Are Bieber Fever and Beatle Mania really the same degree of affliction? His manager Scooter Braun thinks so.
The teen pop star covers the newest issue of Billboard Magazine, but this feature, for once, isn't about his personal life. Instead, we get a look at Bieber, Inc., and the business behind making this former small town Canadian kid perhaps the biggest pop star in the world.
Known for drawing tears with a single toss of his hair and inciting riots at the mere spectre of his presence, Bieber has become larger than life for worshipping teen girls, who follow his every move with screams of unbridled excitement. In that sense, Braun sees the connection with the lads from Liverpool.
"All the hype and the kids running down the street screaming, you lose the chance to say that this started because of the music. This album lets the music speak for itself," he tells the magazine. "I don't want to draw comparisons, but there was a band during the British Invasion that had girls screaming at them. I think you know who I'm talking about."
Indeed, one of the reasons the Beatles stopped touring was because the screams were so loud, they couldn't hear themselves play. Bieber's world tour certainly brings that sort of vocal intensity, and he has one thing on his side that the Beatles couldn't have dreamed of: technology.
Bieber is a massive presence on Twitter and other social media pages, and his record label has coordinated an unprecedented launch for his upcoming Christmas album. TV, web video and widgets, radio and live performances will push out his upcoming Christmas disc. The only question is whether his voice will translate; he's grown up since his first songs first became hits, which means a changing voice.
"Vocally, his balls have dropped," Braun reveals -- which made the remix of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" with Mariah Carey a bit difficult to sing.
Will that do the trick? Hard to say, but 22 million views on his new video in just one week isn't too bad.
For more, click over to Billboard.