Battle of the Bass: Justin Bieber vs One Direction

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On Friday, Nov. 13, two of the most popular music artists in the industry decided to release their new albums of the year.
Justin Bieber announced that his album Purpose would be released that day a few weeks before One Direction announced its final album Made in the A.M. would be released the same day.
Although Bieber and the boys of One Direction both tweeted each other wishing each other luck on their album sales, fans still turned the situation into a dramatic battle between the two.
Bieber’s album has been long awaited for the past couple of years, ever since he took a break from the stardom and the spotlight. After several different occasions of breaking the law and slowly deteriorating his reputation, it just seemed like the right thing to do to step out of the limelight. Although he released one album in 2013 entitled Journals, the album was promoted less than the others and did not seem as important as the previous ones.
His album released this year is the first big album he has released since Believe, which came out in June 2012. Fans have been looking forward to the release of new Bieber music for a while now, so it is no surprise that the album sales have been very successful so far.
Purpose reached No. 1 on Billboard charts and also sold 522,000 copies within its first week of release. This is the most successful release of an album since Taylor Swift’s 1989, which sold 1.29 million copies within its first week of release. Fans have been raving about the album ever since it was released, which features collaborations with other artists, such as Halsey and Big Sean.
“He is a changed person; his music is different,” said Lauren Volpe, sophomore. “He may have had a bad reputation, but now he is following God, and he is on a new path.”
My favorite part of Bieber’s album is that the listener gets an exact sense of how he was feeling during the time that he wrote each particular song. He truly lets out his raw emotion throughout each track and gives his fans an inside look at his personal life without directly letting fans invade his privacy.
On the other side of the spectrum comes One Direction’s new album, entitled Made in the A.M., which also has a large sense of importance as this is the fifth and final album they will be releasing before their so-called ‘hiatus’. The boys have decided they want to take a break until sometime in 2017, simply because they have been touring and making music for five years straight– ever since they became a band in July 2010. The long, lonely nights from family called for a break that has been long overdue. Although some fans worry that they will not come back from the hiatus, the band has promised, on several different occasions, that they will be coming back and doing more in the music industry.
The album released this year is also a very vital stepping stone toward an image of maturity for the band. With a huge improvement in their lyrical abilities, the band has shown that they’re coming of age and growing up. They started with songs, such as “What Makes You Beautiful”, and lyrics, such as “the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed”, and have now evolved into songs, such as “Olivia”, with lyrics, such as, “when you go and I’m alone, you live in my imagination.  The summertime and butterflies all belong to your creation”.
The evolution of One Direction is apparent in this album, and I think that’s why the album has received such great reviews. Made in the A.M. debuted at the top of the UK Charts, selling 93,189 copies, came in second on the US Billboard charts and sold 402,000 copies in its first week available.
Made in the A.M. shows an apparent change in One Direction, and I think it is awesome that despite the loss of a member in the band, the remaining boys still prevailed and developed a successful album. Even without Zayn Malik’s amazing vocals to back up the rest of the harmonies, the songs are still great and still make fans and listeners want to sing along.
Gigi Scibetta, sophomore, said that she likes Made in the A.M. more, explaining, “A lot of the songs were written by the boys themselves, and I believe it makes their music more authentic, which as a fan, makes the whole listening session so much better because it allows me to see them truly as artists.”
Both albums have made a positive impression on me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to them since the day they were released. Purpose shows Bieber’s growth within the music industry while also telling the story of his past struggles in recent years. I like that the listener is given more information on his life just while listening to his voice. Made in the A.M. gives a romantic feel while also making the listener want to get up and dance.
Although I do not have much negativity about either of these albums, I have to say that my favorite of the two is Made in the A.M. One Direction has been a favorite of mine for years, so my opinion is definitely not unbiased, but there is reasoning behind the matter. With One Direction’s album, I do not feel the need to use the skip button as often as I do with Bieber’s album. A lot of the songs on Purpose sound very repetitive with similar beats while Made in the A.M. has a wide array of harmonies and differentiating lyrics.
Despite the favoritism of one album over the other, I am ecstatic for both One Direction and Justin Bieber that their albums have been successful, and I am excited to see what they do in the future and how much more of a dent they will make in the music industry.