What happened to teen idol culture? -

[jorgoth]

This might make me look like an enormous faggot, but what happened to things like boy bands and Justin Bieber?

Screenshot is from J14 magazine today. One Direction is disbanded, Justin Bieber stopped being Justin Bieber like 7 years ago, ditto Selena Gomez, and the boy-idol Disney Channel stars (Zac Efron, Jonas Brothers etc.) are all in their 30s, and yet J14 is still talking about them because nobody has stepped up to replace them. How is this possible? Wouldn't all those rapey music producers love to fill that kind of void?

I'm not talking about this because I love these people, it's more like if you lived in a place with mosquitoes that came around seasonally, and one year you didn't have any mosquitoes. You'd assume something awful was in the water, and that's my feeling here.

 

[Μusk]

TikTok happened.

 

[jorgoth]

Ehhh these groups all stopped being relevant before TikTok was released.

 

[Positron]

K-pop happened.

 

[Marissa Moira]

People decided that 14 was way too old for them.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

I wonder if the #MeToo movement and exposure of Pedowood and the like had something to do with it, parents using kids as a meal ticket started having second thoughts? (but really that still doesn't explain it, because as you can see by DesmondIsAmazing, famewhore parents are still alive and well.)

 

[albert chan]

Thing is, I think it still exists, but the majority of “teens” in the current landscape have made Greta Thunberg to be the second coming of a Princess Diana. Also, Billie Eilish looks too rugged to be an 18 year-old.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

E-celebs happened.

Those kids were born in the 90's and grew looking up conventional celebrities, they probably didn't have smart gizmos until they were tweens. Other than Bieber, who started as a youtuber, they probably never thought of a way of reaching stardom other than by doing regular auditions (and couch casting, of course). Kids born just a few years later legitimately don't know a world without streamers and influencers, and aim for that since the entry barrier is obviously much lower.

 

[carltondanks]

E-celebs happened.

Those kids were born in the 90's and grew looking up conventional celebrities, they probably didn't have smart gizmos until they were tweens. Other than Bieber, who started as a youtuber, they probably never thought of a way of reaching stardom other than by doing regular auditions (and couch casting, of course). Kids born just a few years later legitimately don't know a world without streamers and influencers, and aim for that since the entry barrier is obviously much lower.

Yeah. On top of that, tv REALLY started to go downhill when those guys were growing up. I know the thing that made me stop watching TV entirely was teen titans go that always seemed to be on whenever i turned on the fucking telly. I want to watch gumball god damn it

 

[Jarolleon]

E-celebs happened.

Those kids were born in the 90's and grew looking up conventional celebrities, they probably didn't have smart gizmos until they were tweens. Other than Bieber, who started as a youtuber, they probably never thought of a way of reaching stardom other than by doing regular auditions (and couch casting, of course). Kids born just a few years later legitimately don't know a world without streamers and influencers, and aim for that since the entry barrier is obviously much lower.

So you're telling me that there are a bunch of teenage girls lusting after Pewdiepie like he was in a boy band?

 

[Scratch This Nut]

I want to believe that parents got wise to the rampant child abuse in those industries.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Thing is, I think it still exists, but the majority of “teens” in the current landscape have made Greta Thunberg to be the second coming of a Princess Diana. Also, Billie Eilish looks too rugged to be an 18 year-old.

Billie Eilish looks like a 26 year old who's been doing meth for ten years and also might be turning tricks at a truckstop.

 

[jorgoth]

E-celebs happened.

Those kids were born in the 90's and grew looking up conventional celebrities, they probably didn't have smart gizmos until they were tweens. Other than Bieber, who started as a youtuber, they probably never thought of a way of reaching stardom other than by doing regular auditions (and couch casting, of course). Kids born just a few years later legitimately don't know a world without streamers and influencers, and aim for that since the entry barrier is obviously much lower.

I think we have a winner, Pewdiepie hit 1 million subscribers in July 2012, basically the last time that Disney Channel et al was relevant.

 

[Next Task]

Social media. YouTube stars, Instagram stars, former Vine now TikTok stars, Twitch stars - and of course K-Pop, where the boys all could be on the cover of The Simpsons' 'Non-Threatening Boys' magazine.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

K-pop happened.

Kpop is terrible.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Perfect Blue

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

There was never a perfect, nonthreatening boy after Kirkles himself. I heard he turned out well adjusted.

 

[IbnTaymiyyah]

Because those teen idols that people lusted after in the late 90s and early 2000s like Britney Spears and Aaron Carter turned into massive trainwrecks. Take a look at Chris Brown's early work and compare it to something more contemporary. That clean image can't possibly last forever. People grow up, those who've had the light of fame on them from a young age don't always handle the attention well. Hell, sometimes whole artistic images change because people continuously change over time. Taylor Swift was a country pop singer before moving over to the mainstream pop charts, and she was like what? 17 when she first came into the spotlight. Drake originally had celebrity fame from Degrassi from a young age before branching off as a soft-spoken, clean-shaven, light-skinned R&B singer Now he's making dreary pop songs while facing high-profile grooming accusations. He was 23 at the time and he's now approaching his mid 30s.

On the opposite end of extremes, you have Japanese idol culture which is really fucking stalkery and creepy. I think people just wised up to the idea of idol culture in the West because we, as a society, witnessed firsthand what happens to teen idols when they can't handle their fame.

 

[Allegory]

Time really does go fast holy shit



1999

2000

2001

 

[💗Bitchstopher Columbitch💗]

Time really does go fast holy shit



1999


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