Teen pop

Teen pop
Stylistic origins	Swing music (1940s) Bubblegum pop (1960s) Dance-pop (1980s)
Cultural origins	1940s, United States
Typical instruments	Drum machine, synthesizer, vocals, guitar (sometimes keyboards)
Derivative forms	Upbeat pop, American pop, Europop
Fusion genres
Teenybopper beat
Other topics
Boy bandTemplate:·wrap Girl bandTemplate:·wrap Pop icon

Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented toward young teenagers and preadolescents. Teen pop covers genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock.

History

Teen-oriented popular music had become common by the end of the Swing Era, in the late 1940s, with Frank Sinatra being an early teen idol. However, it was the early 1960s that became known as the "Golden Age" for pop teen idols, who included Paul Anka, Fabian and Frankie Avalon. The first major wave of teen pop occurred in the mid to late 1980s, with artists such as Menudo, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and New Kids on the Block. In the early 1990s, teen pop dominated the charts until grunge and gangster rap crossed over into the mainstream in North America by late 1991. Teen pop remained popular in the United Kingdom with the boy band Take That during this period, until the mid 1990s when Britpop became the next major wave in the UK, eclipsing the style similar to how grunge did in North America.

In 1996, LeAnn Rimes stepped into the Country music world and quickly became success with her album Blue. After the success of Blue, Rimes crossed over to pop music and by 1997 Rimes quickly became successful with her song How Do I Live. The song went No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent a world record on the Hot 100 of 69 weeks. Making Rimes the most successful country crossover pop artist to date. Rimes also acieved crossover success with both Can't Fight the Moonlight and I Need You.

Also in 1996, the girl band Spice Girls released their single "Wannabe", which made them major pop stars in the UK, as well as in the US the following year. In their wake, other teen pop groups came to prominence, including Hanson, the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and All Saints. In 1999, the success of teenaged pop-singers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore marked the development of what Allmusic refers to as the "pop Lolita" trend, sparking the short careers of future pop singers such as Willa Ford, Brooke Allison, Svala, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Kaci. In 2001 artists like Aaron Carter and boy band Dream Street were teen pop artists. Alternate "looks" for female teen pop stars include Hoku, Avril Lavigne, and girl group No Secrets. Another popular girl group was Play. Britpop surged with Atomic Kitten and Billie Piper.

According to Gayle Ward, the demise of this late 1990s teen pop was due to:

• promotional oversaturation of teen pop music in 2000 and 2001;
• the public's changing attitude toward it, deeming teen pop as unauthentic and corporate-produced;
• the transition of the pre-teen and teenage fanbase of these teen pop artists during 1997–1999 to young adulthood (and the accompanying changes in musical interests);
• a growing young adult male base classifying the music, especially boy band music, as effeminate, and
• other musical genres such as post-grunge rock (like Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Three Days Grace, Creed and Seether) and hip hop (such as 50 Cent, Eminem, Kanye West, Lil' Wayne and Lil' Jon) began increasing in popularity.

1990s teen pop artists entered hiatuses and semi-retirements (*NSYNC, Destiny's Child) or changed their musical style (Backstreet Boys, Hanson). In 2005, teenaged singers such as Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, JoJo, Jesse McCartney, Rihanna and Chris Brown achieved success, indicating new relevance of teen-oriented pop music.

Since the mid-2000s, many teen stars have developed careers through their involvement with Disney - the cast of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical (such as Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu) have had success since starring in the film, and Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers have developed large fanbases since working with Disney on the Hannah Montana, Camp Rock and Sonny With a Chance franchises respectively. The Cheetah Girls were an American multicultural group with Disney, being involved in international movies by the same name. They are credited for being the first ones to have a musical movie act on the Disney Channel setting the stage for all of the other musical acts. The Jonas Brothers hold a record for biggest opening week for Disney release in the United States and worldwide with over half a million copies.

2009 saw the introduction of Selena Gomez (of Wizards of Waverly Place) along with her band The Scene with so far reaching major success in album sales and digital sales, and the introduction of Canadian singer Justin Bieber, a protégé of Usher. At the time of debut album's release, Bieber set records as the only four songs in to the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100, the first artist to send all songs from an album in the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Brazilian pop singer Evens Taian, which moved very fast towards fame, and his first album sold Orange Mecanic 400 000 copies.

See also

• Preteen
• Bobby soxer
• Teen drama - (List of teen dramas)
• Teen film - (List of teen films)
• Teen magazine - (List of teen magazines)
• Teen sitcom - (List of Teen sitcoms)
• Teenybopper
• Youth culture

External links

• Teen pop at Allmusic