There were teen idols before there were teen magazines, but idols have always been a permanent feature in magazines such as 16 magazine, Tiger Beat and Right On! in the United States, and in similar magazines elsewhere. With the advent of television, teen idols were also promoted through programs such as American Bandstand, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Soul Train. Some contemporary teen idols include Americans Taylor Lautner, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Koreans Taemin, Onew, Minho, Key and Jonghyun, all members of the boyband SHINee, and Canadian Justin Bieber. Many American teen idols achieve "cross-over" success internationally, however this list is not limited to American artists alone with some people like German popstar Bill Kaulitz of the pop-rock band Tokio Hotel. In Asia, idols range from Japanese pop megastars Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro as well as Kana Nishino and Japanese music groups such as Morning Musume, AKB48, and Perfume and Johnny & Associates boy bands Arashi, NEWS, KAT-TUN, and Hey! Say! JUMP among others while Chinese pop icon Jay Chou and South Korean singers BoA and Rain and music groups TVXQ, Beast, SHINee, Super Junior, 2NE1, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, T-ara, Kara and Girls' Generation Infinite (band) are examples.
It is the essence of the teen idol to appeal to the burgeoning sexuality of the young without in any way threatening it. As recently as the 1970s, some stars were asked to shave their chests because it was perceived that chest hair was threatening to young girls. In previous eras, because teen idols were supposed to have an aura of approachability, they often needed to keep their romantic relationships and marriages a secret for fear of decreased popularity. In recent times, the concept of a teen idol has changed. Today's idols include film and television stars, pop singers, and supermodels. Celebrities' private lives are no longer taboo; to the contrary, they have spawned an entire industry of gossip magazines, television shows, and whole television channels such as E!. Young sports icons are considered teen idols like Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Shawn Johnson, Michael Phelps and Apolo Ohno as well as 1970s nine time swimming gold medalist Mark Spitz.
Early teen idols
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| Rudolph Valentino, one of the first "teen idols" of the 20th century |
The teen idol is primarily a phenomenon of 20th century mass communication. Its first manifestation (often referred to as matinee idol) may have been Rudolph Valentino, whose good looks and winning way with women featured heavily in such silent films as The Sheik. Valentino was so popular with young women, many of them went into mass hysteria after he died at the age of 31 in 1926. Judy Garland's pin-ups adorned many a high school male's locker after her sudden rise to fame. But it was probably Frank Sinatra, whose early career is often linked to his appeal to bobby soxers, who is generally regarded as being the first true 'teen idol'.
1950-1960s
The great success of young rock stars like Elvis Presley and film stars like James Dean in the 1950s, as well as the wider emergence of youth subcultures, led promoters to the deliberate creation of teen idols such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian — and to artists who deliberately cultivated a (safer) idol image, like Paul Anka.
Anka initially modelled himself on a particular generic type, the teen idol who carried on the process ... of changing the image of male youth ... from wild to mild, by providing a cleaner, more wholesome image of masculinity than that of the previous era's rebellious rockabilly heroes [and (working-class) so-called juvenile delinquents, like those in West Side Story.
Portable phonograph
Post-war teens were able to buy relatively inexpensive phonographs — including portable models that could be carried to friends' houses — and the new 45-rpm singles. Rock music played on 45s became the soundtrack to the 1960s as people bought what they heard on the radio. The great majority of the music being marketed to 50s teens was being written by adults, but 60s teens were increasingly appreciating and emulating artists closer to their own age, to teen fashion, and to lyrics which addressed their own concerns. Their parents worried about their attraction to artists (and DJs) who were edgy and rebellious. Faces on magazines fed fans; fans buy records, see films, watch TV and buy fashions.
Marketing of the teen idol generally focuses on the image.... The teen idol is structured to appeal to the pre-teen and young teen female pop audience member and children in general..They are commodified in forms and images that are relatively non-threatening to this young audience and to the ancillary market of parents... The teen idol never appears to be autonomous and therefore never appears to be threatening as an adult; he remains, as long as he is popular, perpetually childlike and dependent.
Some marketers turned to film and TV for fresh, attractive, 'safe' faces. Tommy Sands's debut in a television film about the phenomenon, The Idol, made a teen idol out of Sands himself. Ricky Nelson, a performer of rockabilly music, also became a teen idol through his parents' television series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Some young TV stars were being hustled into studios to make recordings; for example, ex-Mousketeer Annette Funicello became one of the first big female idols; another, Johnny Crawford of The Rifleman, had five Top-40 hits. In 1963, Luke Halpin made a big splash as a teen idol in the television program Flipper. After Bye Bye Birdie was released in 1963, Bobby Rydell became an instant teen tdol.
Likewise, Tommy Steele, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were teen idols, especially during the earlier part of their careers, although they quickly grew out of that status. The Rolling Stones did it through a more rebellious image, The Beatles did it through their more developed (or "grown up") music. Similarly, Neil Sedaka had two distinct eras of his career, with about a decade in between: one as a teen idol in the 1960s (in which many of his songs note his attraction to 16-year-old girls), and a later career in adult contemporary music The Cowsills were teen idols and on every teen magazine for years as well as the show The Partridge Family that was written in their likeness. All of The Monkees became instant teen idols in the late 1960s after their TV show became an over night success, especially Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. The English born member of The Monkees Davy Jones was regularly features in all time teen idol lists. In 2008, Yahoo Music named Jones the number one teen idol of all time, and in 2009 he was ranked second in a list compiled by Fox News.
1970s
After Davy Jones came Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy. They held the title of Teen Idols from the late 1960s til the mid 1970s. Both Sherman and Cassidy were actors on television and musicians in the pop-rock category at the time. Sherman was on hit TV shows Shindig and Here Come the Brides among many others. Musical series such as Cassidy's The Partridge Family, the animated series The Archie Show, and (to a lesser extent) The Brady Bunch integrated television and teen-pop music to significant success during this time frame.
One of the features of many teen idols is that their fans (and, in some cases, the musicians themselves) tend to develop a distaste for the music once they become adults, and it is not much listened to by adults, except for nostalgia: the legacy of bubblegum pop. Performers in this category would include Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Donny Osmond, Tony DeFranco, and The Bay City Rollers. Even modern classic hits and oldies outlets, which cover this time period, rarely play cuts from the teen idols of the era, with the exception of Michael Jackson, who began his career as a teen idol but whose career eventually evolved far beyond the limitations of that description and into superstardom.
1980s
In the mid 1980s there was a group of young actors called The Brat Pack, the whole group collectively and separately became teen idols. There was Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. They starred in many coming of age films together in some fashion and became incredibly popular without being musicians.
Actors Corey Feldman and Corey Haim became teen idols during the later part of the 1980s with films The Goonies and together The Lost Boys and License to Drive among other films. They were dubbed "the two Coreys". Before Corey Haim's death in 2010, they did a reality TV show for two seasons (2007-08) on A&E named The Two Coreys after their 1980s moniker.
Australian/American singer/actor Rick Springfield was regarded as a teen idol in the 1980s with such hits as "Jessie's Girl" and "Don't Talk to Strangers". The Grammy Award winning musician Springfield was known for playing Dr. Noah Drake on the daytime drama General Hospital. He originated the character from 1981-1983. He left acting after his music career took off.
At the end of the 1980s, actor Kirk Cameron became a major teen idol teenage heartthrob. Cameron was best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992.
1990s and beyond
The manufacturing of teen idols has been marketed more aggressively and with greater sophistication since the 1980s. The rise of MTV in the 1980s and the success of the boy bands of the 1990s and 2000s has continued to fuel the phenomenon. Besides the obvious combination of what are perceived to be good, clean-cut looks and a ubiquitous, almost invasive marketing campaign, one of the key selling points of the "manufactured band" is the "something for everyone" approach, although this strategy has been criticized for being more along the lines of "something for everyone who hasn't had much exposure to music". Each band member can be promoted separately for a unique look and one-note personality: the "shy one", the "intelligent one", "the rebel", and so on. Classic examples of boy bands include Menudo, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, with the Spice Girls being a female counterpart. Hanson was initially marketed as such a band, but eventually outgrew this label to become a successful indie band. Other notable examples from the 1990s are Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, both of whom had success with their debut singles ("...Baby One More Time" and "Genie in a Bottle", respectively). Brothers Nick Carter from The Backstreet Boys and Pop star Aaron Carter are both Teen idols.
Most of the teen idols in the 1990s were from boy bands with the exception of the situation comedy Home Improvement 's Jonathan Taylor Thomas who played Randy Taylor from 1991-1998 leaving one year shy of the show's last year on the air.
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| Justin Bieber in September 2009 |
The Walt Disney Company and its numerous outlets (e.g. Disney Channel, Radio Disney and Walt Disney Pictures) have successfully developed a new generation of teen idols. In the early 2000s, the company developed the careers of Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, initially targeting youth and female teen audiences. The success of this marketing led to further development of the genre, including new teen idols such as Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Ashley Tisdale, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Not to be outdone, rival Nickelodeon has developed its own slate of stars for its shows, including Miranda Cosgrove, Victoria Justice, Jennette McCurdy, and the band Big Time Rush.
The 2000s have also seen many new teen idols emerge from popular feature films such as the casts of the Harry Potter and Twilight film franchises; television series such as Glee have also developed stars who are popular among younger viewers. Since their rise to fame in recent years, singers Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift have become recent examples of modern-day teen idols who have achieved international success, known for their devoted teen and tween fan base. Of note is that many of the modern-day teen idols are females marketed as "role-models" to teen and tween girls, a departure from the traditional role of the male teen idol marketed as the idealized teen "heart-throb".
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