Taylor, I'm certain, is a lifer. I will be devastated if she is somehow diverted from that path. Even if she gets caught up in other things and becomes a bit of a recluse ala Jeff Mangum, I bet she'll still come out occasionally and I will be there to see those shows. Even though Paramore's one of my favorites, and they're often considered a rock band, Taylor is easily the modern artist that stays closest to what
I consider rock n roll to truly be about. Her concert was, hands down, the best concert I've ever seen, and one of my goals in life is to witness the evolution of her show over time...
As for Justin, I would
not be surprised if he's another tweenbop craze, destined for obscurity. The primary demographic he demands is by nature the most fickle and fleeting (despite his sizable adult fanbase). But, I
also wouldn't be surprised if he ends up a classic, either. I've seen a lot of tween acts come and go in my short time on Earth; Aaron Carter, The Jonas Brothers.... and Justin Bieber is quantifiably above those guys on the totem pole. Case in point Jonas Brothers
opened for Miley Cyrus. If Justin toured with Selena, Selena would be the opener, beyond question. Justin also commands a rather fanatical fanbase, and I don't just mean kids! I know every craze has crazy fans but I'm not sure I've seen devotion like this before, even among my fellow Swifties.
Back Street Boys and NKOTB are still quite legendary acts indeed, just because you don't follow them doesn't mean they aren't still popular. The example I love to use is Tom Petty. Do you think
anyone in the pop world knows he released an album last year? If you're not interested in that style you're not liable to know what's going on within its ranks. I'm not at all familiar with 98 Degrees but I wouldn't be surprised if they still have fans as well.
As for Aaron Carter... he was fun, but he was basically only there because his big bro was a Backstreet Boy. He's not a match for Justin, he's a match for Hillary Duff's sister, whatever the hell HER name was. Or Miley Cyrus's sister, didn't she put out an album? Justin's done about a hundred trillion (hyperbolically) in sales past what would put him above Aaron Carter's reasonable prediction of staying power. Did you know Aaron
still makes music today? I guess not every pop artist disappears into the ether. But even at Aaron's peak he only had one single that even cracked the top 40, and it only barely did so. Justin could easily fall away into nothingness as well, but he's definitely on a much higher level than Aaron.
I see a lot of "it's all the same," and "there's no differentiating between the modern acts." You guys do understand, you only think that because you're not fans, right? It's perfectly alright and quite reasonable indeed to find Justin's music banal and tasteless and boring. That's separate from not seeing any difference between one pop act and another. This isn't something special in pop, this is uniform among all genres of music. If you're not a modern pop fan, you're not going to understand its nuances and you're not going to care to notice any of the differences.
It's exactly the same as playing a bunch of jazz to someone who doesn't listen to jazz, or you could use metal, or blues, or classical, or classic rock. Someone who doesn't listen to classical could never tell the difference between Beethoven and Mozart. Someone who doesn't listen to blues could never articulate any meaningful distinction between the work of Albert King and the work of Freddie King. Somebody who's never been familiar with Indie Rock probably wouldn't see any difference between Arcade Fire and Bon Iver even if you paid them. A lot of people who are new to classic rock get Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith confused. Heck, we've probably all met someone who thought Dream On was a Zeppelin tune.
We have a lot of metalheads on this board... Now you KNOW you've met people who think Pantera is death metal, Opeth is screamo, Queensryche is thrash metal and who tell you there's no difference between Burzum and White Zombie. I certainly have!
It's purely natural to see a genre as homogeneous if you've not become attuned to its nuances. And there's absolutely no reason why you'd want to bother to learn the differences. There's nothing wrong with that! But, purely for the record... the distinctions are there. Just like in any style of music. Modern pop is just another particular strain of music like all the other strains of music since music began.