Pop singer Justin Bieber received a lesson yesterday in how
fickle the music industry can be when he was loudly booed at the 2013 Billboard
Music Awards, after being presented with the Milestone Award. The diminutive
19-year-old star stated, "I'm an artist and I should be taken
seriously." The irony is, had Bieber not been a teen pop star, with his musical
abilities, such as playing guitar and the drums, critics would take him more
seriously for his artistry.
However, traditionally, with the way the music history and
the industry has worked, teen pop stars, including boybands, are rarely
commended for artistry and usually have a short career span. The New Kids On
The Block were a big teen pop sensation in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
selling even more records that Bieber has today, but their fame ended
overnight, due to their demographic moving on to the next trend.
For a teen pop star to enter adulthood with a successful
career embraced by the public and critics alike, it takes a really savvy
manager with an understanding of music history (it rarely happens). Certain
career moves must be avoided, thinking of the long run as opposed to short term
gains.
