The next generation of pop music

It looks like the next generation of pop music is starting to creep up.  It is Generation Z and these are the ones that are born in the 1990s and the 2000s.  These children are the ones that grown up with the "pop Disney" and the "pop Nickelodeon."  The older generation haven't grown up with the "pop Disney" and was more the "Mickey Mouse rerun Disney."  I do remember the Mickey Mouse rerun Disney a little bit, but I vaguely remember a lot of the shows of the old Disney Channel. I have a better memory of the "pop Disney", which is the Disney that is used today.

The first traces of the pop Disney took place about 1997 or 1998, and I was in first second grade.  They started to show a lot of shows that involved preteens and teenagers, and I thought this was for older children and teenagers; or even adults; it is not the kid friendly Disney that everyone thinks of when they hear Disney.  The first traces of the pop Disney had game shows and cooking shows, and it was always sucking up to people such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.  I used to actually like a lot of the songs that were playing on the pop Disney

Nickelodeon was starting to enter the act as well, but it took a while - Jimmy Neutron was Nickelodeon but it was not a fantasy Nickelodeon and it was more of a Nickelodeon about middle school drama, which is a start of the "pop Nickelodeon stuff".  Then the old Noggin was awesome - it has lots of shows for tweens when the "tween" demographic was starting to be introduced.

The "tween" demographic - I remember the first signs of the "tween" demographic was first being started about 2000 - there were many toys that were featuring teen idols like Christina Aguilera and you also were starting to have many icons in stores such as Lizzie McGuire.  Lizzie McGuire is Hilary Duff and then Hannah Montana is the same path as Lizzie McGuire, but you have Miley Cyrus.

I am the start of this next generation that is heavily marketed and we are starting to enter adulthood.  If you consider the first Gen Zers to be born about 1991 or so, it makes about sense there is a shift in pop culture around the year 2009 when it started to become more conforming and conservative than the older generations emphasis on hip-hop and American Idol, etc.  I was not really interested in the hip-hop culture and I was using the hip-hop culture to fit in, but deep down, I was looking for some idols.  Soulja Boy was a pretty clean cut idol for hip-hop.

The first signs of the shift in the pop culture is when Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift were starting to enter the charts, and you have more clean cut acts such as Jason Derulo and Ke$ha.  Now it is 2012 and you are starting to see a whole bunch of new people.

One Direction is a new boy band which are pretty good and you also have the ever so hated Justin Beiber - then you are starting to have people such as Emily Osment, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, which are very clean cut  and they have been on the Disney Channel and now are entering the real world. Even the Nickelodeon people are entering the charts and you are getting guys such as Big Time Rush and the one from iCarly, Miranda Cosgrove.  These are a nice gang of pop idols and I can see a whole bunch picking up in the future.

Since this generation of pop music is highly produced and marketed, you don't really see that much individualism in the music.  Other generations have their rebellion such as the The Who and the Doors with the Boomers along with the new wavers with Gen X and grunge, emo, and hip-hop with Gen Y, but this bunch don't have their own sound or their rebellion.  I think maybe dubstep might be their rebellion - it is a heavy bass but it don't sound that original but you see more of the alternative skater type teenagers listening to dubstep.  I also see a lot of teenagers and even the new young adults listening to country - country was for old rednecks but it seems like a lot of teenagers like these country guys like Toby Keith or Miranda Lambert.

The internet might fire up new pop as well and it is probably YouTube - you seen Justin Beiber, but you also have other people that are cheesy or don't sound that good such as GASP Rebecca Black and the ones that did Hot Problems which should not be even making music.  I thought Hot Problems was somebody making fun of something but it looks like they are some pretty hot looking girls making some not so good sounding music.

Aly & AJ are probably are the best of this next generation of music in my opinion - they are a duet of girls and I think they are a great influence.  I really like to see more out of Aly & AJ and I listen to them from time to time even now.

I can see some hope for the next generation of music - every generation has something good and they have revolutionized music in many ways such as the Boomers with the album rock, Generation X with alternative music, Generation Y with the digital music business,  and Generation Z, I don't know.  I think Generation Z is very good at getting big at lightning speed and they can self market on the internet very well - they are very good at making things cool.  They will be a great generation of pop culture and I can see some very great pop culture coming up and it is probably be off of the internet.