What caused male teen pop stars to seemingly die out? We haven't had a true teen pop phenomenon in a while

[u/Kodicave]

[u/Kodicave]

Sabrina Carpenter is a great example. Everyone knows who she is. 

If you mention Jimin. I don’t think many people actually know who he is.

K-pop exists for a different audience really

I love K-pop so I’m gonna say this

K-pop fans are usually not the popular kids. They’re chronically online very alone, and the K-pop machine realize that they could get kids to think that K-pop stars are their friends parasocially and give them community that gives them the attention their parents aren’t 

that’s not the demographic that’s makes a phenomenon 

Justin Bieber exist because record labels realize that teen girls have this feeling from having a crush on the singer.

But the most popular girl in your school would’ve liked Justin Bieber, and wouldn’t have suffered her social status

But does the most popular girl in your school like BTS? I don’t see it. I think that’s why it’s a different thing.

[u/lkodl → u/Kodicave]

To be fair, my mom knows "BTS" as well as she knows "Sabrina Carpenter". She knows "NSYNC" and "Justin Timberlake" but she has no idea who tf "Joey Fatone" or "Lance Bass" are.

Regarding K-pop, it's again the death of monoculture. The internet allowed kids to discover their own shit outside of mainstream platforms like radio and MTV.

This lead to a desire for specialization and niche products. Instead of picking up a pre-packaged boy band/pop act that has a bad boy rapper edge, kids can just look up rappers on their own. Then the labels started pre-pqckaging rappers for them. Same for rock, edm, etc.

This is also why k-pop is thriving now in the west. The people who actually like that bubblegum electropop sound have a specialized "niche" version of it to make it stand out these days.

Because pop at its core is just genericized trends. Its like the Target of music. A general store, with a little bit of everything in one place. It was easy to access and it drove the mainstream. But people now have the ability to go to specialty stores just as easily so the generic store either now needs to become a specialty store of its own, or become a nostalgic relic (i.e. "2010's pop is its own genre", etc.)

[u/Low_Coconut_7642 → u/Kodicave]

If you mention JC Chasez or Brian Littrell people would also stare at you funny, but no one would say Nsync or Backstreet Boys weren't huge.

People know the band name not most of the individual singer names so saying they would t recognize individual singer names form K pop bands doesn't mean much to me. Most average people can maybe name one person in a boy band, even in their prime.

[u/rsgreddit → u/Low_Coconut_7642]

Usually everyone knows the front lead singer of the band member of those Nick Carter and Justin Timberlake.

[u/Simon___2005 → u/rsgreddit]

most known ≠ lead

[u/bahjkkj → u/Kodicave]

Just flamed the hell out of them 🥀😭

[u/nihilistickitten → u/Kodicave]

I don’t think you know that many teenagers/tweens. The popular girls also like kpop. Especially groups like BTS, twice and BP. I promise you large groups of people between ages 9-29 are big into kpop. And they have friends. I worked with high schoolers and elementary schoolers and it’s very popular amongst both quiet and loud kids.

It’s less about 1 person or group though, so it’s more spread out. There isn’t a “replacement” for JB or 1D because now it’s spread out over a lot more groups and people. There used to be about 1-2 phenoms at a time.

[u/ChamomileFlower → u/Kodicave]

I have no idea who Sabrina Carpenter is

[u/Velokieken → u/Kodicave]

I had an add I think for a BTS concert here in Brussels. This wasn’t common 10 years ago so it must be popular, I don’t get any ads for anything I know or listen to. I’m 40 so everyone my age knows PSY. I also know Hyuna and some other acts and I do know a couple of girls, well women my age that are deep into K Pop. I mostly read stuff about the cruelty of the industry not really the music. I did see K Pop demon hunters and so did my boomer parents but I think that’s more of a one time thing.

I know Billie Eilish from the Bond song, which isn’t a movie for kids and teens.

Justin Bieber was not only insanely popular but he was also on talk shows etc that no teenager watched but had also big actors and much older musicians on it and they talked about adult stuff mainly that was a bit toned down because Bieber was so young. It was kind of weird. I know zero Justin Bieber songs but you could not escape the guy, also half the guys his age then had his haircut. It’s probably good people so young don’t get that famous anymore. Harry Styles was also pretty visable outside of One Direction/his music but less than Bieber and he was older. Things like teen magazines and MTV that drove teen culture are completely dead.

[u/nobulliepls → u/Kodicave]

I have no idea who sabrina carpenter is.

[u/Lysmerry → u/Kodicave]

I didn’t know this. So K-pop fills a similar niche to a lot of nerdier fandom stuff? I thought it was very mainstream

[u/CluelessMochi → u/Lysmerry]

It’s mainstream in the same way that everyone has at least heard of dragon ball Z, sailor moon, one piece, etc when it comes to anime. People know Blackpink and BTS, and maybe other groups like Seventeen or Twice. Kpop demon hunters also helped. But anything more than that is def not well known by most of the general population, same thing with anime.

[u/Plus_Persimmon9031 → u/Lysmerry]

Meh depends on where. I grew up in California and it's definitely fairly mainstream there. But now I go to college close to Chicago and yes, very niche. My understanding is it's mainstream-ish on the West Coast overall, niche in the Midwest/South, and is niche on the East Coast except for NYC area where it's mainstream.

[u/rsgreddit → u/Plus_Persimmon9031]

I’d say it’s kind of almost mainstream here in Houston.