‘I dream in #mycalvins’: the improbable neoclassicism of Justin Bieber
‘I dream in #mycalvins’: the improbable neoclassicism of Justin Bieber
Calvin Klein’s Spring 2016 advertising campaign featured musician Justin Bieber in three key images. One finds him posing next to a classical sculpture. Beneath the tagline ‘I flaunt in #mycalvins’, Bieber leans against the female nude, echoing her pose. However, Bieber’s seeming disdain for the sculpture next to him appears to reject nostalgia and the physical ideals of the past, even as it evokes them. Williams argues that the images of Bieber belong to a well-established trope of ‘divinising’ ancient / modern celebrity framings, but in an unusually complex and problematised form. He contextualises the images of Bieber’s body and their online reception within the star’s public and explores the fascinating relationship to the past it illuminates through its very improbability.
259-287
Williams, Michael
fdd5b778-38f1-4529-b99c-9d41ab749576
25 August 2024
Williams, Michael
fdd5b778-38f1-4529-b99c-9d41ab749576
Williams, Michael
(2024)
‘I dream in #mycalvins’: the improbable neoclassicism of Justin Bieber.
In,
Becker, Tobias and Georgiou, Dion
(eds.)
Uses of the Past in Contemporary Western Popular Culture: Nostalgia, Politics, Lifecycles, Medialities, and Materialities.
London.
Palgrave Macmillan, .
(doi:10.1007/978-3-031-54740-9_12).
Record type:
Book Section
Abstract
Calvin Klein’s Spring 2016 advertising campaign featured musician Justin Bieber in three key images. One finds him posing next to a classical sculpture. Beneath the tagline ‘I flaunt in #mycalvins’, Bieber leans against the female nude, echoing her pose. However, Bieber’s seeming disdain for the sculpture next to him appears to reject nostalgia and the physical ideals of the past, even as it evokes them. Williams argues that the images of Bieber belong to a well-established trope of ‘divinising’ ancient / modern celebrity framings, but in an unusually complex and problematised form. He contextualises the images of Bieber’s body and their online reception within the star’s public and explores the fascinating relationship to the past it illuminates through its very improbability.
Text
Bieber AAM October 2023
- Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 25 August 2025.
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More information
In preparation date: 2018
Submitted date: April 2019
Accepted/In Press date: 27 September 2023
Published date: 25 August 2024
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 420226
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420226
PURE UUID: 624a64dc-a959-4991-8712-67d1f16b3857
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 02 May 2018 16:30
Last modified: 28 Aug 2024 01:38
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Contributors
Editor:
Tobias Becker
Editor:
Dion Georgiou
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