I am not going to say teen pop star songs are good. I have never heard one I would buy on my iPod. However, these singers win over the younger crowds for a few reasons. The first is that teen pop songs are catchy. One Direction songs are perfectly composed to ensure that a person will never forget them. Teens are attracted to these songs like moths to a light. They do not pay attention to the actual lyrics. I remember when the song, Low, came out. It was not a teen pop song, but it had the same effect. These days in order to achieve instant success in the music industry you just need to write a catchy chorus to make millions.
Another reason teen pop stars are appealing to their audience is because they represent what girls want to have. It is no secret girls are 99% of the fan base for teen stars. Selena Gomez has what girls see in a Disney princess. Beauty, money, and success. As a kid almost everyone I knew at one point talked about how they wanted to be rich. I did. Boy pop stars always appeal to the romantic fantasy of girls. Telling girls they are their dream guy and telling girls they are the perfect girl for that boy singer.
What I want to call into question is the message these stars put out for young girls. When Bieber's song, Baby, came out I remember people saying "that kid should get shot" and "that guy is such a faggot". I am not trying to say the song was good, but I do not think the message behind the song was bad. It was just a silly love song. The Beatles wrote similar songs when they started out. Everyone wanted Rebcca Black dead when she released, Friday. That was just meant to be fun party song. I do not see why some people are willing to forgive Chris Brown, but hate on One Direction.
I do feel like people hate on stars too much sometimes. As long as the pop star is not teaching bad morals to kids then they should not be hated on. There are people in this world, who are more deserving of hate. Especially since some stars do not know better. They are being manipulated behind the scenes by their producers. They are behaving like they are told to. Some stars are forced to take over a false identity and struggle being held to that image. I am not saying stars should blame their actions on others, but it is something to consider.
Everyone predicted Beiber and Cyrus' downward spiral into drugs and public stunts. However, I wonder if society had doomed them from the start. Maybe they felt like they had to go downhill in order to have their names recognized again. In the pop world the path to adulthood is to do become a druggie and be provocative. Some of the most famous musicians that are considered the best of all time like John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix were famous for their drug use. They made drug use more cool. Younger teen stars are pressured by society to follow their paths and all of them fail because they are reckless. They cannot control their drug use and end up destroying themselves. What makes it worse is that society will give these stars attention, which encourages them to become more extreme.
Another question is how much to teen stars actually influence kids. A lot of mothers pressured Britney to be a "pure virgin" because their daughters looked up to her. While I do believe that if a pop star is aware of their influence to young teens, they should be positive, at the same time I feel like they should not be held responsible for young teens' behavior overall. Parents should take control of their kids and steer them in the right direction.
It is natural for society to hate on something that is innocent. While I will not call teen pop stars good artists, I will not go as far as to say they are horrible people that deserve to be harmed in anyway. Yes, there are a few teen pop stars that have become assholes like Bieber, but I feel like society to a certain extent created them to turn out that way. They are horrible people out there in this world that deserve to be hated, but teen pop stars are not those people.
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