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.
