Held at Madison Square Garden, Z100’s annual Jingle Ball One Direction opened the show on Friday night, while Justin Bieber closed it up as the headliner.

 

Opening with One Direction and ending with Justin Bieber, this year’s Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden on Friday night (December 7) was an incredibly youthful, zeitgeist-courting affair, and it was brisk to boot. The event was filled with teen pop, British imports, and R&B. In a set that lasted little under four hours, ten acts were crammed in, with only Ne-Yo, Swift, and Bieber receiving enough time to play songs that weren’t singles.

 
There was a plethora of “X Factor” contestants from the UK this year. Just this past Monday, One Direction headlined the Garden for the first time. To get the crowd pumped up, they played four of their biggest hits: “Live While We’re Young,” “One Thing,” “Little Things,” and “What Makes You Beautiful.” Then, Olly Murs came on with a brief two-song set. Cher Lloyd subsequently made an appearance and sang her top 20 hit “Want U Back.” Boy band The Wanted, who were backed by Scooter Braun, delivered an energetic five-song set that included the rising single “I Found You” and the number three smash “Glad You Came.” Max George, the singer who allegedly got into an altercation with Lindsay Lohan at a New York City club last week, sported a mischievous T-shirt that said “You Mad, Bro?”

 

There was also a strong showing of singer-songwriter pop, mainly from Taylor Swift. With a glittering silaver top and red hot trousers cinched at the waist, Swift posed in front of a massive “Red” setpiece—just in case anyone forgot the name of the album, which has sold over 2.2 million copies since its release in late October. Hits like “Love Story” and “You Belong To Me” rolled off her tongue, and she even sang one of the first live renditions of her new popstep ballad “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which is thought to have been inspired by her newly on-again romance with Harry Styles of One Direction. She asked the audience whether they had ever felt “Aw, he’s trouble” after making first eye contact with someone and then realizing they were across the room.

 
In addition, Jason Mraz briefly performed on a separate mini-stage, serenading the audience with his upbeat renditions of holiday favorites including “Winter Wonderland,” the ubiquitous “I’m Yours,” and the top-ten ballad “I Won’t Give Up.” This private performance was a prelude to Monday night’s tour finale for Mraz at the Garden.

On top of writing “Little Things” for One Direction, performing “Everything Has Changed” with Swift during her set, and playing two of his own hits—including “The A Team”—to a delirious audience, British folk-pop singer Ed Sheeran was perhaps the night’s most pervasive presence. Taking in the occasion, Sheeran asked the audience to light up their phones so he could take a picture. This was his second gig at the Garden this week, following his opening slot for One Direction on Monday.

Regarding R&B/hip-hop, B.o.B. swung back and forth between his 2010 singles “Magic,” “Nothin’ On You,” and “Airplanes,” and his current single “Both Of Us,” which peaked at number 20 on the charts this year and included Swift on the hook. The night’s second-to-last slot went to Ne-Yo, who energized the audience with summer smash “Let’s Go,” previewed new singles “Don’t Make ‘Em Like You” and “Forever Now,” performed a cover of his breakthrough hit “So Sick,” and then closed with a rousing performance of the top-ten hit “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself.)”

 

At about 10:45, the man of the hour had arrived. Justin Bieber appeared like he had stepped out of a racquetball match in the year 2052, what with his sunglasses, pants that resembled a reverse pair of basketball shorts, and a form-fitting white tank top that flaunted his toned arms. That style worked well with the upbeat, electronic dance music (EDM) and futuristic pop (futuristic pop) that make up his most recent album, “Believe,” which is perfect for tweens. Top 10 hit “As Long As You Love Me,” for example, has a dubstep chorus that soars on the back of Bieber’s hypnotic, “la la la” vocal, while “All Around The World” pulsates on top of a “whoa oh oh” vocal loop that nails the party-starting, Latin-pop sound of Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias even more than recent efforts of his boy-band peers like The Wanted.
Bieber also slowed things down for an acoustic portion in which he played fan favorites like “Be Alright, “Fall” and “Christmas Eve,” the latter from last year’s “Under The Mistletoe.” Because he hadn’t performed the song since last year and was worried he could forget a line or two, Bieber eventually agreed to play “Mistletoe,” a holiday favorite, after considerable clamoring from the audience.

As the 11:30 curfew drew near, Bieber appeared prepared to leave the stage, but the frequently-deafening audience yelled at him to stay. The night’s numerous sponsors, including a new fragrance named “Boyfriend”—as well as other major brands like Aeropostale, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, and State Farm—took advantage of the opportunity to market to the captivated, sold-out audience during the intermissions of the performances. Nevertheless, he was still obligated to play his biggest hit to date. Eliciting a thunderous sing-along from a patient crowd, “Boyfriend” was a fitting coda to the end of a night – and a year, frankly – full of stadium-sized, teen pop not seen in such high volume since the Britney Spears/Backstreet Boys/N Sync-led movement of the late 90s.