It’s safe to say that lately, the pop girls have been killing it. From Chappell Roan’s massive festival crowds to Charli XCX creating “Brat Summer” to Sabrina Carpenter’s recent rebrand and aesthetics, female artists have been dominating the charts these past few years. It’s incredible to see so many women doing well in the music industry, but it begs to ask the question: what happened to all the pop boys?
From Elvis to The Beatles to The Backstreet Boys to One Direction and Justin Bieber, there have always been widely known male pop stars with cult-like adolescent followings. The video of Justin Bieber being chased by crowds of screaming teenage girls at the 2015 VMAs is just one instance of the teenage girl insanity surrounding male pop stars, but I’ve noticed it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything like that and it’s made me wonder why. Is the era of teen heartthrob singers over or do we just not have any good pop boys anymore?
It’s not as if men are absent from the music charts, because they’re not. However, on further examination none of them seem to hold that special spark that classified certain male artists as certified pop boys loved by everyone. Don’t get me wrong their music is good, but men aren’t really making generic upbeat pop music anymore. Right now the men on the Billboard Top 100 are Alex Warren, Sombr, Morgan Wallen, and Benson Boone, and unfortunately none of them fit the pop boy mold. I’ve never met a Alex Warren fan, Sombr leans more towards indie stardom, Morgan Wallen is strictly country, and although Benson Boone could be considered pop, I’m not sure who his main demographic is after “Mystical Magical.”
Additionally there are quite a lot of famous male artists who have been dominating the pop charts for years but aren’t classified as “pop boys”. Take The Weeknd for example. I’m a huge fan myself and attended one of his sold out stadium tours, and as the most streamed artist on Spotify, he’s undoubtedly one of the best male artists of the decade. But, despite having a multitude of pop hits that have done extremely well, his overall sound is still rooted in R&B and his general aesthetic and genre doesn’t fit the pop boy mold.
In the end, it boils down to two things: Social media and effort.
TikTok has become pretty synonymous with the modern music industry. Almost all songs that I hear on the radio are also trending audios on TikTok. Now, instead of simply having a good song, in order for a song to blow up and hit the charts it needs to have an online trend or dance to go along with it. This tends to pigeonhole artists and limit their growth. There’s a sort of hive mindset on all social media where people are quick to love or hate a song or artists which can go on to define them.
Artists who have gained popularity from TikTok such as Sombr and Benson Boone both blew up due to the app, but have ultimately become defined by it. No matter how good of a song Sombr releases, it will ultimately be considered “TikTok music” and Benson Boone blew up with the absurdity of “Mystical Magical” and was so defined by that one song that people were shocked to learn that he was the same person who sang emotional ballads such as “ In The Stars” and “Ghost Town.” TikTok is a great way to launch artistic careers, but it also makes stardom fleeting and restricted.
In the past, male pop stars could get away with being attractive, having good songs, and being able to dance semi-well in order to gain a huge fan base, but now female artists have raised the standards. It’s much more fun to watch Sabrina Carpenter prance around her gorgeously sparkly apartment themed tour set complete with nostalgic vintage outfits and background dancers or Chappell Roan’s elaborate theatrical themed costumes and backdrops than to see some guy on stage with a guitar. In order to achieve pop stardom effort needs to be put in, and frankly none of the male artists now seem to want to give it.
Male artists from the past such as Michael Jackson, Prince, and David Bowie weren’t afraid to put on flamboyant outfits and put on outstanding performances, but instead of putting in the effort to put on shows that will be remembered in 30 years, artists now are just hoping their song will take off on TikTok and gain them a mass following of chronically online teenagers.
So is the era of pop boys dead? Possibly. There are certainly a number of pop boys releasing great music and putting on outstanding performances such as Conan Gray, Troye Sivan, and Omar Rudberg, but they struggle to break the mainstream because they don’t fit the “white, heterosexual heartthrob” mold. Conan Gray is one of my favorite artists and in my opinion his album Found Heaven is pop perfection. Meanwhile, established artists such as Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Harry Styles are still releasing solid pop music, but they’re relying on their previous fan bases to keep them relevant and routinely disappear for years, leaving them out of the conversation.
Male pop stars aren’t gone, but perhaps the era of the traditional teenage heart throb is long over. Once we let go of the early 2000-2010’s pop boy brand that resulted in mass hysteria over One Direction and Justin Bieber and allow for lesser known artists to evolve, break traditional molds, and put in the effort, we might have a chance of a male pop star rising to fame like the pop girls have been these past years. If anything, the music industry is constantly changing and evolving and personally I’m excited to see who steps up next.