Was Justin Bieber’s ‘Journals’ the Most Important Release of His Career?

In late 2013, pop phenom Justin Bieber was enduring his first real career low, as a series of public incidents made him the center of a lot of unfortunate headlines and media punchlines. To promote his new concert film and hopefully change the narrative about him, Bieber launched a weekly single series, unleashing 10 new songs over 10 weeks, ultimately collected as the downtempo, alt-R&B quasi-compilation Journals. The plan failed — both the album and the Believe documentary flopped, and Bieber’s image continued taking hits well into 2014 — but over the past decade, Journals has gradually grown in esteem among pop fans and Beliebers in particular, to the point where now it might be his most celebrated work.

On this Great Moments in Pop Star History episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard staffer and longtime Journals defender Kyle Denis, to talk about the collection’s unusual backstory and much stranger post-release arc. We dive into why it was the wrong album at the wrong moment for Bieber back in 2013, but why — largely for the same reasons — it’s aged much better than some of his other early albums, and also better than some albums from his pop peers that were far more warmly received 12 years ago.

Along the way, of course, we answer all the most pressing Journals questions: How much trouble did we really think that Bieber was in back in 2013? Were there potential hits on Journals that were submarined by a lack of promotion? Was it too much to ask for fans to come back to buy new singles 10 weeks in a row? Were there any parts of the Believe concert documentary worth saying? Did we realize how dirty a song “Hold Tight” was back in the day? Is Justin Bieber really more of a soul singer than a pop one? How do we compare Journals and the just-released Swag? And 12 years on, has this set actually proven to be the most important release of Bieber’s entire career?

Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from Bieber’s Journals era, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!

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Transgender Law Center

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Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe

Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.