The last few years have been dominated by the pop girls. From Sabrina Carpenter, to Taylor Swift, to Olivia Rodrigo, to Chappell Roan, the women have taken over the pop genre. This fact could not have been clearer than at the 2025 Grammys, where, for the first time in history, no men were nominated for best pop vocal album. Additionally, women won seven out of the nine awards handed out during the awards show. While this is a huge win for all the girls out there, it brings up an interesting question: where are the male pop stars?
The history of male pop stars
Men have always had a huge presence in the pop genre. In the ‘70s and ‘80s there was Elton John, Prince and Michael Jackson. These earlier male pop stars leaned into glitz and glamour, wearing bedazzled outfits and performing rehearsed choreography. In the ‘90s, artists like Usher and Justin Timberlake debuted a new era of pop that brought more of an edge to the genre. The ‘90s also brought about a new era of boy bands, with NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys being composed of younger, more commercialized members, who amassed a huge audience mainly consisting of teenage and young adult girls.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Disney Channel became popular and created many male pop stars like Ross Lynch and the Jonas Brothers. Additionally, there was Justin Bieber, arguably the most famous male pop star of the 21st Century, as well as One Direction, who were extremely famous in the early to mid-2010s. Both Justin Bieber and One Direction, along with the popularity of Disney Channel, captivated the hearts of teenage girls around the world, giving the pop genre a more youthful look and sound.
In the mid to late 2010s into the early 2020s, there was a decline in the presence of men in pop. One Direction had split up, Justin Bieber had been decreasing in popularity and many of the pop boys of the past had grown up and put more focus on their personal lives and less on their music. However, it seemed as if no new pop boys were emerging onto the scene to replace them, or if any were, they were popular for a few years, before disappearing like the rest, such as Shawn Mendes and Lil Nas X.
why did they DISAPPEAR?
At a time when fun pop music is all the rage, there are barely any male pop stars and none that come close to the popularity of artists like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. This lack of men in the pop sphere has a lot to do with the expectations of being a pop star, especially a female pop star. Pop stars are very intentional with their music, their brand and image. There needs to be a clear vision of the album, message, performance etc.
The artist also needs to do something, not necessarily choreography, but they have to have some type of stage presence instead of singing in one spot, hiding behind a guitar. Visuals and little moments at concerts have become extremely popular these days and are a way of fostering a community and drumming up buzz around these artists. Think about the surprise songs from the Eras Tour, the Juno pose and Nonsense outro at Sabrina Carpenter’s concerts and the Sally reveal at Role Model concerts.
Female pop stars in particular have to reinvent themselves for each album or era and they have to give performances with choreography and visuals and stage presence. Because of these expectations, society has developed a taste for that sort of effort, so now they are expecting the same thing from men, too. They have to go all out because the pop girls are doing it, so if they don’t, the audience doesn’t respond.
Pop music has always been branded like a uniform with similar songs, themes and consistent visuals. The girls are getting that message and executing it flawlessly, but the men are not. Bobby Campbell, Lady Gaga’s manager, said in relation to the pop scene today, “It’s such a fashion-and spectacle-dominated world right now that I don’t think that men have as much that they can really do to stay at the forefront of the conversation.”
Additionally, it feels like male pop stars are having a problem with references in relation to their image. For example, Benson Boone is very much referencing Freddy Mercury in the way he dresses and his stage presence. But he’s not doing this because it relates to what Mercury stood for; he’s referencing this specific style and performance because it worked well for Mercury, so maybe it will work for him, too. But there is no adherence to a consistent vision there. With female pop stars, their references are a lot more deliberate and strategic.
They reference people or pieces of media not because they think it will make them popular and “work” for them, but because that reference fits in with their music, their visuals, their persona. It makes sense when they reference things because they have such a strong brand and know exactly what it is. Society values authenticity very much right now, so they don’t gravitate towards recreations because that is not as authentic as someone doing something completely different and new, and knowing exactly what that image is.
Male pop stars used to do all of these visual and performance aspects that the pop girls do. Usher, NSYNC and Justin Bieber, to name a few, would dance and have fully choreographed concerts and music videos. They had a theatricality to what they did and everything they sang and did was extremely produced and played up to support their image. Now, that produced and theatrical aspect has been totally left at the door, and the entire visual identity and performance aspect of a male artist has completely disappeared.
This can partly be attributed to the rise of independent artists. Boy bands and male pop stars of the past operated under a record label, and worked with producers to make their music. The producers that they would get to work with had a track record of working with a bunch of other people making a similar sound. There was that lineage and direct path to stardom, whereas now, because there are so many independent artists, there’s no unifying producer or sound or look to make them a pop-star. There used to be a clear formula of what a pop-star was and exactly how to become one, but now there isn’t.
not gone for good
It may seem like male pop stars may never make a reappearance in the genre, but not all hope is lost. While pop is currently in a female headspace, there are some men who are managing to break through and gain popularity. These emerging male pop stars include Troye Sivan, Conan Gray, Sombr and Role Model.
However, all of these up-and-coming male pop stars are still trying to find themselves in their music, what specific visuals and sounds they want to portray and what their music and brand say about them and who they are. They haven’t gotten there yet, which is why they are not currently looked at as male pop stars because they are still figuring out their image and sound. However, once they get that locked in, they have a good shot at becoming major male pop stars.
In such a heavily female-dominated time in the pop genre, there isn’t room for men to become as big as Sabrina Carpenter or Chappell Roan. People don’t want to see male pop stars; they want to see their favorite pop girls singing and dancing around onstage. That is the way the pendulum swings. The pendulum is always swinging, so even though women have dominated and continue to dominate the pop sphere, in five or ten years, the pendulum will swing back and there will be space for male pop stars once again.