Whether you like him or his music or detest both with vehemence, as a lot of music fans do, you just cannot ignore Justin Bieber’s latest music video for his new single, What Do You Mean. The singer-songwriter and enfant terrible of the music world set the bar pretty high for this song, recruiting a host of heavyweights including Britney Spears, Martha Stewart, and Kendall Jenner to plug the single on his busy Instagram account. He even went further and announced he’d be performing the track for the first time at no occasion less than the MTV Video Music Awards.
It should come as a relief for Bieber-and his fans-then that What Do You Mean is not bad at all. It is actually pretty good. Following Bieber’s surprise hit “Where Are You Now”, the song presents something warmer and friendlier, but no less nuanced or impressive. Bieber sounds perhaps more relaxed and confident than ever on the track. Also, the subject matter is, of course, relatable: we have all, many of us multiple times a day, contemplated the meaning of a text message, or e-mail, or dating-app missive. Like its predecessor, both Diplo and Drake are collaborators on this track too.
The black-and-white lyric video accompanying What Do You Mean is directed by Laban. It shows off some of Bieber’s skateboard skills along with famous skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and Chelsea Castro. But instead of focusing on its star for the entire duration of the song, the music video centers on Sheckler who shows off his moves around town, joined by Chelsea. It leaked in the early morning Friday (Aug. 28), but was promptly released on Bieber’s VEVO page at 7 am ET, as the countdown indicated.
Watch it below:
