Justin Bieber vs. One Direction

By Jason Paras | Staff Writer

October 17, 2012

“Directioners” and “Beliebers” draw your swords and prepare for battle because it’s time to settle one of the largest disputes of entertainment society today.

Between the “swagged-out” Justin Bieber, and the sensitive, woman-swooning, five piece boy band One Direction (also known as 1D), who is the better artist?

I’m sorry for those who aren’t the type to “rip off the band-aid” so to speak, but I must be succinct.

Bieber is simply a much more advanced vocalist and musician.

Also, I hear from my anonymous female sources that when competing in a “who has the better looks” competition, the transcendental Bieber easily takes the cake.

Moreover, the teenage pop star “J-Biebs” (with his voice now recently formed and matured) has close to mastered many aspects of his voice including his mixed voice, which is a complex mixture between the chest voice (the normal singing voice) and ones head voice (your higher singing voice which is often used to talk to children), his vocal trills (quick and deliberate movements of the voice which is much different than vibrato), strengthening of his head voice and falsetto (a singing voice classified as higher than the head voice), and finally, his tone or how your voice sounds to the audience has been relentlessly forged and fashioned to be on that appeals to an extremely large population (which may even seem to be an understatement considering that, according to riaa.com, as of September 12, 2012 there has been a total of 8.3 million digital downloads of Bieber’s content).

In contrast, from my stand point, out of all the Direction singers, none may even be considered close to mastering any of these crucial aspects of the vocal art.

Instead, these boys sing as if directed to sing a horrible representation of sprechgesang or better explained as a German operatic term expressed as a mixture of singing and speaking.

However, the vocals of the five boys would be more accurately described along the lines of a combination of singing and shouting as evident in their song “What Makes You Beautiful.”

To keep this destructive train rolling, as every fan of “The Biebs” and One Direction know, these two artists had their first head-to-head rumble at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, both reaching hand-over-hand for the Choice Love Song award.

As the title of the award implies, the winning song is supposed to be the most romantic, breath-taking song of the year from the teenage perspective.

The two tunes submitted (from which one should easily be able to recognize which artist should have won this accolade) were Bieber’s hit from his newest album “Believe,” titled “Die in Your Arms,” and One Direction’s  “What Makes You Beautiful” off their album “Up All Night”.

Despite whether Bieber’s hands were cut off on the spot or the votes favoring the one-hit-wonders simply engulfed him in a sea of negativity, the members of One Direction skipped out of the award ceremony with the Choice Love Song trophy proudly held up to the sky.

Many of these “Directioners,” or someone who “even when the band grows up and goes on with their lives…will NEVER forget the happiness and the joy that [One Direction] brought to them for so many years” (as defined by the ever so reliable Urban Dictionary), may claim that because the band won this competition, they must be the better artist.

Yes, I do indeed understand and comprehend the logic behind this train of thought, however my point is simply being missed.

The reason why the helpless victims of the twenty-first century’s teenage heart-throb disease voted for the One Direction tribe was sadly not because of beautiful and harmonious vocal talent.

“Their” single’s lyrics (which can barely be called “theirs” considering the fact that they took no part in writing this pop hit) simply make their listeners feel good and confident about themselves.

Before my merciless rambling begins, I must clarify two elements to you.

One, I must inform the female fans of One Direction to take all remnants hair flipping out of your daily routines because “the way you flip your hair,” despite the strange turn-ons of the 1D clan, does not make us males feel “overwhelmed.”

Secondly, to get back on track, the Direction Boys took the lyrics of “What Makes You Beautiful” straight out of the Encyclopedia of the Must Used and Most Cliché Pick-up Lines.

One Direction (who would also rightfully be named the “One Hit Wonders” utilizing the classic copy and paste method by taking the most common and notorious lines, such as “…baby you light up my world like nobody else,” “…[you] don’t need makeup to cover up,” and telling the listener that although they can’t see it, “you’re beautiful” and pasting them straight onto the lyrics sheet.

So, how did One Direction manage to defeat the most googled human being to ever exist on this earth in this global competition?

Because their nominated tune “What Makes You Beautiful,” or better titled “Tell Girls Everything They Want to Hear,” simply tampered with and manipulated the hearts of millions and millions of young girls all around the world.

Why am I spending so much time explaining the components that aided One Direction to win this undeserved award?

Simply because the accusation not only applies to One Direction’s victory at the Teen Choice Awards, but also directly applies towards the primary reason why the One Direction boys hit the gong of fame so quickly despite their physical appearance.

Now, I understand that to many this form of trickery should be considered as some sort of treason recognizing the fact that the last thing a loving mother and father want to worry about is seeing their little daughter giving her precious heart away to men she has never even met, but freedom of expression and the world’s incurable addiction towards self-complimenting music overwhelms this public monstrosity.

On the other hand, in his nominated work “Die In Your Arms,” Justin speaks to the girl he loves proclaiming that if he were to die, he would love to “die in [her] arms.”

To be brief, if the judges or voters of the competition where those solely above the state of believing everything they want to hear or even those able to diagnose One Direction’s tune as molded to be heart-tampering, the One Direction boys would have been left coughing in the dust.

This is also true when mentioning One Direction’s general popularity in modern society.

If One Directions’ one hit “What Makes You Beautiful” hadn’t been written and constructed only with cheesy and classic pick-up lines to manipulate the young hearts of young, helpless girls literally all around the world, 1D would have never shaken hands with those of fame.

In opposition, although I personally am not a fan of his provocative technique of whispering and rapping and his clearly over swagged outfits, Justin’s vocal talent and musicianship is more than enough to get him by in the popular universe. Thus, permitting him to be the “better artist.”

About Jason Paras

Jason is currently taking part in his second year as a staff writer for the Charger Account. Apart from writing, Jason spends his time competing in vocal competitions in multiple genres (classical, pop, jazz, rock, etc.). He is also the lead vocalist in the respected alternative rock group, Highway.

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