Why are main pop boys a rare breed these days?

[River 122,711]

Because all of them are trying to be either MJ, Mercury or Dylan and always ends up to be the temu version of them.

[TheARTPOPball 1,096]

I don’t think there’s actually a shortage of “main” pop boys. I just think a lot of the pop listeners are more female oriented with their music taste and overlook the male artists despite them commercially being comparable to the females they listen to.
 

i think at the same time, It’s also just that “pop” is a tricky genre because it means popular music but at the same time, it’s also an actual sonic category. So men in pop normally have the “pop” label but lean into their own niche or sub genre of pop. With the majority of the larger pop boys leaning more into a hip hop/rnb version of pop, or an 80’s style production of pop. 

men also tend to not venture out much I think because masculinity is not as flexible as femininity in terms of how much women can do while still being looked at as feminine.
 

When a girl like Billie wears backwards caps and menswear inspired clothing, and kind of has this bada$$ Schtick, of course there’s some people who speculate on queerness, but overall she is still accepted by society as a “feminine” polarity 

When a man like Shawn Mendes, for example, has an overall rounded edge aesthetic, writes about his emotions, and dips and dabbles with softer textures, and lives unfiltered and is goofy in front of cameras, he is bullied into “coming out” by the internet, much speculation about him being a “bottom” and is also looked at through a feminine lense.

I definitely think men in the media are pressured much more harshly to be marketable in that sense, because the general consensus in society seems to be 

a feminine woman is a woman

a masculine woman is a woman 

a masculine man is a man 

a feminine man is a male, but not regarded as a man.

and the funny part is the man doesn’t even generally need to BE feminine to labeled as such. It could be something just as small as looking his best all the time. This is rooted in misogyny. 

this is just my observation. I could be wrong, 

[Roughhouse Dandy 12,687]

Being a big pop act takes work and big swings. I just haven't seen many men with the talent or drive to put in the work needed to get enough eyes on them. 

There are only a couple I see trying atm, but they're a little too "out-there" for the gp to really embrace them imo 

Edited Sunday at 09:57 AM by Roughhouse Dandy

[NewUsername 11,686]

13 hours ago, gagzus said:

I think it’s because they’re not viewed in the same way pop divas are, BUT tbf gays act like there’s no “main pop boys” when there is they’re just all more loved by straight men (and a lot of them are rappers more than pop singers). 
 

When men make pop music anything like the girls we never seem to support them, like Sam Smith, Harry Styles and Troye Sivan have had amazing albums over the last few years but gays dont rant and rave about them like we do girls. Lil Nas X was probably the closest we got to a main pop boy but we all seemed to stop caring about him idk why

Plus a lot of Pop men are straight and scared to go outside the norm.

reminds me of a tweet (iirc) I saw awhile ago, something along the lines of:

Troye is not a gay diva, he's just a gay 

6 hours ago, TheARTPOPball said:

I don’t think there’s actually a shortage of “main” pop boys. I just think a lot of the pop listeners are more female oriented with their music taste and overlook the male artists despite them commercially being comparable to the females they listen to.
 

i think at the same time, It’s also just that “pop” is a tricky genre because it means popular music but at the same time, it’s also an actual sonic category. So men in pop normally have the “pop” label but lean into their own niche or sub genre of pop. With the majority of the larger pop boys leaning more into a hip hop/rnb version of pop, or an 80’s style production of pop. 

men also tend to not venture out much I think because masculinity is not as flexible as femininity in terms of how much women can do while still being looked at as feminine.
 

When a girl like Billie wears backwards caps and menswear inspired clothing, and kind of has this bada$$ Schtick, of course there’s some people who speculate on queerness, but overall she is still accepted by society as a “feminine” polarity 

When a man like Shawn Mendes, for example, has an overall rounded edge aesthetic, writes about his emotions, and dips and dabbles with softer textures, and lives unfiltered and is goofy in front of cameras, he is bullied into “coming out” by the internet, much speculation about him being a “bottom” and is also looked at through a feminine lense.

I definitely think men in the media are pressured much more harshly to be marketable in that sense, because the general consensus in society seems to be 

a feminine woman is a woman

a masculine woman is a woman 

a masculine man is a man 

a feminine man is a male, but not regarded as a man.

and the funny part is the man doesn’t even generally need to BE feminine to labeled as such. It could be something just as small as looking his best all the time. This is rooted in misogyny. 

this is just my observation. I could be wrong, 

great take!

5 hours ago, Roughhouse Dandy said:

Being a big pop act takes work and big swings. I just haven't seen many men with the talent or drive to put in the work needed to get enough eyes on them. 

There are only a couple I see trying atm, but they're a little too "out-there" for the gp to really embrace them imo 

this as well

----


I also thought of this study from 6 years ago:

https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/research-proves-female-artists-are-more-creative-than-men-8269/

[gagzus 18,210]

22 minutes ago, NewUsername said:

reminds me of a tweet (iirc) I saw awhile ago, something along the lines of:

Troye is not a gay diva, he's just a gay 

great take!

this as well

----


I also thought of this study from 6 years ago:

https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/research-proves-female-artists-are-more-creative-than-men-8269/

Also wanna point out gay men specifically have an ego where they see other gay men doing something and think they can do it either better or just as good. From small things in the day to day office to- As a drag queen the amount of gay men who act like it’s easy to be a queen is astounding. I imagine it’s the same in this case.

Most gay men are delulu and most definitely think “I deserve that” about Troye and his fame 

Edited Sunday at 03:44 PM by gagzus

[Lord Axel 869]

Adam Lambert is iconic but the GP never seemed to fully embrace him and it's so sad He hasn't even had a "mainstream hit" since his first album back in freakin' 2009, but I guess on the legacy side of things at least he got to tour with Queen which is amazing for him

[Agunimon 345]

I don't think pop is a genre that many men are interested in getting into. They get into rap, or rock, or country. There's a huge influx of male artists in those fields who tend to dominate there far more than women. The ones that do lean more towards pop music will then fall into the radar of predominantly gay men, who treat pop music like a sport and seemingly have an instinctive disinterest in them.

The biggest criticism I see of them is that they are boring, don't do anything interesting, or switch up anything. I never really saw that logic. The artists don't have those demands because the demands that the pop fans who predominantly (and sometimes exclusively) demand of women don't have that demand on men. They simply ignore them. They don't engage.

So their main core fanbase isn't fans that are typically associated with stan culture. It's just GP who like some of the music, so they may buy their album and they don't really engage with them in media beyond perhaps following them on socials and seeing them in concert. Because of that, they seem even less than they actually are. The GP doesn't care about that. In fact, they tend to favor more consistency. You can see that in the hits that come out of female pop artists.

Edited Sunday at 05:50 PM by Agunimon

[StrawberryBlond 15,221]

It is odd that's there's a lack of really successful male popstars because boybands tend to be very successful (but when they go solo, it works out for very few of them) so why don't we want them on their own as well? Being in a boyband seems to be the key to being successful if you want to do male pop. If you're solo, it's hit or miss and you may not have success for long. Most of their fans are female and not bothered about their sexuality but labels still believe that if a man is boldly gay/bi or remotely effeminate or camp that women won't be fans of them, so they're not encouraged to do anything too out there that could leave people questioning. And above all else, pop is seen as a "female" genre. Men are drawn towards hip hop, rock, alternative and country. So male pop usually slants towards those genres and isn't sparkly pretty pop that jumps to mind, so it's not going to have the same audience. But the lack of support and loyalty for male soloists from women when they go gaga over boybands is very strange to me and I say that as a woman.

17 hours ago, HotLikeMexico said:

Maybe The Weeknd but I’m not too familiar with his visuals and from what I’ve seen, I still feel like it’s still “lite” to be appealing to the masses. Maybe I’m wrong. 

His video for Too Late was so explicit that it got age restricted and involves his disembodied head being revered by 2 women who in turn, kill a random man, sew the head onto it and simultaneously ride his upper and lower half while looking each other in the eye. It's f**ked up as all hell but I actually love it, which is odd for me as I'm usually against anything squeamish and too dark. His singles tend to be quite mainstream friendly (though the lyrics of Often are very explicit) and he saves his more experimental stuff for album tracks. 

[himerosxo 477]

I have a feeling there’s going to be a pop boy that’s going to come out of nowhere in 2028-30.
 

A rise like we haven’t seen since Gaga! Not someone who’s an influencer that’s fabricated into a pop star, but someone with an organic rise that’s going to be HUGE. Bookmark me. It’s time for the resurrection of the meaning of a true pop star! 

Edited Sunday at 08:03 PM by himerosxo

[Sepsami 20,092]

19 hours ago, hELXIG said:

Idk. They're boring? Rise in conservatism means they are too afraid to push boundaries? And if they do it seems disingenuous?  I've always found men in music boring though. I've never believe in such things as an 'industry plant' but Sombr is the first time I started to wonder. Then I saw an interview in which he said he literally writes a hook, tests it on TikTok to see if it's worth making the full song, and then proceeded to pat himself on the back for being a marketing genius. If this is what they're doing now, instead of writing actual music to express themselves and their feelings and ideas, then it's no wonder they come across as generic with nothing to say

Sombr peaked and fell hard so damn quick imo

Big oof when there is no integrity

[Ladle Ghoulash 37,988]

18 hours ago, gagzus said:

I think it’s because they’re not viewed in the same way pop divas are, BUT tbf gays act like there’s no “main pop boys” when there is they’re just all more loved by straight men (and a lot of them are rappers more than pop singers). 
 

When men make pop music anything like the girls we never seem to support them, like Sam Smith, Harry Styles and Troye Sivan have had amazing albums over the last few years but gays dont rant and rave about them like we do girls. Lil Nas X was probably the closest we got to a main pop boy but we all seemed to stop caring about him idk why

Plus a lot of Pop men are straight and scared to go outside the norm.

Yeah, “pop music’s” demo is just probably more femme and gay than it’s ever been, whereas some of the biggest artists in music rn are men, even if they’re not “pop stars” in the sense that most pop fans understand it (ie The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, even Morgan Wallen), in spite of them arguably still being essentially pop.

Edited Sunday at 08:06 PM by Ladle Ghoulash

[gagzus 18,210]

46 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Yeah, “pop music’s” demo is just probably more femme and gay than it’s ever been, whereas some of the biggest artists in music rn are men, even if they’re not “pop stars” in the sense that most pop fans understand it (ie The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, even Morgan Wallen), in spite of them arguably still being essentially pop.

I think we forget because of our diva bubble, most music is dominated by men. Even behind the scenes all the producers, execs, managers, choreographers, designers etc are men. As much as we don’t like certain female artists because of preferences, we should cheer them on for being so successful (even if their music is garbage, looking at you Table Stiff) 

[Creyk 18,192]

Jason Derulo was this and pop stans usually just criticize him and call him negative words.

Right now we have Charlie Puth, Alex Warren, Harry Styles, all pop boys with currently active eras. You guys are just not interested in them. 

If you want a pop boy who makaes songs similar to pop girls, you have Khalid,. He released an album last year and it was good. No one cared or listened.

Edited Sunday at 09:12 PM by Creyk

[VTV 13,298]

They are not marketable and can easily fall into stereotypes and queerbaiting agenda. 

[TEETHTEETH 1,771]

Mika is the only pop boy worth following