Justin Bieber's Coachella Performance Has Divided The Internet, And A Lot Of Sabrina Carpenter Fans Are NOT Happy

Kevin Mazur. Getty Images.

Coachella culture is so funny to me. I've never been to the festival, nor do I have any major impulse to check it out, so I'm probably not super qualified to write this blog. But I do follow internet culture every waking moment of the day, and the online discourse surrounding Justin Bieber's performance last night has me fascinated. 

It was reported back in September that Justin Bieber would be headlining Coachella for a record $10 million, making him the highest-paid performer in the festival's history. With that type of price tag, I think a lot of fans expected a world-class production when Bieber finally took the stage last night. But nope. Instead, he just got up there and played YouTube videos off his laptop. I'm not kidding. 

He was mainly using this as a way of revisiting his music from over a decade ago, as he would search for one of his old songs and sing along to it.

But not a lot of dancing. Not a lot of movement at all, really. At one point he was just laying down on the ground. 

This, of course, came on the heels of Sabrina Carpenter's headlining performance on Friday, where Coachella goers were treated to a full-on Broadway show essentially. Dozens of dancers, extras, and set pieces. Outfit changes. Celebrity appearances. Choreography for every song. It couldn't have been a bigger contrast. 

Naturally, people online were pissed. They went from all the pomp and production of the Sabrina Carpenter show to a chill karaoke sesh with Justin Bieber. Some said it was highway robbery -- that Bieber totally phoned it in and still got a bag. Some took it as far as to point out the double standards for men and women in the industry -- that if Sabrina had done what Bieber did, then the world would go up in flames.

Which brings me back to why I find Coachella so funny. The majority of the people forming takes on this aren't even there! They're watching the performances on a livestream hundreds of miles away. They don't know what the vibe is at the concert. They don't know what it feels like to be in that crowd. 

Sure, the Justin Bieber show probably wasn't very appealing to watch on your computer screen as you're eating a bag of chips in your apartment. I get why Sabrina's performance would translate much better to TV. But I also think it would be fucking awesome to be there for an extremely intimate Justin Bieber performance, where he, himself, is reminiscing on the old days with the audience that grew up idolizing him. 

Justin Bieber made it on YouTube. He's probably the biggest star to ever come from YouTube. I thought it was genius for those nostalgia songs to be carried out in that way. Him singing a duet with his younger self in one of the videos that got him famous must've been a chills-inducing moment for anybody in that crowd. 

And as for the rest of the concert where he wasn't really doing much, it comes down to a question of Presence vs. Production. I've been to a Sabrina Carpenter concert. She's an insane performer, but she does rely heavily on all the stuff around her on stage to put on her best show. The dancers, the immaculate sets, the pre-recorded videos on the big screens. All of it. 

Justin Bieber has already reached a level of fame and aura that he is the show. I just think we've gotten to a point with music where it needs to be this grand spectacle of a performance, but if you can fucking sing, then I'm down to just listen to you sing. I don't need a Super Bowl hafltime show. I would never go to an Adele concert and expect her to fly across the stage on a zipline. I'm good on that.

I think it's just nice to see Bieber performing again, in general. The business has not been kind to the man, but he is one of the more talented and captivating artists of my generation. And it was cool to see some of that Bieber Fever return last night.