Broadcasting the Bieber Republic: A Critical Analysis of “#thatPOWER”

Introduction

This article explores, in social context, a music video “#thatPOWER,” released by Interscope Records in 2013. It attempts to examine the media representations and messaging, and contrast these with the realities of young people’s lives, that is, living within an unjust and inequitable global political economy dominated by neoliberalism. “#thatPOWER” features two popstars—will.i.am and Justin Bieber. The video follows a troupe of six android-like men, headed by Will, as they move through mostly Japanese urbanscapes, on a mission to deliver a valuable object, a metal cube, contained in a briefcase. At several points, the group stops to place the metal cube on the ground where it projects a hologram of Bieber who sings the chorus “I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive.” The troupe’s journey ends at the entrance of a Japanese temple, where another group of dancers join Will’s ensemble and the briefcase is opened to present the cube. This final dance scene ends with will.i.am holding the cube high with extended arms and emitting a beam into the sky. A constant throughout these scenes and the lyrics are references to will.i.am’s entrepreneurial activities in music, technology, and philanthropy.

To our awareness, “#thatPOWER” has not undergone any critical analysis. Yet, on many grounds, it is timely and instructive to explore “#thatPOWER.” Power is a key object of interest in media and communications scholarship. Thus, a focus on popular cultural moments that foreground power, putting it in social context, offers a valuable contribution to communication studies. An initial look at the social context of “#thatPOWER,” three matters are immediately pertinent. First, the highly self-referential tone of the lyrics—repetition of “I’ve got that power”—points to notions of possessive individualism well acknowledged as an aspect of Western modernity and liberalism. Second, “#thatPOWER” was released at a time, 2013, when there was a sense of rising power of African Americans—of which President Obama was the mark of evidence—accompanied by talk of “postracial” times. This contrasts with the current Trump Presidency and more confident public expressions of White supremacy in the last few years. Third is that the autobiographic tones of “#thatPOWER” concern a person, will.i.am (William Adams), whose music business and philanthropic activities are based on connecting with wide-ranging cadres of power, such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama, the British Royal Family, the World Economic Forum, and many others.

A social contextualization of “#thatPOWER” is not merely of academic concern, however. bell hooks (1996) argues that “cinema assumes a pedagogical role in the lives of many people” and in this way is powerful in shaping “popular public discourses of race, sex and class” (pp. 2–3). Their “teachings” therefore need to be identified and understood. Like hooks, we recognize these “teachings” can be negotiated, rejected, or transformed by audiences, who are not passive in this interpretive process. While hooks’ assertions predominantly concern cinema, as Carol Vernallis (2013) argues, music videos are a type of short movie, in her words “new digital cinema” (p. 5) Accordingly, this article considers the relationalities to do with “#thatPOWER,” such as the communicative power of the visual narratives and lyrics of the video (cf. Vernallis, 2013) within the broader social context, such as social positioning of its protagonists, international circulation, and targeting of young people. Foremost, relations of the music video with neoliberalism are critically interrogated.

Our central argument is that while “#thatPOWER” emphasizes individual agency and social advancement via will.i.am’s own achievements and aspirations, what the video really does, unintentionally, is promote an ironic vision of what we call the "Bieber Republic,” where agency via participatory democracy is erased. Our argument represents an extension on Wendy Brown’s (2015) claim that neoliberalism is not only generating and intensifying inequalities, but also removing the very thinkability and social environment for any possibility of democratic living: a necessary precondition for bettering young people’s lives.

What follows is a background to “#thatPOWER,” will.i.am and Justin Bieber, tracing some social, political, and economic coordinates and foregrounding the sense of technological progressivism conveyed through the video; in this case, a belief that advances in technology can lead to improved social conditions and prosperity for all. We then argue that while there is an intended stressing of social ascension in “#thatPOWER” through its referencing of will.i.am’s activities, life trajectories, and ambitions, these are pervaded by tenets of neoliberalism. The messaging conveyed in “#thatPOWER” highlights a tension between notions of social advancement and meritocracy in the video, to mass injustice and inequity propelled by capitalist neoliberal power. This critical analysis of relations of “#thatPOWER” with neoliberalism is furthered by Wendy Brown’s thesis on the ubiquity and impacts of neoliberalism, most notably in her book Undoing the Demos (Brown, 2015).

Representations in “#thatPOWER” are then considered in detail, including its mix of binary oppositions (e.g., East–West, Black–White) and conjunction with other themes (e.g., mobility, transcendence), as well as the connection between religious values, economy, and society. We explore the Afrofuturist elements as well as introducing the notion of the Bieber Republic. The valorizing of individual achievement and mobility reflected in “#thatPOWER,” accompanied by a displacing of democratic culture, is then compared to the commitments of young people to participative democracy in Japan and the United States. From these deepened appreciations, the final section discusses the implications of mass uptake of the music video and suggests next steps in research.

Background: “#thatPOWER,” will.i.am and Justin Bieber

Released via the online video-sharing platform YouTube in 2013, “#thatPOWER” is one of will.i.am’s most successful collaborations as a solo artist. The video was directed by Ben Mor and choreographed by Fatima Robinson and Ryo Noguchi. The single has received nearly 276 million viewings on YouTube (as of 12 January, 2020). Currently a solo artist, influential entrepreneur, and philanthropist, will.i.am was the founding member of the 90s hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas. A self-described “tech enthusiast” (A3DJ, 2018, 14:06), will.i.am’s ongoing active interest in venture capital and technology start-ups has also seen him consulting or collaborating with companies such as BlackBerry and 3D Systems. He is founding investor for the financially successful company Beats Electronics, and through his i.am+ brand he is developing a wearable artificial intelligence device (AneedA) that acts as a virtual personal assistant (Solon, 2016). Among a range of entrepreneurial activities, will.i.am is the Director of Creative Innovation for Intel and runs a suite of fashion items via his website. He has served as coach for the U.K. version of the hugely popular reality TV show The Voice (https://www.itv.com/thevoice, 2018).

Overlapping with his diverse commercial ventures are social entrepreneurial projects such as self-branded i.am.angel, which mainly focus on disadvantaged youth in the technology sector, but also delve into environment (recycling with Coca-Cola) and housing (i.am.homes). His contribution is chiefly concentrated on increasing educational and business opportunities through learning of STEM (or STEAM: Science Technology Engineering Arts and Maths), with a vision of leadership and engagement of marginalized people in the technology industries. This encompasses will.i.am’s own former neighborhood of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles and programs overseas, such as STEM education through the Prince’s Trust in the United Kingdom. The singer has also collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create a Mars Edition of his song “Reach for the Stars,” the first song projected from Mars via the Space Ranger (http://will.i.am/about).

Will attributes much of his commercial success and philanthropic endeavors to experiences and upbringing during his childhood. Throughout the years, he has referred to the influence of his strict Baptist upbringing, and his mother’s role in inculcating values around hard work, perseverance, and discipline to succeed.

The Black Eyes Peas’ first successful hit “Where is the Love” (2003) was written as a response to the 9/11 tragedy and has since been updated and rereleased as a social comment on the continued proliferation of racialized violence in America. Also, the video emerged during the election of the first U.S. African American President. Will, a steadfast Democrat, is credited with influencing Obama’s 2008 Super Tuesday success by releasing his song “Yes We Can” to coincide with this campaign (see Vernallis, 2013). ¹ In continuing to intervene on social issues, will.i.am recently released a music video with the Black Eyed Peas, about gun violence in America.

“#thatPOWER” clearly seeks to appeal to a young audience, especially by featuring Justin Bieber. In 2008, the 14-year-old Canadian singer was discovered via YouTube. In a very short period of time and with the backing of influential figures in the music industry, “Bieber fever” was born. The mainstay of Justin Bieber’s popularity is a young, mainly female, demographic where his legions of fans refer to themselves as “Beliebers.” Although in a study on “celebrity talk” and the construction and reproduction of normative gender identities in young people, Allen, Harvey, and Mendick (2015) found that these fans were sometimes repudiated as being “weirdos” and “pathetic” (p. 6). His clean-cut, boyish image (which he has since attempted to jettison) and youthful voice have contributed to record-breaking album sales and fame. Similar to will.i.am, Bieber has a strong identification with Christian faith.

Autobiographical Features and Neoliberal Contours

We turn to Brown as our central backdrop for a critical analysis of the representations in “#thatPOWER” and their potential implications in wider social context. In an examination of what happens to democratic life when neoliberalism, which she defines as “a peculiar form of reason that configures all aspects of existence in economic terms” (Brown, 2015, p. 17) saturates political life, Brown’s (2015) central tenet in Undoing the Demos is that the extensive reach of neoliberal rationality has subjects, previously homo politicus, remade as homo oeconomicus. Drawing on and challenging the work of Foucault, she vividly describes an “evisceration” (p. 179) of democratic norms through the creation and perpetuation of a governing rationality that privileges conduct, terms, measures, and values of economization. Amid this specific (monetized) order of reason and governance, she concludes that democratic principles are lost in the process.

As a “reality principle,” Brown (2015) argues that neoliberalism diffuses every sphere of life with market values and metrics, formulating “everything, everywhere, in terms of capital investment and appreciation” (p. 176). She claims that the entreprenuerializing of the self extends beyond money, whereby neoliberal practices of deregulation and privatization become “broad moral-philosophical principles” (Brown, 2018a, p. 62) that extend beyond the economy to notions of popular sovereignty and democracy, which in turn become equated with the pursuit of private ends. As public provision is dismantled, so too do individuals and families become responsibilized, and notions of citizenship as previously defined as concern for the public good are replaced with a notion of the citizen as homo oeconomicus. There is no room for the demos within the context of neoliberal values; politics is replaced with economics, so too the subject is configured (Brown, 2015). The replacement of traditional precepts of civil society with a governing rationality dictated by market requirements constitutes a “stealth revolution” in which, Brown (2015, p. 9) asserts, neoliberalism disembowels democracy, by replacing notions of the common good with economic principles.

Consistent with values engendered in free market individualism, namely, “self interest and the individual pursuit of happiness” (Jones, 2012, p. 331), “#thatPOWER” is saturated with referents to will.i.am’s life and aspirations. The lyrics and visual imagery of the song revolve around Will’s self-proclaimed success and contribution to social causes. Commencing with the very first frame featuring an expensive car—a symbol of mobility and freedom—to the steps of a famous Tokyo shopping plaza where will.i.am recounts his promise to his mother that “One day I’ll be that number one, I take it higher and high and high and higher,” it is difficult to ignore the central allegory of his movement up the social scale. The opening and closing scenes mark a transition across localities, representing will.i.am’s own trajectory toward success, from life in “the Projects” to music stardom and philanthropy, and traveling the world to share a new vision of African Americans.

The video opens with members of Will’s futuristic crew getting out of a series of luxury cars at a nondescript, but ostensibly Western, location beneath a motorway; the type traditionally depicted in American “gangland” films. This refers to Will’s childhood in Los Angeles. will.i.am sometimes publicly reflects on being in the company of friends who were involved in gangs, fatal shootings, and jail. The song invokes a familiar “triumph over adversity” imaginary engendered in American rap and hip-hop, and his story, including supporting his local area, as progressiveness (“made it out them project with this project that’s progress y’all”).

Progressivism, particularly technological progressivism, is foregrounded in the representation of african american men in “#thatPOWER.” A special technology in the shape of a cube is presented by the dance troupe to will.i.am instead of items stereotypically associated with street gang transactions (e.g., drugs). Given will.i.am’s philanthropic work inspiring young people in disadvantaged city areas to innovate in technology, ² the cube is the troupe’s own making and follow-up scenes likely represent success of local men in producing new technology and, together with will.i.am, taking it to the world. The word “macho” is pictured in Katakana graffiti in the initial tunnel (connecting the West and East landscapes traversed by will.i.am); this may signal an alternative expression of masculinity and life pathway.

The lyrics “I am loving every moment, minute, hour, bigger, better, stronger, power,” combined with synchronized slow walking, speak to will.i.am’s ideals on growth and long-term achievement based on dedication, perseverance, and immersion in one’s work. will.i.am often refers to how, when one is engaged in creative activity, a sense of time is lost (Plasma Robotics, 2013). At the same time, the notion of enjoying hard work echoes the Protestant Ethic so central to American culture (Kalberg, 2012). Notably too, tenacity, discipline, and economic achievement are values historically held in common with Japanese culture. While determination and work are hardly reducible to neoliberalism or Western culture generally, the combination with resilience or grit is an increasingly prominent theme in neoliberal culture. This has become even more pronounced by the recent “turn to character” manifested in U.K. social policy over the past decade, whereby the linking together of “character,” specifically the attributes resilience, grit, and self control, with social outcomes has seen the introduction of a character education agenda in schools (Bull & Allen, 2018). Values around resilience and self control, consistent with the cliche “not folding under pressure” crop up in “#thatPOWER” in the lines: “Work good under press y’all.”

An affinity of “#thatPOWER” with neoliberalism can be seen in the possessive individualism stressed throughout (e.g., “I’ve got that power”); “I” or “I’m” is expressed 56 times in the five-minute video. The self-referentiality revolves around a sense of aliveness, flying (indexing freedom and upward mobility), and power. The song title deploys the unique communication format of twitter. This is in keeping with Skeggs and Yuill’s (2015) contention that a historical transition of the self from “liberal possessive individual” (p. 2) to the neoliberal subject of value has precipitated a trend toward personal display, or performance, whereby individuals curate their personas on social media platforms. In the digital age, rather than selling one’s labor to become a subject of value, the self must achieve, indeed authorize, this value through public display. Such “authenticating practices” (Skeggs & Yuill, 2015, p. 4) are illustrated in the creative self-branding of “will.i.am” as a strong stressing of individual identity and self-differentiation (e.g., his own logo, i.am.angel, i.am.scholarship, i.am.home). This identity foregrounds that perpetually valorized virtue of Western cultures: Will.

Consumerism is redolent in “#thatPOWER.” The visuals are suffused with high-end technological gadgets, will.i.am’s own custom-made art deco car and product placement (e.g., BMWs in the opening scene), and in the lyrics (“I stay in fly attire”). Yet, the framing of will.i.am’s pronouncements on technology elsewhere is all about social change. Will’s utopian views of technology are shared by young people, who in the latest Global Citizenship Survey (Varkey Foundation, 2017) indicated a strong faith in technology and a belief that technological advancements offer hope for the future. Will has described his ambition to unite people through the Black Eyed Peas’ performances at festivals in every country and more broadly advance the intersection of technology and music. From this viewpoint, the dance formations in the final scene suggest that this will include working with “high-tech” partners symbolized by the Japanese dance troupe partly signifying what is often considered the other technological giant besides the United States.

Neoliberal culture offers a sense of mobility or freedom. In “#thatPOWER,” there is repetition of “I can fly.” In interviews will.i.am repeatedly mentions that he constantly travels internationally for his various activities but flight also alludes to eventual elevation “beyond this world,” symbolized by the beam reaching into the sky, with obvious Christian connotations that we shall turn to shortly. will.i.am embodies entrepreneurialism combined with a pursuit of social causes. will.i.am’s self-initiated meetings and partnership building with Intel and the British Royal Family, and appearances with Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have social cause projects as a stated rationale. 3

Given the autobiographical dimension, what power(s) that power is referring to is ambiguous. Could it be the power of music, entrepreneurship, celebrity, from a Christian believer perspective exercising one’s connection with God or “doing God’s work,” African American (men), technology, youthful energy, of collaboration, of creativity, hard work and talent, or more basically, inner drives of the individual, or amplified power by combining these other powers (i.e., holism of will.i.am’s life approach reflected in the album name #willpower)? Notably, the album cover for #willpower features a curious mix of royalty (crown) and Christianity (crucifix); themes which feature regularly throughout the music video. Arguably, the ambiguity is intended as a potent marketing strategy: “#thatPOWER” can effectively appeal to a wide variety of audiences depending on which of these referents resonate, leading to a large pool of consumers.

Social Relations, Power Dynamics, and Key Tensions

In her analysis of communicative power of a different will.i.am video “Yes We Can,” Vernallis (2013) argues “music videos pick up thoughts, anxieties, and fantasies swirling in the culture—crystallising them into images and sounds” (p. 26). In the case of “#thatPOWER,” the audience witnesses a music video top-heavy with a fusion of dynamics between gender, “race,” status, religion, East–West contrasts, combined with themes of technology, social mobility, and celebrity. Geometric shapes in the cityscapes and will.i.am’s cube throughout the video connect religious themes (transcendence and sacredness), with technology. ⁴ As these various aspects intermingle tightly in each scene, we discuss them together here.

The Final Scene of Ascension

The interconnections of Christianity, technology, hierarchy, money, and transcendence suddenly unify as the video draws to a close. The climactic end, signaled by dramatic music, is enhanced by Will lifting up the cube prior to its final projection, in contrast to earlier scenes where the cube remains on the ground. The end of the narrative is reached when a single beam of light emits from the cube (instead of an image of Bieber), penetrating the clouded skies above. Like other scenes, this moment is open to several interpretations. The freedom and sense of transcendence that are avidly announced by Bieber throughout the video, “I am alive,” “I can fly,” reach its peak in this moment, amplified further by the presence of high-rise buildings and a skyscraper in the background, a familiar emblem of corporate ambition. In one sense, the beam represents transcendence over such ambition and other “this worldly” aspirations. This also chimes with the clouded sky iconic to paintings of the ascent of Jesus. Technology and social causes are will.i.am’s “calling” and his life’s work, ending with ascent to God. This final moment could also be taken as a completion of Bieber’s ascent to the heavens leaving his Christian faithful below.

The visual moment of the final scene can be considered from the vantage point of much scholarship on the connection between religious values, economy, and society. Theorists have explored notions of capital and religiosity and how in current global conditions religion has become secularized by an “absolute” and “transcendental faith” in the market economy (Appadurai, 2012, p. 9). The new faith based economy is a reversal of Weber’s assertions regarding the role of uncertainty in prefiguring Calvinist practices. Instead, this new transcendentalism replaces God with the market as the source of certainty and “ … the all-powerful power that rewards its own elect” (Appadurai, 2012, p. 9). Previous axiomatic beliefs in God are supplanted by a belief in the market as well as a (secular) faith in individual freedoms as expressed through free markets (Jones, 2012).

The lyrics and video for “#thatPOWER” signal how tensions between capitalism, modernity, and religion are overcome through the sacralization of individual self-interest. The entrepreneurial self occurs in a context where under neoliberal reasoning religious values have been co-opted by market values; faith now rests in the self rather than in religious or political institutions (Skeggs, 2014). Additionally, the emergence of market populism has been accompanied by a monetization of faith as evinced in, among other things, prosperity theology (Skeggs, 2014). Skeggs (2014) describes a gospel of success existing in predominantly Afro-Baptist traditions which privileges wealth and power accumulation in service of gaining access to heaven. Glaude (2015) adds that this “prosperity gospel” permeating Black Christendom sees the pursuit of wealth and aspirations for economic mobility entwined with individual spiritual considerations. “Wealth and poverty constitute evidence of God’s blessings or punishment. Conspicuous consumption becomes a crucial part of the work of faith” (Glaude, 2015, para. 6) and, crucially, this pursuit of self-interest displaces notions of public good.

While will-i-am’s philanthropic work and transient efforts at political mobilization should be seen as a pragmatic, innovative response to social problems, this needs to be put in the context of these initiatives being driven by genuine concern for others on his part and his more outward politically orientated work being less commercially successful. ⁵ Nonetheless, will.i.am’s vision of turning inner cities into these hubs of innovation is highly suited to neoliberal narratives; the central solutions to social issues are education and training, innovation, and technology (see Brown, 2015). At the same time, philanthropy does not address the systemic problems that generate such needs for “charity” (see Edwards, 2010). More broadly, will.i.am and similar African American success stories such as Obama need to be considered in the sociopolitical context of neoliberalism (see West & Mendieta, 2017; also Frank, 2016). The convergences in the final scene underscore the uneasy tensions between cultural politics of Black (male) power and corporatism in the United States (see also Quinn, 2016). Overall, “#thatPOWER” and will.i.am serve as an example of how success is co-opted by neoliberal power to strengthen distorted narratives regarding how to address social problems in the 21st century.

The Bieber Republic

By the Bieber Republic, we attempt to capture the heart of the contradictory significance of “#thatPOWER.” As illustrated earlier, there is a socially progressive message to “#thatPOWER.” However, in contrast to Plato’s Republic where the ideal city is one of justice (Brown, 2015), “#thatPOWER” represents the Bieber Republic insofar as it stands for neoliberal extinguishing the grounds for democratic practice. On this reading, “#thatPOWER” is highly problematic in that its core messages displace democratic principles, the sort of principles that are a necessary part of advancing to a more just and equitable world.

All segments of “#thatPOWER” feature a shared public space, such as temples, busy streets, subways, and shopping malls. Tensions arise when comparing notions of public (and with it, citizenship) with the rampant commodification combined with progressiveness, that all feature in “#thatPOWER.” As recounted in Brown (2015), Plato envisages an ideal city serving justice. Living for money as an end is a route to injustice. Drawing on Plato’s city and soul homology in The Republic, Brown (2015) contends that under neoliberalism the connection between city and “soul” is constituted by economic rationalities rather than political ones, resulting in the economization of key civic and civil arenas and cultural practices basic to democratic citizenship (Brown, 2015). Under this logic, both persons (soul) and states (city) are reimagined as contemporary firms requiring behaviors consistent with the maximization of (human) capital value through self-investment and entrepreneurialism. The stressing in “#thatPOWER” of self-improvement, money, and elevation, all in city spaces, coupled with will.i.am’s entrepreneurial stance to life is entirely in keeping with Brown’s depictions.

“#thatPOWER” is partly an expression of and is co-opted by capitalist neoliberal power, partially operating within what Littler (2013, p. 5) calls “neoliberal justice narratives” in which competitive market solutions are prescribed to address social inequality. The notion of the Bieber Republic highlights a paradox: it is a vision by will.i.am that makes overtures to social progress with good intentions, but in practice may be contributing to doing away with the public.

Learning to Live in the Bieber Republic: The Power of “#thatPOWER” as Informal Pedagogy

If, as hooks (1996) contends, media partly operates as informal pedagogy, what is it that “#thatPOWER” is “teaching?” The paradoxical significance of “#thatPOWER” carries over to its contradictory functions as informal pedagogy. In terms of Black liberation, “#thatPOWER” is a positive intervention by centering the strengths of African American (men), doing so amidst an ongoing mediascape that prevails in presenting racist and colonialist tropes. Afrofuturist media provides crucial counternarratives (e.g., Karam & Kirby-Hirst, 2019); “#thatPOWER” is clearly a part of this movement. However, the neoliberal bases of “#thatPOWER” seem to override the intended messages, whether they are pitched to African Americans, to other marginalized peoples, to young peoples or to populations generally. In what follows, we problematize “#thatPOWER” in relation to young people.

Reification and colocation of economic values with Christian beliefs, particularly the advancement of the pursuit of success and an entrepreneurial self, have troubling implications for how young people are encouraged to view their lives as largely limitless and unconstrained. “#thatPOWER” further normalizes neoliberal culture by reinforcing false beliefs regarding social mobility and freedom. The persistent push for the responsibilization of individuals in part resulting from the dismantling of public provision under neoliberal rationality elides this reality of limited if not absent social mobility of young people (see Social Mobility Commission, 2017). At the same time, the perpetuation of meritocratic values interpellates the individual in a way that has them create false aspirations of escape from these economic and social constraints. Common pronouncements that “anyone can make it” regardless of gender, “race,” or class need to be contrasted with the fact that neoliberalism has had far-reaching and deleterious consequences for Black American working-class peoples (Brown, 2018b; Gilroy, 2013; Vernallis, 2013). Media-driven public narratives valorizing individual and especially entrepreneurial examples of success that people are pressed to emulate, persist (Littler, 2013); the centering of will.i.am as role model in “#thatPOWER” typifies this. Most notably, through his involvement in reality TV talent competition The Voice, philanthropy and venture businesses, will.i.am is contributing to the celebritization of entrepreneurs.

As Brown (2015) argues, neoliberal solutions are market-based notions of education, technology, philanthropy, and competition. The individual as homo oeconomicus is integral to these approaches, infused with talent, energy, grit, and resilience—as we have seen, all solid themes in “#thatPOWER.” The essential message of “#thatPOWER” offers a very narrow model of empowerment for young people as it disguises the structural limitations and barriers that young people face. The vicissitudes of living in a society characterized by risk and uncertainty leave young people vulnerable to the seductions of neoliberal typifications and false aspirations. By the valorization of consumerism and entrepreneurialism, the political agency of youth is invisibilized.

The lyrics and visuals enjoin the youth audience to feel excited about being alive and to identify with and celebrate will.i.am’s achievements and continued ascent as well as (continue to) embark on their own ascent. In doing this, the video inadvertently reinforces neoliberal culture and through this, marginalizes attention to the role of this cultural economy in affirming inequities and injustices in young peoples’ lives. It appears the song is positive about youth, yet what is valorized is agency in the form of consumption where “being alive” is tantamount to consumption of popular music and its stars, in doing so, serving as a pacifying mechanism when it comes to young peoples’ political agency. As Brown (2015) states, “As it dispenses with the very idea of the public, neoliberal rationality recognizes and interpellates the subject only as human capital, making incoherent the idea of an engaged and educated citizen” (p. 183). When, more than ever, public political agency is needed, peoples’ attention and energies are co-opted for consumption and following celebrities, diverting from and thus inhibiting such agency.

In sum, the music video promotes an imaginary that disguises the actual material conditions of young people, including the social–economic reality that most cannot “make it” through hard work, partly because inequality is intrinsic to capitalist systems. This directs us again to the paradoxical nature of will.i.am’s actual activities in relation to social equity and democracy: philanthropic endeavors in education and housing are attempts to address social problems that have their source in the political economic orders that, culturally, media products such as “#thatPOWER” may normalize. “#thatPOWER” displaces any notion of the potential political power of young people within a democratic framework.

Homo Oeconomicus Versus the Collective Power of Young People

It is often claimed that young people are disaffected and alienated from the political processes and we have argued through the notion of the Bieber Republic that popular culture reinforces such processes. Yet, “#thatPOWER”’s all-consumer, noncitizenship rendering of youthful living is a striking contrast with youth-propelled political movements over the last decade. This has included movements to realize participatory democracy in the United States and the importance of this for antiracism, antiwar, and pro-environment causes. The relative commitments of youth in the United States and Japan are also pertinent. A sense of apathy and disconnection with government appears to be extant in Japan, which ranks as the third-lowest country globally for youth citizen participation (International Youth Foundation [IYF], 2017a). Characterized as a “silver democracy,” a system that favors seniors, it is of little surprise that 76% of surveyed Japanese young people felt that their government does not care about their wants and needs (IYF, 2017b).

American youth share similar sentiments with nearly 75% not feeling the government cares about their wants and needs (IYF, 2017a). In America, the young people who did vote in the 2016 election showed a strong stance against the corporate Democrat approach of Obama and Clinton, despite having previously been instrumental in Obama’s 2008 election success (Pew Research Centre, 2008), partly, according to some, via will.i.am’s inspiring “Yes We Can” video (Vernallis, 2013). Instead, the youth vote swung toward more populist tendencies represented by Bernie Sanders, a candidate known for his long-standing progressive positions, and refusal to take corporate money. Sanders experienced unprecedented enthusiasm and popularity among young people during the 2016 primaries and this continues into the 2020 primaries. Young people are enthusiastic about electing someone who in their eyes would really challenge the political economic status quo that is corporate neoliberalism (Rehmann, 2016). The culmination, instead, of a Trump administration and intensified neoliberalism, including anti-Black movements, affirms the vital role of young people in fighting for and exercising participative democracy (Brown, 2018b, 2019).

Conclusion

Recalling hooks (1996), it is important to appreciate popular culture as a form of informal pedagogy. Our reading of “#thatPOWER” is that it has paradoxical significance and this follows through to its pedagogical functions. In the first sense, “#thatPOWER” presents a message of liberation to those who are Othered, especially by connecting blackness with technology, innovation, and perseverance as a counternarrative to racist and colorist tropes. In the second sense, “#thatPOWER” neatly serves neoliberalism by tacitly “teaching” that social problems can be solved by individual achievement and mobility undergirded by inner energy and grit, in an environment steeped in market competition, consumerism, and technology. We suggest that the latter significance (what we have termed the Bieber Republic) overrides the former: “#thatPOWER” is complicit with what Brown (2015) calls the stealth revolution of neoliberalism.

Still, the actual impacts of “#thatPOWER” as a continually consumed media piece is an open question. It is acknowledged here that our analysis does not account for the critical reflexivity of people in how they relate to media. For instance, young people may deconstruct “#thatPOWER” while “consuming” it; they may enjoy the music while at the same time be cautious of its messaging. Further research could involve viewing sessions with young people in the United States and Japan and gauging their responses through interviews and focus groups. Beverley Skeggs’ (2009) research on how class is coded by consumers of reality TV would be valuable on this front. Alongside this new research direction, in the context of the stealth revolution of neoliberalism (Brown, 2015), there is even a greater need for critical cultural analyses as a (counter) pedagogical tool as espoused by hooks. In a sense, this work has commenced with the rise of left cultural criticism on YouTube (e.g., Contrapoints) acting as a form of public pedagogy.

This article makes several contributions to communication scholarship. First, the notion of the Bieber Republic invites debate on the significance of “#thatPOWER” and will.i.am and on the paradoxical nature of media genres such as music video. Second, this work has brought Wendy Brown’s thesis on neoliberalism into communication and media studies, where it deserves more attention. Third, our discussion goes some way in adding to Brown’s (2015, 2019) claim on how neoliberal rationality permeates all spheres of life by detailing the neoliberal contours of “#thatPOWER” and its unintended contribution to the stealth revolution of neoliberalism.