Teen idol

A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. Many teen idols are targeted for adults for nostalgia purposes. While many teen idols are in the entertainment industry, there have been some from outside the performing arts, especially athletes.
By region.
Asia.
In Asia, idols range from Japanese pop megastars Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro as well as Kana Nishino and Japanese music groups such as Momoiro Clover Z, Morning Musume, AKB48, and Perfume and Johnny & Associates boy bands Arashi, NEWS, KAT-TUN, and Hey! Say! JUMP among others while Taiwanese pop icon Jay Chou, music groups F4 and Lollipop F, and South Korean singers BTS and BoA and Rain and music groups Exo, TVXQ, 2PM, 2AM, Beast, Shinee, Super Junior, 2NE1, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, T-ara, Kara, Blackpink and Girls' Generation are examples.
Europe.
European teen idols include German popstar Bill Kaulitz of the pop-rock band Tokio Hotel and the members of the Anglo-Irish pop boy band One Direction, and Girls Aloud, another Anglo-Irish band. In Spain, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Miguel Bose, Mecano, and Hombres G all enjoyed teen-idol status. In the Balkans, the late Macedonian singer Toše Proeski was considered a teen idol. 
Latin America.
In Latin America, idols ranges from Mexican pop stars Timbiriche, Lynda Thomas, Magneto, Puerto Rican born Mexican Luis Miguel and the popular Puerto Rican boy band Menudo in the 1980s and 1990s, and Paty Cantú, Anahí, Belinda, and RBD in the 2000s and 2010s. Besides, former Menudo member Ricky Martin, their chief rivals Los Chicos and former member Chayanne, Venezuelan actor and singer Guillermo Davila and more, to Argentina, where telenovela, Chiquititas, ushered in a new era of teen-idols for that country, including actors Benjamin Rojas, Felipe Colombo, Luisana Lopilato, and Camila Bordonaba, who went on to form teen band Erreway, precursors to Mexican band RBD. 
North America.
Often teen idols are actors or musicians. Some teen idols began their careers as child actors, such as Britney Spears, Raven-Symoné, Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and Miley Cyrus. There were teen idols before there were teen magazines, but idols have always been a permanent feature in magazines such as "Seventeen", "16", "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", "Soul Train". Today's teen idols have spawned an entire industry of gossip magazines, television shows, YouTube, social media, and whole television channels such as E!.
By era.
Early teen idols.
The first known person to have been treated as a teen idol was Franz Liszt, the Hungarian pianist who, in the 1840s, drew such a following among young women that the term "Lisztomania" soon came to describe the phenomenon. The kind of idolizing following Liszt drew in Europe would not be followed for several decades. Geraldine Farrar, American opera singer, had a large following of young women nicknamed "Gerry-flappers" in the early 20th century. Rudy Vallée, who became a major success in 1929 with hits like "Honey" and "Deep Night", may have been the first American popular singer to have been idolised by hundreds of teen-aged girls at sold-out concerts. He was also possibly the first popular singer to have a star vehicle created for him: "The Vagabond Lover".
Frank Sinatra, whose early career in the 1940s is often linked to his appeal to bobby soxers, who got that name because they were forced to dance in their bobby socks so that their shoes would not damage the dance floor, is also regarded as having been amongst the first teen idols.
1950s–1960s.
Elvis Presley made his debut in the mid-1950s and became a sensation. Deemed too dangerous to be filmed except from the waist up because of his sexually suggestive dance moves, he became popular among teenagers. The success of young rock stars like Presley, film stars like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, James Dean, Tab Hunter, and Sal Mineo in the 1950s, as well as the wider emergence of youth subcultures, led promoters to the deliberate creation of teen idols such as singers Frankie Avalon, Fabian Forte, Bobby Rydell, Annette, Frankie Lymon, and Connie Stevens. Even crooners like Frank Sinatra were still considered idols and rather handsome. Actors Edd Byrnes and Troy Donahue and other artists deliberately cultivated a (safer) idol image, like Canadian musician Paul Anka.
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 1950s teens was being written by adults, but 1960s 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.
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". With many parents disapproving of Elvis Presley, Nelson became a safe alternative. However, he found himself outclassed by the Beatles when they arrived in the U.S. in 1964.
The level of stardom the Beatles achieved in the U.S.—dubbed Beatlemania—was never before seen in that country, not even during the heyday of Elvis Presley.
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 as well as The Lennon Sisters whom had cut out dolls and were always on the covers of the gossip magazines; 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 idol.
In the 1960s as situation comedies and dramas on television using child actors became more popular, actors Paul Petersen, Patty Petersen, and Shelley Fabares from "The Donna Reed Show", Dwayne Hickman from "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", Sally Field of "Gidget", Jon Provost of "Lassie", Jay North from "Dennis the Menace", and Keith and Kevin Schultz known as the "Schultz Twins" on "The Monroes" all became younger preteen idols and grew into being teen idols.
Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys 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, and a later career in adult contemporary music. Roy Orbison was known for his songs "Oh, Pretty Woman," "Only The Lonely," and "Crying." From the family band the Cowsills, Susan Cowsill, John Cowsill and Barry Cowsill became teen idols. Many of the teen idols of the era were the sons of older, established stars; Dino, Desi & Billy were active as teen idols during the mid-sixties. The group included Dean Paul Martin (son of singer Dean Martin), and Billy Hinsche (a mutual friend whose parents were not famous). Gary Lewis, son of comedian Jerry Lewis, fronted the Playboys during this era.
All of The Monkees became instant teen idols in the late 1960s after their TV show became an overnight success, especially for Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. The British born member of the Monkees Davy Jones was regularly featured 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". Davy Jones still to this day tends to win many number ones and the top of the list in best teen idol contests.
1965 saw "Tiger Beat" magazine, an influential teen idols' news magazine, get published for the first time.
The gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", debuting in 1966, made an unusual teen idol out of its star, the 42-year-old Shakespearean actor Jonathan Frid. More conventional teen idols spawned by the show included David Selby, Don Briscoe and Christopher Pennock.
1970s.
After Davy Jones came Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy, who held the title of Teen Idols from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. Both Sherman and Cassidy were actors on television and chart topping musicians in the pop-rock category at the time; with David Cassidy in particular enjoying immense international fame and success. 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. The Brady Bunch's Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, as was tennis pro/actor Vincent Van Patten all were constantly in the fan magazines at the time. Popular actors such as John Molder Brown, Leonard Whiting, Ray Lovelock (Raymond Lovelock), Leif Garrett, Mark Hamill, Mark Lester, Jan-Michael Vincent and Jack Wild were the talk of the teenagers in the 1970s as well. Musicians The Hudson Brothers were on many teen magazine covers for a number of years as teen idols. They had two shows on TV during the 1970s and recorded many albums.
One of the features of many teen idols is that their fans (and, in some cases, the musicians themselves) tended to develop a hate for the music once they became adults, and it is not much listened to by adults, except for nostalgia: the legacy of bubblegum pop. Teen idol performers in this category would include Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, The Osmond Brothers (particularly Donny Osmond and their teen idol sister Marie Osmond), Andy Gibb, Tony DeFranco of the Canadian band The DeFranco Family, and The Bay City Rollers (UK). Even modern classic hits and oldies outlets, which cover this time period, rarely play cuts from the teen idols of the era. A notable exception is Michael Jackson of The Jackson Five, who began his career as a teen idol along with his brothers, but whose individual career eventually evolved far beyond the limitations of that description and into superstardom.
The Jackson Five were the first African-American music group to become national teen idols, appearing along with famous white idols in magazines such as "16" and "Tiger Beat". In addition, the charismatic appeal, showmanship and flurry of fans towards lead Michael Jackson made him a teen idol and heartthrob amongst teens; his success as a soloist continued into the 1980s. 
Occasionally, musical outfits attain teen idol status in particular markets while enjoying another appeal in others. An example would be hard rock/power pop band Cheap Trick, whose early striking success in Japan preceded their breakthrough in their native America and elsewhere, with the so-called "American Beatles" inciting "scenes reminiscent of Beatlemania" in that country in the late 1970s, as is evident on their subsequent international hit live album "Cheap Trick at Budokan" (release year: 1978 [Japan], 1979 [international]).
1980s.
In 1985, Actress Alyssa Milano from "Who's the Boss?" became a major teen idol and was dubbed "The Teen Queen of the 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. They were 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 very popular without being musicians.
Actors Corey Feldman and Corey Haim also became teen idols during the later part of the 1980s with films "The Goonies" and together "The Lost Boys", "Dream a Little dream" 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.
Actor River Phoenix during his teen years became a teen idol during the later part of the 1980s, as did Christian Slater.
Australian singer-actor Rick Springfield was regarded as the 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 to 1983. He left acting after his music career took off.
During this decade, Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, caused a sensation in Latin America, nicknamed Menudomania that became compared to The Beatles' Beatlemania.
Also painted with the Beatlemania brush was British pop group Duran Duran. Dubbed "The Fab Five", this group is recognized as pioneers in the then relatively new area of music video, that started with the Monkees in the 1960s. Their exotic videos, such as "Hungry Like the Wolf," being fixtures on cable channel MTV coupled with their exposure in teen magazines instilled them as teen idols in America and around the world though the majority of the 1980s. Another British pop band Culture Club were dubbed teen idols, with Boy George's androgynous outfits that were copied by his teen fans and young adults alike.
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. Also Scott Baio and Willie Aames of "Charles in Charge" fame found themselves regulars in teen magazines.
In popular music, the late 1980s was the boom of teenagers dominating the music charts. Debbie Gibson became the youngest person to write, perform and produce a number-one single, "Foolish Beat", and also had many hits from her first two albums. Tiffany, another teen icon, became a pop sensation at 15 years old thanks to an aggressive marketing strategy. She promoted her debut album in shopping malls of the US. She is also the youngest person to have a debut album hit number one and have multiple number one singles from that album ("I Think We're Alone Now" and "Could've Been"). Having become a household name, she had then-unknown band New Kids on the Block as an opening act for her shows. However, the sudden popularity of the New Kids caused their roles to be reversed. Gibson and Tiffany's careers had stalled by the early 1990s; so had NKOTB by the mid-nineties. The other boy band from Boston, New Edition, was popular with the teen set by the end of the 1980s.
One of the most popular female singers of the 1980s, with teen idol status was Madonna. With songs "Like a Prayer", "Who's That Girl" and "Like a Virgin" in the '80s top lists throughout the decade. She became a teen idol through her acclaimed music, groundbreaking videos, celebrity tabloid image, feminist punk spirit, public acceptance of the marginalised LGBTQ+ community, unique fashion at the time and her very loyal fanbase.
1990s.
The manufacturing of teen idols has been marketed more aggressively and with greater sophistication since the 1980s. Many of the major teen idols in the 1990s were bands and musical acts. The rise of MTV in the 1980s and the success of the boy bands and girl groups during the 1990s and 2000s continued to fuel the phenomenon. Besides a combination of good, clean-cut looks and a ubiquitous marketing campaign, such bands typically include a variety of personality types (e.g. "the shy one", "the smart one", etc.) These idols were often found on the covers and pages of teen magazines during the 1990s as teen idols as well. Classic examples of boy bands include Menudo, New Kids on the Block, Take That, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC, all becoming the best selling pop groups of the decade. Hanson was initially marketed as such a band, but eventually outgrew this label to become a successful indie band. Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, and Britney Spears, along with female bands such as the Spice Girls, TLC, and Destiny's Child, also became very popular at the end of the decade. Even though the Spice Girls split in 2000, they remain fairly popular in England.
The Backstreet Boys entered the scene in 1997 with "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," a confusingly named hit produced by Max Martin. NSYNC followed in 1999, and the market proved it could accommodate both. However, the most talented member of NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, left the group for a solo career. The group soon disbanded. Opting against joining a girl band, Britney Spears released the music video "...Baby One More Time" in 1998 on MTV, which pushed her into the public consciousness.
ABC sitcom "Home Improvement"s Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played Randy Taylor from 1991–1998; "JTT" (as he would come to be known during this time), uncomfortable with his teen idol status, left the show (and, for the most part, the entire acting scene) one year shy of the show's final year on the air.
Other notable examples from the 1990s are:
In the 1990s and the 2000s, Vitamin C, known for her songs "Graduation (Friends Forever)" and "As Long as You're Loving Me", became a teen idol.
2000s.
The Walt Disney Company and its numerous outlets (e.g. Disney Channel, Radio Disney and Walt Disney Pictures) successfully developed a new generation of teen idols in the early 2000s, starting with the careers of actresses and singers Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, initially targeting youth and female teen audiences. While still teenagers, Duff became famous for her starring titular character in the Disney Channel teen sitcom "Lizzie McGuire" and her multi-Platinum second studio album "Metamorphosis" (2003), with which she became one of the youngest artists to reach the top of the "Billboard" 200, and Lohan became famous for her starring roles in many successful teen movies, including "Freaky Friday" (2003), "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" (2004), "Mean Girls" (2004) and "" (2005), and her debut studio album "Speak" (2004). The success of this marketing led to further development of the genre, including new teen idols such as Raven-Symoné, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Zac Efron, Aly & AJ, Jesse McCartney, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. Disney has also used another one of its own TV channels, Freeform, to develop shows and stars popular among teen girls.
Miley Cyrus claimed her fame by playing a fictionalized version of herself on the television show "Hanna Montana" (2006-2011). Her 2009 singles "The Climb" and "Party in the U.S.A" were both hits. However, as she began metamorphosizing into something more mature, her popularity fell as parents considered her new materials inappropriate for their children.
Viacom-owned Nickelodeon, a competitor to Disney Channel, has also developed its own slate of stars for its television shows, including Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Emma Roberts, Miranda Cosgrove, Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Kress, Jamie Lynn Spears (sister of Britney Spears), Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice, Elizabeth Gillies, and groups The Naked Brothers Band and Big Time Rush, many of whom have not only starred in TV shows, but recorded songs as well. 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 idolized teen "heartthrob". Actress Mischa Barton became a teen idol through acting. "Entertainment Weekly" named Marissa Cooper “It Girl" of 2003.
In 2002, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne dominated the music scene and eventually became a worldwide teen idol. Listed at #4 on Yahoo!'s Top 25 Teen Idols of all-time. During the popularity of her sister Jessica Simpson's MTV reality television series "", "7th Heaven" actress Ashlee Simpson developed a music career through her own MTV spin-off reality series "The Ashlee Simpson Show" in 2004, and soon became a teen idol.
American musician Taylor Swift entered the scene as a teenager by co-writing the song "Tim McCraw" with Liz Rose in 2005, after which she became a well-known and successful artist.
Teen idols were also popular in the R&B and Hip-Hop realm throughout this decade, including Chris Brown, JoJo, Bow Wow, 3LW, Ciara, Mario, B2K, and Rihanna, among others.
In the late 2000s, bands like Lillix, KSM, Everlife, and Clique Girlz became teen pop idols and have a teenage fanbase.
Discovered on YouTube by media entrepreneur Scooter Braun at the age of 13, Justin Bieber was ushered into fame with his 2009 album "My World".
2010s.
Although the future members of the boy band One Direction did not do well on the U.K. "X-Factor", guest judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested they form a group. The result was much fame and fortune for the band, which busted into the scene in 2012. 
In Japan, more and more Japanese idol groups have appeared. In Japanese culture, persons called "idols" are media personalities in their teens and early twenties who are considered particularly attractive or cute and who will, for a period ranging from several months to a few years, regularly appear in the mass media, e.g. as singers for pop groups, bit-part actors, TV personalities, models in photo spreads published in magazines, advertisements, etc. One of the most successful groups is Momoiro Clover Z. Their performances incorporate elements of ballet, gymnastics, and action movies. During 2014, about 486,000 people attended their live concerts, which was the highest record of all female musicians in Japan. Momoiro Clover Z has been ranked as the most popular female idol group from 2013 to 2017.
In the late 2010s, many young actors developed large following amongst teenagers and millennials after portraying famous contemporary literary characters. The most notable among these were Timothée Chalamet (Elio Perlman) and Nick Robinson (Simon Spier). These actors were referred to by the media and general public as "White Boys of the Month," with the term since becoming a popular meme. Noah Centineo became popular among teenagers and young adults following the release of "To All the Boys I've Loved Before", having amassed over 15 million Instagram followers within eight weeks of the film's release; he was dubbed an "internet boyfriend" by the media.
Teen idols outside of the performing arts.
In the past, young sports icons and Olympic athletes during their competitive times were considered teen idols such as French alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy, American skater Peggy Fleming, American decathlete Caitlyn Jenner, and Brazilian footballer Ronaldo.
Impact and influence.
The Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo was an idol for teens around the world, with Jacob Steinberg of "The Guardian" writing, "In 1998, no one was as ferociously talented as Ronaldo, whose supernatural mixture of power, pace and skill had made him the player every child in the playground wanted to be."
For the skincare industry offering products that fight acne, partnering with young celebrities has proven to be rather lucrative. Their mass appeal, especially online, where young people tend to be, is a key reason why.
As of 2019, the K-pop band BTS was reportedly worth more than US$4.65 billion, or 0.3 percent of the GDP of their home country, South Korea. They attract one in every 13 foreign visitors to Korea and were cited as one of the key acts in boosting global music sales to US$19 billion in 2018.
In 2020, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her eighth studio album, "Folklore", a critical and commercial success featuring prominent use of cottagecore in its visuals and lyrics has been credited with increasing the aesthetic's popularity and notability. Some sources describe cottagecore as a subculture of adolescents and young adults (Millennials and Generation Z).