Bieber's bounceback: how the pop star's public apology makes way for his Third Act

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/30/justin-bieber-confession-third-act

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There he was staring directly into the camera. Everything from his hair – at the mousier end of the blond spectrum, looking unkempt under a baseball cap – to the dark rings around his eyes and the gravelly tone of his voice implied this statement was a moment of clarity after more late nights than he can remember. Then, there were the words that were coming out of his mouth. They were, perhaps, the most surprising of all. Justin Bieber was apologising. For being Justin Bieber.

Related: Justin Bieber releases video apology over 'arrogant' behaviour

“It’s been a minute since I’ve been in a public appearance, and I didn’t want to come off arrogant or conceited or basically how I’ve been acting the past year and a half,” he said. “I’m not who I was pretending to be. Why I say I was ‘pretending’, is often we pretend to be something we’re not, as a coverup of what we are truly feeling inside.”

With its low production value and confessional tone, the minute-and-a-half-long video fell somewhere between “raw and emotional” and “Heather Donahue’s wet-nosed scene in The Blair Witch Project”.

What are we to make of it? Its most striking statement – “I’m not who I was pretending to be” – is fascinating. Reminiscent of Elton John’s mysterious Rocket Man (“I’m not the man they think I am at home”), it was also Truman Show-esque in its hyper-real double meaning. It’s a line that could have been nailed to the walls of Tate Modern or at least plucked from the script of Hannah Montana: The Movie.

It prompts the question: who was he pretending to be? Chris Brown’s less charming younger brother? A delinquent with a careless disregard for monkeys? Mark Wahlberg? Justin Bieber: part pantomime villain, part modern-day cautionary tale, and now contrite not-at-all-airbrushed pop chameleon.

Bieber may be trapped in his own showbiz bubble, but this video apology wasn’t his cry to be let out, it was preparation for his Third Act. If the First Act was the sugar-coated introduction to the tween singer, and the Second involved his delinquent phase (and in doing so, gaining the moniker “Nightmare Douche Prince From Hell” from Paper magazine in the process), the Third Act looks set to reveal The Real Him. In order to appeal to a more mature demographic, Bieber has to shake off more than his clothes and morph into something approaching a “serious artist”. Someone who appeals beyond his original fanbase. Bieber, who recently hinted that he’s working with Rick Rubin, released a snippet of a noticeably more mature-sounding song on his Instagram earlier this week and had graciously (or calculatedly) allowed himself to be the subject of a Comedy Roast, is taking his first steps towards that place.

Related: Roasted: Justin Bieber right where we want him

The Third Act is a pop-star stage that Nicki Minaj has recently moved into. Ditching the DayGlo wigs was symbolic: on The Pinkprint she also got rid of much of the cartoonish sentiment that went along with it. Rapping about the end of her relationship was only the beginning of her next, more serious stage, and the denouement of the album finds her moving into her Third Act: belting out a ballad Adele would be proud of. Roman, it seemed, had gone on more than just a holiday.

Perhaps Nicki picked up a few tips from Madonna, who spun away from her hard-bodied, mechanical pop-star image into something thoughtful and positively hippyish on albums Like a Prayer and, later, Ray of Light. Janet Jackson, meanwhile, went from Michael’s cute-as-a-button baby sister to a potent symbol of black emancipation on Rhythm Nation and The Velvet Rope. It hardly mattered that on later albums she effectively morphed into a empty throb of libidinous intent.

In Bieber’s case, his apology video seems like both damage limitation and a tee-ing up for his next career phase: Ed Sheeran-esque singer-songwriter. Which is arguably even more objectionable than anything he’s done before.