Teen diva matures

New York, Dec. 11 (AP): Just a few years ago, when teens dominated the pop charts, to be a singer of a more senior age — say, about 30 — was something to be downplayed or outright omitted on one’s musical resume.

Indeed, as the likes of ‘N Sync, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera posted hit after hit and sold millions and millions of albums, the most coveted part of a performer’s act seemed to be his or her youth.

But these days, Justin Timberlake has graduated from ‘N Sync to sexy adult club tracks, Aguilera is a married woman singing mature ballads and it no longer seems necessary to shave a few years off your age.

While teen acts like JoJo, Rihanna and Chris Brown are still creating hits, they are no longer ruling the marketplace.

Most of this year’s top-selling artists were in their 20s or 30s, like Gnarls Barkley, Mary J. Blige, James Blunt, Nelly Furtado and Shakira. And oldsters like 60-year-old Barry Manilow and 65-year-old Bob Dylan also had strong sales.

“There has been more product that was clearly adult for the last five to ten years,” says Sean Ross, vice- president of music and programming at Edison Media Research, which tracks radio trends.

“Thirty-five-year olds are going to a point where rap is OK and 18-year-olds want more mellow music... It’s more like there’s nothing galvanising in the centre and that lets everybody see what’s in the fringes.”

Still, there may be the rumblings of a teen craze on the horizon. The year’s biggest-selling album was the soundtrack to the Disney TV movie High School Musical, although it was aimed at the tween set.

And a graduate from that film, Vanessa Hudgens, is having some success on radio with her solo debut.