In the music video for Justin Bieber’s hit, “Baby,” there are many different dynamics at play. Some of which have notes of truth and others merely placed for entertainment value; however all in all, one can not deny that the video is truly entertaining and the song is catchy enough to get trapped in the subconscious for the remainder of the day.
Justin immediately assumes the typical male dominant role at the bowling alley when he and his friends are in a lane and the group of girls is in a lane next to them. He bowls a strike and gloats about it as though the girls won’t be able to do the same. Initially and throughout the video, the girl of Justin’s focus brushes him off and wants nothing to do with him. The interactions throughout between Justin’s group of “boys” and the object of his affections and her “girls” are anything but a teenager’s typical route to get the girl.
The setting is somewhat believable at the bowling alley, because these are the days of “Cosmic Bowling” where they turn off all the lights, pump up the music and put on the strobe lights to make a somewhat old fashioned game, current and hip. However, Justin’s way of “wooing” his girl by a dance-off between the boys and girls is certainly not conventional by any stretch of the imagination. Also, even though Justin is Usher’s protégé, the fact that he and his friends would be hanging out at a bowling alley with Drake and Ludacris, for lack of a better term…ludicrous.
The perception of teenagers and their habits in every new generation is going to be that they have too much freedom and not enough discipline. Every older generation believes the newer to be pushing the envelope in that they are too racy, too outspoken and too unsupervised.
The merger of music styles between Justin and Ludacris is not quite as ludicrous as them hanging out as friends. Today, there are so many different artists working together on tracks because it promotes both artists in many ways. One of the biggest musicians to pioneer the current trend in artists’ combos, Drake, is also part of the Justin video. Drake has many combos with artists such as Niki Minaj and Bruno Mars. This trend has proven successful for these artists because it means double the exposure, double the album sales, and double the ticket prices should they perform live together. Justin and Luda seem to work as Luda is singing about his first love from when he was 13 years old…about as old as Justin seems to be in this video.
The Justin Bieber “Baby” video is about as realistic as any other music video playing on MTV (when they play music videos…). As previously stated, the setting of the bowling alley is possible; however the dance-off to win the affections of some girl who happens to be bowling in the lane next to Justin is in no way realistic. And the fact that he does, of course, win her over and they exit the bowling alley hand in hand as an adorable new couple is simply the work of a catchy and entertaining music video. After all, who wants to watch a teenaged boy repeatedly get shot down by the girl he is trying desperately to win over via boy vs. girl dance-off?
