Justin Bieber’s seventh studio album landed on streaming platforms last night seemingly out of thin air. In one day, the pop superstar quietly launched a new fashion brand Skylrk (after publicly stepping down from his previous one,

The latter question is asked but not answered by “Swag,” the album Justin Bieber surprise-released on Friday and one that forces us to consider how the pseudo-events of celebrity give oxygen to pop superstardom but steal it from pop music.