According to the Dec. 5 Billboard Top 100 list, Justin Bieber is the most popular artist of all time.

After the release of his newest album, Purpose, Bieber has managed to place 17 of his songs onto the Billboard Top 100, beating the previous record holders Drake and The Beatles, each with a peak of 14 songs on the list simultaneously.

Ever since his YouTube debut, Bieber has blown up in the music industry and has become one of the biggest images of young male talent.

However, many argue the reason to his success. At this point in his career, is his fame due to his popularity or production value?

Of course this question is difficult to answer, but evidence shows that many people choose to only listen to mainstream music.

With the large number of popular artists rising, teens are ready to listen to any new song that has the well-known name supporting it.

Billboard claims that about half of people ages 18 to 34 listen to radio stations on the way to work or school.

Not all of these radio stations are mainstream, but it would be fair to say that a large portion of the youth listen to the local radio stations such as HOT 99.5 and 97.1 WASH-FM.

These radio stations are infamous for playing songs almost exclusively off of the Billboard top 100, sometimes even playing the same song within the same hour.

This behavior of popular music stations has poisoned music culture.

Instead of people discovering talented artists, music finds people and people choose their favorites within the shallow pool of talent that is provided to them through media.

The Billboard gives the illusion of diversity; it lists plenty of artists from several different genres and styles, but the music still comes from a limited pool of producers. The same names keep appearing on the charts.

Mainstream music is the only source of music for some people, which may be a reason why these popular producers keep coming back more successful than ever.

It is alright to listen to mainstream music for the sake of eliminating silence during the morning commute or during study time. However, it is unfair to other talented musicians for people to become hardcore fans of pop singers exclusively.

There is a myriad of innovative and high quality music out there without the attention it deserves, while popular music gets attention mainly because of who created it.

Of course, many people venture out of the mainstream and seek music instead of letting music find them, so it would be unfair to generalize everyone who listens to mainstream music.

But those who listen exclusively to popular music should reach out of their comfort zones and look for the amazing music that exists outside of the Billboard list.