Justin Bieber and Other Goody Two Shoes of Music

Music probably has more badly behaved people than any other creative industry. But there are some performers who are perceived as being whiter than white. But, maybe, even these performers aren't as perfect as they seem. Here's my tongue in cheek article on some of the nice music stars.

Justin Bieber - a Potential Eminem?

One suspects that if the world was due to end tonight, Justin Bieber would be the most popular trending topic on Twitter. Justin Bieber is very much the man, or boy, of the moment. As sweet as sugar apparently, but time enough for the young Canadian to end up in rehab, get divorced a few times, and give a weird TV interview. Bieber's already being coached into talking in a young rapper style, and being a nice boy won't get you too far in rap music...

Donny Osmond was all teeth, and so wholesome in his Puppy Love days even a priest would have found him tiresome. But then he performed Crazy Horses with his brothers and suddenly a different Donny emerged. Crazy Horses was an environmentally aware song, with wild singing. Recorded in 1972, it could have been Led Zeppelin. Maybe Donny Osmond was, and is, a suppressed Robert Plant.

Cliff Richard, the Peter Pan of British pop, began his career being classed as an offensive pelvic gyrator (imitating Elvis). Cliff turned Christian, never married, but then broke the States with his Devil Woman. Still looked upon as pristine in the 1990s, Cliff Richard played Emily Bronte's monster Heathcliff in the musical of the same name. Maybe that's a clue as to who he really wanted to be.

Pat Boone Covers Heavy Metal

Even former Beatle Paul McCartney was considered a goody goody (apart from often being accused of breaking the Beatles up). But he took pretty much every drug, and used heroin to excess after the Fab Four were no more. He also ended up in a Japanese jail, after being caught in possession of marijuana. Everything is relative, and it is by comparing Macca with professional rebel John Lennon that Paul seems pure.

Good girls, of course, often get changed. The virginal Marianne Faithfull met Mick Jagger, and ended up even wilder than Mick. Australian songbird Kylie Minogue fell for fellow Aussie, wild rocker Michael Hutchence. The late INXS frontman was said to be a bad influence on her, though Kylie admitted that she wasn't so innocent before they met. When a girl's bad, a guy's fully prepared, but, as British actor David Niven said: "Anyone can handle a bad girl. It's the good girls men should be warned against."

Veteran American singer Pat Boone is a nice guy. No disputing that. He allegedly wouldn't appear in a film, where he would be asked to kiss an actress full on the lips. Boone has since produced evidence to the contrary. A Christian, Pat did suggest that he's another bad boy dying to get out, by recording a heavy metal covers album. On In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, Pat Boone sang songs which had been previously recorded by Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Metallica and Led Zeppelin.

When Boy Bands Aren't All That They Seem

Manufactured boy bands have never really stirred this old rocker. Not helped by the facade of goodness, especially when the facade crumbles away and often reveals boys more outrageous than the artists they are groomed to be the antithesis of. Scottish band the Bay City Rollers were manufactured in the 1970s into being a group idolized by teenage girls. But the darkness, which descended on some individual members of the band, is too grim to delve into in a humorous article here.

People are multi-faceted, and so things are often not as good or bad as they seem. Justin Bieber's probably not an angel on Earth, and Keith Richards probably isn't the Devil. But, then again...

Sources

David Niven Quotes - BrainyQuote

Pat Boone - Classic Hollywood: A Pat Boone kiss-and-tell - Los Angeles Times

Pat Boone - In A Metal Mood - No More Mr. Nice Guy review - Metal Storm

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