The white bedroom walls where a photo of JLS used to be pinned are empty. Only Harry Styles remains an icon of boyband pop prophetism. At the Brit’s, he danced around to new Euro-summer inspired techno endeavour “Aperture”, leaving fleeting glimpses into the past land of Simon Cowell, Little Mix and One Direction that seem so distant now.  

But don’t worry, I remember, dancing around to the black-eyed peas in Fanta-induced frenzy, picking my favourite 1D Icon like I was seeing Paul McCartney get out of a plane in the 60s, and all that glitter and glamour that was all so innocent and free and harmless at the time. There was “What Makes You Beautiful” parading from the 02 and back across every radio station to an incessant bender of youthful euphoria. Where did it all go? Did it have to die? What can I do with this grief?  

It seems that popgroups of the 2010s have taken their last breath. Look around, and you might notice that the boyband and girlgroup are gone. But are they really?  

With the rise of groups such as Loona, BLACKPINK, BTS etc, one could argue that the pop group has not died but merely shifted cultural focus. With the rise of these groups, a conversation about industry ethics and manufactured talent has arisen to prominence – one that stayed seemingly docile during the initial rise of groups such as One Direction during the 2010s. Perhaps the culture’s growth into conversations about ethics in the pop industry – especially in the light of Liam Payne’s death – is what has propelled these conversations to the forefront of the discourse.  

On The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Marina Hyde and Richard Osman undertook a masterfully practiced confrontation of the industry figurehead, Simon Cowell. Here they directly raised the humanitarian ethics of building a pop group full of young impressionable people to his face – showcasing how far the conversation has been pushed in the last ten years. I think an ignorance of these ethics in the early 2010s perhaps allowed for a blissful enjoyment of these groups without serious consideration about what was truly at work.  

I take another issue with the ethics of the pop group, for I cannot see most of them without looking at them through a veil of micro fibered plastic. That is to say that music to me, in simple terms, is a place for direct, honest self-expression. Bare your soul, make a stance, protest, express love, hate – whatever. But manufactured pop groups often are not an expression of the members but rather an expression of what the industry knows will make money. So, then capitalism is truly what enters the stage, with a veneered smile, singing about the superficial shallowness of love, to rake in the cash.  

I imagine The Backstreet Boys sat feeble in separate armchairs, being handed a sheet of lyrics by a half-sentient computer saying, “keep quiet, stand for nothing, stay pretty, and sing on boys!”  

I think therein lies the core point – perhaps the pop group has died because authenticity has shifted back into the focus of the mainstream. Chappel Roan, Charli XCX, dare I say Matty Healy – people want popstars that are popstars, not a figurehead for a great machine filled with songwriters, producers and execs. The cultural pendulum swung back. It took some of that 2010s blissful ignorance with it. 

Image Credit: Pexels.com