of her boy performing, Bieber went from an unknown, untrained singer to a budding superstar with a big-time record deal with Usher within two years.

In 2009, his first single, "One Time", was a worldwide hit and was certified Platinum in Canada and the United States. This was followed by his debut EP album, "My World", which was also an international success. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

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JUSTIN BIEBER

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF – @JUSTINBIEBER

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PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECT

Justin makes him Justin because of the past experiences we relate to him. Everyone attaches the memories of Justin being this kid who was discovered by a producer. Further, Justin is also remembered by being this kid who had to go through cyberbullying for a long period of his teenage years. People do not see Justin Bieber as any human being, but what makes Justin the person such as his music, his scandals, and his journey throughout life that stuck with us. This is how we really perceive him. Whenever we call out his name, we are not really just referring to any name but it would specifically be “the” Justin Bieber that we know of him. It is not just any person but it’s who we make up of him. This is actually how we define him and what we really mean when we use his name.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT Remember to get some fresh air and love yourself Justin Bieber's life has been encircled by the public spotlight since he was a child, from his blunders and the lessons he gained from them, to his evolution as an individual in terms of his well-being.

The public is aware of his prior mistakes, roadblocks, and even mental health issues. As he noted in an interview with GQ, having this made public has made it much more difficult for him to deal with. However, his mental development has been underlined in recent pieces as the popstar declares that he is on his way to redemption. Bieber's journey of making mistakes, learning from them, and eventually recovering has demonstrated that he is constantly taking initiative to be his ideal self. These initiatives, he acknowledges, will enable him to grow as an individual even further.

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SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECT

Observing Justin Bieber’s experiences growing up, he was always in the public eye and constantly being surrounded by fans, media, and other celebrities. With this, we can relate it to George Mead’s theory of symbolic interactions. In Justin Bieber’s case, his image as a globalconcept and how he perceives himself is defied in different ways. He has been constantly criticized for his behavior, which was attributed to his young age with the fact that he had early exposure to fame. Furthermore, Mead also raises a point that individuals develop a sense of self through their ability to take different roles in different situations. In this case, Justin Bieber has different roles in his career: performer, musician, actor, and husband. It is observed that these roles contributed to his sense of self and how he perceives his role in society

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ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECT Anthropology is the study of humanity, of that which separates us from other animals and makes us who we are. Of civilization and what we do as communities together. Now since time immemorial, music has been an integral part of human life. From simple drums of pebbles and boulders in the beginning of our species, to the most complicated orchestras of today, something about music has fascinated humanity. In ancient Greece, music had its own deity, who simultaneously was also the god of the Sun itself. Therefore from an anthropological point of view, Justin Bieber’s occupation as a musician actually holds a lot of meaning. From a socio-centric perspective, the family and culture into which Bieber had grown up from and emerged into provided enough pride of place to musicians that this became a crucial part of his identity and sense of self. The willingness of his mother to risk him flying to Atlanta to demo some music, the musical environment and openness that allowed him to mix genres and styles, the fan culture that surrounded his rise; all these certainly contributed to how Bieber conceives of himself and his place in the world. He is a person, and part of his being as a person is his love and talent for music, which was fostered and developed through the culture of his world.

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ORIENTAL ASPECT In Dealing with Challenges Justin implied the oriental perspective to his life by accepting reality into his life in dealing with haters in the concept of Wu-Wei. Even at a young, aged singer in the pop industry, he developed multiple haters that criticized his voice, skills, and looks. He mentioned “There was so many people who were just so mean. Random people saying, ‘you suck,’ ‘you look like a girl.’ I would shake it off and act like it didn’t bother me, but that stuff bothered me.” With his situation with his haters, he shared in one of his interviews that his fame has caused him to have anxiety, and wrote his song “Lonely” inspired by his difficult experiences. However, as he grew older and developed a mature mindset, he embrace reality. He began to accept things as they are and acknowledged the fact that there is nothing he can do to control them leading him to embrace reality. This can be recognized through his posted tweet on twitter stating “haterz gonna hate. cant stop this smile.” And posting on Instagram "MY STASH MY LIFE DEAL WITH IT HAHA." Which was dedicated to his haters criticizing his mustache. Which is why in relation to the experience of Justin Bieber, he cultivated a greater sense of acceptance and trust in the natural flow of life. Besides the concept of Wu-Wei he also adopted the practice of resiliency which can be correlated with Lao Tzu’s words of wisdom to “Become a Bamboo is”. He demonstrated this by not letting himself give up on challenges and adapt well in difficult circumstances.

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A/M - Project

DECONSTRUCTING THE

SELF

09 MY BODY

MY CHOICE

PHYSICAL SELF Justin Bieber’s physical appearance is already one of his sources of income. The way he dresses, what brand he wears, the trends he starts, and his overall representation of himself is what makes his income. As an A-list celebrity, he’s quite aware of how important he represents himself physically, surrounded by cameras and eyes everywhere. Through being in the eye of the media and the fashion industry, he’s quite knowledgeable now about what suits him and what doesn’t. And through the years, he’s expressed confidence with everything that he wears, that’s why there’s no doubt why he always sets trends.

Justin Bieber always ensures that a huge chunk of his personality can already be seen through the clothes he’s wearing, through this principle, he’s able to differentiate himself from other celebrities. As not only friends, but also fans of his are fascinated by the representation of himself that he showcases everywhere. May it be on a red carpet, a tv show, or even just on his day-to-day life. This inspires his followers to represent themselves and express who they really are through the clothes they wear.

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SEXUAL SELF "Remember this: Be kind to your mind." When Justin Bieber was first starting out in his career, a lot of people made fun of his sexuality. But, Justin Bieber is a heterosexual male and is married to Hailey Bieber. Not much can be found about Justin Bieber voicing out about sexuality but in one case a fan approached him about churches being open to the LGBTQ community. The fan unfortunately struggled to find a church that would be inclusive of the community. Justin Bieber goes to Hillsong church and invites the fan to go to it since they are accepting of the community and that “anyone can come”. He proceeds to feel sorry that this person feels this way. This demonstrates that Justin Bieber is open and accepting of the LGBT community as he is inviting them to his church he attends. Further, Justin was very warm towards this fan and even empathized with the situation.

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ECONOMICAL SELF Justin Bieber is that rare, actual rags to riches story. He was born to Pattie Malette when she was just 18 years old. He later paid tribute to the struggles she went through to raise him, writing the Mother's Day song "Turn To You" in 2012. It opens with the lines, "You worked two jobs to keep a roof above our head / You chose the life for me, no you never gave up / I admire you for the strength you've instilled in me". We can imagine that it was not an easy childhood, growing up in low income housing, but that his mother's example gave him the strength and humility to push through. Part of pushing through was Justin taught himself how to play instruments, and then started posting some videos on YouTube. Marketing executive Scooter Braun took notice, convinced Pattie to allow him to let Justin fly to Atlanta and record some demos, and the rest is history. It is clear his background of growing up poor remained with Justin as part of his sense of economic self. For example, in 2010, when he was 16 and just about a year after rocketing to fame, he revealed that his mother gave him an allowance of just $50 a day in order to teach him the value of a dollar, despite him having hundreds of millions in the bank. Of course, in the decade or so since, Justin has become an adult and has seen even more success. He spends far more than just $50 a day, having spent millions on homes and cars in particular. Publicly, these two things - real estate and his car collection - are what he has appeared to spend on the most. The prices are of course absurdly high, but compared to other celebrities, his priorities seem almost tame and regular, possibly a result of his upbringing.

DIGITA

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DIGITAL SELF As we know, actions of famous personalities are on the internet. With that being said, every move they make gets judged by millions of people. This is of course especially true with Justin Bieber.

We all know how much hate the celebrity got during his younger years. “Baby”, his first hit, is one of the most disliked videos on the internet. We also have probably seen memes about the celebrity when we were younger that would make fun of him and even poke fun at his sexuality. Despite all of the hateful comments and hateful memes towards him, Justin decided to continue with his singing career.

However, it seems like Justin Bieber does get affected by what people say. This can be seen in one of the issues that Justin had to go through where he threatened to make his Instagram account private when his friend was receiving hate from his fans.

Justin also needs to care about his online reputation because this is his livelihood. The more he has an audience to support his music, the more he will earn and become successful. There's also that pressure of staying relevant since he needs to retain his fan base and be remembered.

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SPIRITUAL SELF In the context of Justin Bieber’s Spiritual Self, he is known for being religious and at the same time spiritual. In recent years, Justin has been open about his Christian faith and frequently shares the good news of Jesus with his fans. On a past night, he encouraged his followers to turn to Jesus. "We release our selfish ways and know that you gladly take them, Jesus," he wrote in the post's caption. He also loves going to church and meeting his church family. No to mention, he also often begins his morning with a prayer. With Justin Bieber, who has previously been open about his mental health struggles, has commended his faith through praising Jesus. Having a sense of connection to something greater than himself and being involved in belonging to a specific faith or community.

Factors that Influenced Justin’s Spiritual Self FAMILY

COMMUNITY

Justin Bieber’s beliefs and practices were exposed and influenced by his mother Pattie Mallette who is a born-again Christian. Justin’s mother raised Justin in the church by playing him tapes of future mentor Judah Smith. He mentioned in Billboard that his Mother would not let him listen to anything but Pastor Judah’s tapes to make him fall asleep when he was 7 years old.

He was also influenced by the community he is surrounded by as he began to associate with peers who were also raised in the church. He began going on religious retreats with evangelistic actor Stephen Baldwin's model daughter Hailey and dated a fellow pop star, Selena Gomez. He also reconnected with Pastor Judah Smith as the pastor listened to Justin and try to hear him out.

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POLITICAL SELF Justin Bieber was born and raised in Canada, but he has spent a significant amount of time living and working in the United States. As a result, he has been exposed to both Canadian and American politics. While Bieber has not been outspoken about his political beliefs, he has made comments about social issues that have political implications. For example, in 2016 he expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged his fans to educate themselves about racial injustice. He has also spoken out in support of the LGBTQ+ community, saying in a 2021 interview that he wants to use his platform to create a more inclusive world. However, despite occasional comments on social issues, Bieber has not endorsed any political candidates or parties, nor has he taken a firm stance on specific policy issues. It's possible that he prefers to keep his political beliefs private in order to avoid alienating fans who hold different views, or simply because he prefers to focus on his music and other interests.

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PERSONAL FLOURISHING "CONTINUE, STOP, AND START"

– @JUSTINBIEBER

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FLOURISHING PLAN AND CONCLUSION What should he continue doing? We would encourage Bieber to continue making music, as he clearly enjoys and benefits from it. In particular, we are inspired by how he has recently further developed his collaboration with other artists. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he collaborated with Ariana Grande for a single whose proceeds went to first responders and their families. Beyond this, he has in the past couple of years collaborated with DJ Khaleed, Nigerian singers Wizkid and Omah Lay, Skrillex, Juice Wrld, and Don Tolliver, among others. From being a solo singer who mixed genres himself, he has now emerged as a mixer of artists and styles in general. Not only is it beautiful to listen to, but it has also been financially beneficial to Bieber: just in January 2022, he had the most monthly listeners in Spotify, over a decade since his debut. Clearly, the collabs are working, and he should continue to explore this avenue of music.

What should he start doing? Another interesting aspect of Justin Bieber that has not yet full blossomed is his entrepreneurial side. He has previously released his own fragrance and clothing lines, but in 2022 launched a clean water technology company called “Generosity.” We think he should start investing more time, effort, and money into these ventures as they would be able to let him explore a side of his talent and creativity that may not have yet been realized through music. In particular, he can take advantage of his sale of his entire music back catalog up to 2021 to step away from being fully focused on music - perhaps focusing more narrowly on collabs going forward - and use the time to engage in other non-music projects. Clearly his music shows a lot of his true and interior personality, and seeing other types of contributions to the world could be wonderful to see.

What should he stop doing? In his younger years, Bieber racked up quite a list of scandals. There was hitting paparazzi with a truck, hitting a fan, assaulting a limo driver, drunk driving, and offensive language, to name the top hits. If he was seen to be continuing these acts to today, we would certainly tell him to clean up his act and enjoy his success responsibly. However, in recent years he has already been doing so. He’s been open about his faith and even released a gospel album in 2021, he married his wife Hailey Baldwin in 2018, and generally had less negative news about him come out. Therefore, we do not have much to say about things he ought to stop doing, rather we would encourage him as he tries to live a life where his safety and happiness are paramount, not fleeting pleasures.

We wish Justin Bieber even more success as he enters his 30’s and beyond. He has been an inspiration to so many, and with this plan in mind, he could continue to be so for decades to come.