Justin Bieber - Boyfriend

It's been a bit of a slow start for 2012. Lady Gaga is gone for now, Rihanna is fumbling, Kesha and Christina Aguilera are holding off for a bit, and Katy Perry is just adding on a few final hits to her Teenage Dream. Madonna was supposed to be the big smash comeback, and she pretty much failed at that. But I think this song is one of the first big moments of the year.

We all knew that it was coming, Justin Bieber couldn't keep being the cute little boy that he debuted as. With "Boyfriend" he makes the full transformation from an annoying squeaky voiced boy to a sexy singer. He's really filling the void that Justin Timberlake has left us. Mike Posner briefly filled it, and now Posner is writing for Bieber, would you look at that. And when I say this, I don't just mean that he's similar to Timberlake, I mean that he is completely emulating his sound. He's got the deep, sexy sound mixed with the high tenor sound. He's got the spoken parts, and the stretched out chorus.

Bieber is fully embracing a new sound. "Boyfriend" is full of spoken, rap verses and combined with smooth choruses. Lyrically, though, he's pretty much the same as always. He wants to be your boyfriend, just like he has for the last five songs or so. But I think that's easy enough to ignore, it's not like you have too many other options when you're eighteen, and this message has been working for Bieber so far.

I was never a fan of Timberlake, so this song isn't one of my favorites, but I can tell that it's going to be big. This is the moment when Bieber fully enters the world of music. Sure he's had a few songs before that disappeared quickly, but I think this one has potential to be a hit. Even if it doesn't fall before reaching a new peak, it'll still be remembered for it's new sound. Still, I'm betting we'll be seeing it at number one soon. We've been waiting for something big to make this year special, this might be it.