Brat summer isn’t behind us yet: Charli XCX just played two back-to-back weekends at Coachella and sold-out four nights at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Sabrina Carpenter, meanwhile, is still busy touring the world on her sold-out Short n’ Sweet tour. Chappell Roan, having been crowned BBC Radio 1’s ‘Sound of 2025’ in January, is topping the bill at Reading and Leeds this summer. All three – who have been affectionately dubbed “the Powerpuff Girls of pop” – are also headlining this year’s edition of Primavera Sound in Barcelona.

Sabrina, Charli, and Chappell aside, tonnes of other young female pop stars are dominating pop right now. Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour is still selling out, with reports claiming it’s the biggest tour by an artist born in the 21st century. Billie Eilish, SZA, and Ariana Grande are all among Spotify’s top ten most-streamed artists, with over 266 million listeners between them. Oh, and let’s not forget Lola Young’s “Messy” – the catchy TikTok anthem that no one can stop singing.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, a man called Benson Boone cartwheeled across a stage in a too-tight blue jumpsuit at the Grammys, which reminded me: where the hell did all the pop boys go?

It would be an overstatement to claim that there are no young men in pop right now, especially when we look to K-pop idols, like (former Dazed cover star) Jungkook and Jimin from BTS, Taemin, and Exo’s Kai, and all the guys from Stray Kids. In the US, Shawn Mendes, Conan Gray, and The Kid LAROI are all enjoying successful careers too. But still, none seem to have the same mainstream appeal achieved by straight male pop heartthrobs of years gone by. Case in point: no men were nominated for ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’ at this year’s Grammys.

This is a far cry from the 2010s. Take Justin Bieber, whose first single went platinum, sold over 150 million records, and still can’t step outside without being hounded by paparazzi. Or One Direction, who became famous overnight after their stint on The X Factor, with dedicated fans camping out on the street for days just to catch a glimpse of them. It’s fair to say that today there are vanishingly few male stars or boybands achieving quite the same level of mainstream commercial success and fan obsession.

What’s changed since the likes of One Direction ruled the charts? Music journalist Michael Cragg explains that 2000s and 2010s pop stars were encouraged to be “normal” and “relatable”, thanks to TV talent shows like The X Factor and Pop Idol, which exploded in popularity in tandem with reality TV. Of course, conventional good looks helped too – when putting One Direction together for The X Factor, Nicole Scherzinger told the panel: “They are the cutest boyband ever. Little girls are going to love them!”. But part of their appeal lay in their authenticity; they really looked like – they were – five young men plucked from obscurity and catapulted to global stardom.

“Everyday people were made famous and people didn’t want them to change in terms of a pop star glow up,” Cragg says. See also: Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Bruno Mars. As Cragg explains, historically, for (straight) male pop stars, it’s never been “about the glitz and the glamour at all. In fact, not engaging with that is what made them stand out”. Today, however, appetites are changing. People want their pop stars to be bold, theatrical, and fun: it’s why Harry Styles, having gone solo and rebranded as a boundary-pushing artist unafraid of playing with gender norms, is still enjoying a successful career.

It’s worth acknowledging here that there are plenty of artists like Styles, most of them queer, keeping the pop world exciting right now, like Troye Sivan and Lil Nas X. They wholeheartedly embrace the glamour, humour, colour, camp, and choreography that has long been at the heart of the genre: take Prince, perpetually draped in decadent purple, complete with an 80s blowout and shoulder pads. Or David Bowie, who always played with bold colours, from red platform boots to neon makeup and metallic bodysuits. Or Elton John, or George Michael, or Freddie Mercury – the list goes on.

There’s a chance an existing man could spring a pop surprise. But who would that be?

But these more performative aspects of pop are potentially cringe to most straight guys – particularly younger ones. With surveys showing that Gen Z are “shyer and more risk averse than previous generations”, the last thing young, up-and-coming stars want to do is risk making a fool of themselves. Cragg suggests that we have to consider “the embarrassment factor that comes with clips immediately being shared online for straight male artists [...] Is it just cooler to be nonchalant and not care about stuff like that?”. But this kind of self-conscious attitude is hardly conducive to good, fun pop.

Why are young men now more embarrassed to be daring, dress up in glitter and moonwalk on the world’s stage than they were 40 years ago? There’s no simple answer. One possible explanation is that many feel pressure and anxiety to keep up with societal expectations of masculinity; a YouGov poll revealed this feeling applied to over half of British men. It’s no wonder that genres like rap, which are perceived as more stereotypically “masculine” are attracting more young male fans and producing more successful young male artists than the pop world right now (at least in the UK and America).

Still, there’s hope for pop boys yet. Beyond the West, male stars are clearly thriving. The BBC’s hit show, Made in Korea, which puts a British boyband through rigorous K-pop training, suggests that young men in music have a lot to learn from the likes of BTS and Stray Kids, who embrace highly disciplined choreography, creative fashion choices, and remind us that pop stars come in many different forms.

I ask Cragg if he sees a male pop renaissance happening any time soon. “No one really saw someone like Chappell Roan breaking through in the way she has. Or Sabrina Carpenter, who was six albums into her career before going stratospheric. So there’s a chance an existing man could spring a pop surprise”, he says, “But who would that be? Ed Sheeran isn’t about to start linking up with AG Cook, and I don’t think Lewis Capaldi can pull off a cowboy hat”. For now though, the pop femininomenon is far from finished. After all the challenges women have faced in the music industry just to be taken seriously and recognised for their artistry, I think we can agree it’s long overdue. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.