Justin Bieber’s Messy, Improbable Masterpiece

In the course of Justin Bieber’s nearly twenty-year career, his music has come to be somewhat immaterial to his celebrity. For many, he is an almost Kardashian-like figure, whose songs are encountered in environments of poor taste: the grocery store, an Uber, a child’s birthday party. Controversy follows him, as does tabloid coverage of these controversies, which often have a paternalistic bent: Is he back on drugs? Has his marriage to the model Hailey Bieber soured? Is he mentally ill? Is he spending enough time with his newborn son? He’s been charged with a D.U.I., acknowledged suicidal ideation, and berated paparazzi for bothering him at the beach. He’s everywhere, all the time: the Met Gala, a Comedy Central roast, the N.H.L. All-Star Game, Ellen DeGeneres’s couch, TMZ and Page Six headlines, social-media feeds and television screens, his highly publicized personal life a piece of public domain that’s never not in demand.