In an industry where it is hard to tell fact from fiction anymore, one writer said bookstores might as well label genre sections “Fictionish,” “Memoirish,” and “Cartoonish.” When. Changing. Genres. Means. Changing. Forms.

a rigidulous bristle

But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments, seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).

The slope of the terrain, shaped like a funnel, squeezed the growing swell of churning snow into a steep, twisting gorge.