For the love of Justin Bieber!

Justin Bieber. Just those two words are enough to make nearly every teenage girl on the face of the planet squeal in delight, inevitably followed by a flood of tears. The 16 year-old Canadian singing sensation has skyrocketed from obscurity to instant stardom thanks to the user generated multimedia giant YouTube.

Justin Bieber, however, is not an artist you will find in many college guy’s iTunes libraries. He was vacant from mine until this assignment.

He started out at the age of 13, when he and his single mother put up some covers of Usher, Chris Brown, and Stevie Wonder on YouTube for friends and family to see. Those videos were seen by Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive who saw something special in him, flying the young Bieber and his mother to Atlanta, GA to audition with Island Records, where he caught the eye of Usher himself. Braun soon became his manager, and soon after Justin signed a record deal with Island. And the rest, literally, is history,

His first album “My World” was released in 2009. To raise hype, four singles were released before the album came out: “One Time”, “One Less Lonely Girl”, “Love Me”, and “Favorite Girl.” All four reached Billboards Top 40 status on in it’s "Hot 100 list", the first time this has ever happened. Ever.

“My World” went on to sell 137,000 copies in its first week and was received well by critics. Bieber became an instant hit with the key “critics” as well, those critics being the “little girl” demographic; the reason why is obvious. “He’s just so freaking cute” is I’m sure what any 12 year old girl you asked about why she is “in love” with Justin would say.

Bieber would most likely appear on a list of the most marketable performers of all time. For one, everyone loves the story of a nobody becoming famous, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s as cute as the lovechild of Puppy and a baby Panda. Add in actual musical talent and you’ve got little Bieber.

Joined by those four pre-released singles, “My World” contains four other tracks: “Down To Earth”, “Bigger”, “First Dance” (featuring celeb BFF Usher), and “Common Denominator.” After listening through the entire 30 minute album, I was honestly surprised. As a fan of techno and hip-hop, a 16 year-old boy is far from my normal jam, but Bieber displays a surprisingly strong range, showing he’s got some pipes and a damn good marketing team.

The songs themselves are written to hit his fans straight in their little tween hearts; the lyrics are all about that one, special girl out there, whom every girl out there pretends she is; “I saw so many pretty faces / Before I saw you, you / Now all I see is you” goes “One Less Lonely Girl”. While it's not exactly Barry White, the compositions, beats, pop riffs, and Bieber’s ability to perform many years above his age, makes the songs enjoyable, even for a college guy like myself. While I’m not waiting with baited breath for the upcoming release of “My World 2.0”, I have respect for Bieber as an artist. Before today, I never gave the kid a chance. Now, after three listen throughs of “My World”, I actually find myself bopping around in my chair to “Love Me”.

Following him on Twitter, where he constantly updates his 1.3 million Followers about what he’s up to, has given me a little more insight into the mind of the rising star. While most celebs say they care about their fans, it seems like Justin actually means it. He realizes how crazy his ascent has been, and who he has to thank for it. He’s the first celebrity I’ve seen on Twitter actually Follow their fans (he follows 41,595), constantly re-tweeting the messages from tween girl fans from which you can literally wring their tears of joy.

While he has millions of fans, million of others point out that he's a 16 year-old boy (with the voice of a 12 year-old girl... sorry Justin) singing about love, something he has undoubtedly never actually felt (again, sorry Justin, I obviously don't know this for sure... just a hunch, and since you ignored my attempt at getting you to Follow me on Twitter for the sake of this post, I guess our bromance will never blossom past this blog). But once you get over the fact that his lyrics might be a little above his pay grade, he’s got a voice, and a "cute face", and he knows how to use both. Very, very well. Love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect the kid for having a dream and following it, as for now, Bieber-mania shows no sign of slowing down (we’ll deal with the whole issue of going through puberty and what will mean to his precious little voice later).