# Justin Bieber Justin Bieber was a Canadian teen pop star who broke big after his mother posted home singing videos to YouTube in 2007, and by the early 2010s he had turned into one of the internet's most contested figures. Between 4chan prank campaigns, anti-fan pages with millions of likes, and a viral advocacy stunt called Free Bieber, he became a template for how the web ridicules, worships, and weaponizes a pop celebrity. ## Origin Bieber's online origin story starts on January 15th, 2007, when his mother Pattie Mallette created the YouTube account "kidrauhl" and began uploading videos of her 12-year-old son performing pop and R&B covers[3]. The clips were originally meant for out-of-town relatives, but the view counts kept climbing. In 2008, American talent manager Scooter Braun stumbled on one of the kidrauhl videos and flew the 13-year-old to Atlanta to record demos, where he was introduced to R&B artist Usher[3]. Bieber's debut EP "My World" arrived on September 17th, 2009 and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, and his follow-up "My World 2.0" hit number one on March 23rd, 2010, making him the first artist since the Beatles to debut at #1 and then sell more copies the following week[2]. - **Platform:** YouTube (kidrauhl channel) / 4chan and Facebook (viral spread) - **Creator:** Pattie Mallette (uploaded early videos as "kidrauhl") - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview Justin Bieber is the Canadian pop singer whose early YouTube videos made him a proto-influencer, and whose face became one of the most memed on the early 2010s internet. He was born in London, Ontario on March 1st, 1994, and his mother Pattie Mallette began posting clips of him singing R&B covers when he was 12[3]. Once he broke through commercially in 2009, his ratio of adoring fans to online detractors flipped him into a full-blown meme subject, split between the self-styled "Beliebers" and a huge counter-community that mocked his voice, hair, and puberty timeline[6]. As an internet figure, Bieber worked less as a single joke and more as a recurring target format. His music videos racked up historic view counts while collecting record-breaking dislike ratios[7], anti-fan Facebook groups pulled millions of likes[3], and jokes about him "sounding like a 10 year old" became a stock Urban Dictionary entry[8]. He was also the pretext for elaborate pranks and activism stunts, from 4chan's tour-vote raid to the Free Bieber campaign against felony streaming legislation[1][4]. ## How It Spread The meme layer around Bieber grew alongside his fame. On July 5th, 2010, 4chan noticed that his "My World Tour" Twitter contest let fans vote on which country he should visit with no country restrictions, and the board's anonymous users flooded the poll to push North Korea from 24th place to first in under two days[1]. The BBC covered the stunt straight-faced, noting the North Korean embassy in London said any tour application would have to be routed through Pyongyang[1]. On Facebook, anti-Bieber groups scaled to numbers most memes never reach. The "I Hate Justin Bieber" page hit roughly 1.86 million likes by July 2011, while his official page climbed past 37 million[3]. On YouTube his music video for "Baby" became the site's most-viewed video by mid-2011 and simultaneously one of its most-disliked, showing roughly two dislikes for every like[3][7]. On November 1st, 2011, his JustinBieberVEVO channel crossed 2 billion total views, a milestone TIME attributed in part to his Christmas single "Mistletoe"[3]. The biggest crossover between Bieber and internet culture came on October 19th, 2011, when the nonprofit Fight for the Future launched FreeBieber.org, a satirical campaign warning that Senate bill S.978 could technically imprison Bieber for the copyrighted R&B covers that made him famous[4]. The site included a fake news story imagining SWAT teams extracting Bieber from a "tweenage riot"[5]. The campaign was picked up the same day by BoingBoing, TorrentFreak and TechDirt, turning an anti-piracy bill fight into a Bieber-themed activism meme[4][6][9]. ## How to Use Bieber memes typically fall into three buckets: sincere Belieber fandom edits, hate-format jokes riffing on his voice and appearance, and remix pranks that use his celebrity as raw material for a larger gag. The 4chan tour-vote raid and the Free Bieber satire are the template for the third mode, where the joke needs Bieber's name to work but is really about something else, whether that's ballot-stuffing or copyright law[1][4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Justin Bieber? Justin Bieber is a Canadian pop singer discovered through YouTube covers, and one of the most-memed celebrities of the early 2010s internet[3]. ### Where did Justin Bieber come from? His mother Pattie Mallette started uploading his singing videos to the "kidrauhl" YouTube channel on January 15th, 2007, when he was 12 years old[3]. ### What does Justin Bieber mean as a meme? Online, "Justin Bieber" works as shorthand for a polarizing celebrity target, split between the "Belieber" superfans and huge anti-fan communities mocking his voice and image[8]. ### How do you use Justin Bieber in memes? People typically use his name and face for fandom edits, hate-format jokes, or remix pranks like the 4chan North Korea tour vote and the Free Bieber campaign[1][4]. ### Is Justin Bieber still a popular meme? The peak of Bieber meme activity was 2010 to 2012, when Beliebers, 4chan raids, and Free Bieber all overlapped[3]. ### What was the 4chan Justin Bieber North Korea prank? In July 2010, 4chan users mass-voted North Korea to the top of Bieber's "My World Tour" fan poll, pushing it from 24th to 1st in under two days[1]. ### What was the Free Bieber campaign? Free Bieber was a satirical Fight for the Future campaign launched October 19th, 2011, arguing Senate bill S.978 could jail Bieber for his copyrighted YouTube covers[4]. ### Who are Beliebers? Beliebers are Bieber's self-identified superfans, who ran fan pages, forums like belieber.com, and Twitter accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers[10]. ### Why was Justin Bieber's "Baby" so disliked on YouTube? The "Baby" music video became one of YouTube's most-viewed and most-disliked videos, with roughly two dislikes for every like as of 2011[3][7]. ### How did Bieber get discovered? Manager Scooter Braun found one of his kidrauhl videos in 2008 and flew the 13-year-old to Atlanta to record demos with Usher[3]. ### What chart record did Bieber set in 2010? "My World 2.0" made him the first artist since the Beatles to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 and then sell more copies the following week[2]. ## References 1. [https://boingboing.net/2010/07/05/4chan-prank-means-ju.html]() 2. [https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/daily-noise/958694/usher-tops-billboard-200-justin-bieber-tops-first-week-sales]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/justin-bieber]() 4. [https://www.freebieber.org/]() 5. [https://boingboing.net/2011/10/19/free-bieber-campaign-to-kill-proposed-law-that-would-send-you-to-prison-for-5-years-for-singing-copyrighted-music-on-youtube.html]() 6. [https://torrentfreak.com/free-justin-bieber-111019/]() 7. [https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-disliked-youtube-videos-time/]() 8. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Justin%20Bieber]() 9. [https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111019/11572816419/free-justin-bieber-do-we-really-want-congress-to-make-bieber-felon.shtml]() 10. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120307005214/http://belieber.com/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/justin-bieber Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library