Line #49 Main/ChildPopstar


1	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheBradyKids https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brady_kids.png]]]]
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3	Certain musicians believe that a song is better when children sing as part of it. This trope, however, is the concept taken just a little further; the children ''are'' the credited performers.
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5	The reasons vary. Perhaps [[{{Nepotism}} one of the parents is a musician or a producer and is getting the kids involved young.]] Perhaps a StageMom really wants it to happen. Perhaps this is tied into something commercial. Perhaps the kids themselves are DoingItForTheArt. Often, because [[ObservationOnOriginality they don't know what they're doing,]] [[SturgeonsLaw they will sound bad]]; but you can find a ChildProdigy here and there.
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7	Child popstar may join a BoyBand as they mature, assuming they can bear to give up the instrument. Indeed, several boy bands initially fit here. Others become {{Teen Idol}}s. Either way, in adulthood, they may end up becoming a FormerChildStar.
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9	Not to be confused with KidsRock, in which a children's ''choir'' sings backing to a performer. Related to TeenPop.
10
11	----
12	!!'''Examples''':
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Fictional Examples]]
17	[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
18	* In life, Lily Hoshikawa from ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' was a child actor who died young of a heart attack caused by the stress of her job, her strained relationship with her father, and [[spoiler: [[TransTribulations a dysphoric episode]] caused by her first facial hair coming in]]. [[OurZombiesAreDifferent In death]], she's the youngest member of Saga prefecture's hottest new [[IdolSinger idol group]], Franchouchou.
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20	[[AC:[[LiveActionFilms Films -- Live-Action]]]]
21	* ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'': It featured a rather shoehorned-in musical number courtesy of the titular tykes.
22	* ''Film/StreetFighterTheLegendOfChunLi'' portrayed Chun-Li as a ChildProdigy at the piano.
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24	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
25	%%* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' Kids
26	* Lil' Kunt, actually a puppet employed by British musician Kunt And The Gang.
27	%%* ''Series/KidsIncorporated''
28
29	[[AC:VideoGames]]
30	* ''Franchise/TheIdolmaster'', across six main installments, has sometimes allowed idols younger than pubescent age into their ranks to act as the TokenMiniMoe:
31	** In ''VideoGame/TheIdolmasterCinderellaGirls'', you can recruit a handful of girls aged twelve or younger into 346 Pro. The spinoff ''THE [=iDOLM@STER=] Cinderella Girls [=U149=]'' exclusively focuses on these girls, making them their own unit and giving them a producer of similar height ([[OlderThanTheyLook but not age]]).
32	** In ''VideoGame/TheIdolmasterSideM'', this is attributed to Mofumofuen, a trio of boys who are marketed for their cuteness and often make appearances in in-universe children's media.
33	* Sonia Strumm in ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' who meets the main character Geo Stelar and becomes a love interest as the series goes on.
34	* It is implied that the incomplete ending version of "Dreams Dreams" on ''VideoGame/NiGHTSJourneyOfDreams'' is sung by either Helen or Will, depending on who you clear the game as. Even before that, Helen herself is revealed to be good at the violin.
35
36	[[AC:WebComics]]
37	* Dani from ''Webcomic/CampWeedonwantcha'' was this trope, until his fame was superseded by another singer, eventually leading to his parents abandoning him at the titular camp.
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39	[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
40	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'' saw the cast [[FiveManBandConcert form a band]] for Granny. It went as well as could be expected of a gang of infants.
41	* Exaggerated in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', in which Stewie Griffin tries to get an appearance on Meg Griffin's album.
42	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Pebbles and Bam-Bam become singing sensations. It turns out to be a [[AnxietyDreams bad dream]] of Fred's about his little girl leaving him.
43	* ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' - in an episode highlighting guitar genius Dwayne's fretting over a competition, Brendon, Melissa and Jason start a band - and they are ''awful!''
44	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' does this for a sizeable portion of its numbers. The episode "Flop Starz" is even dedicated to the boys deliberately becoming one-hit wonders in a single day.
45	* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Jet often writes and performs his own original songs throughout the series. In "Potatoes on Mars", it's shown that Jet is the lead singer of the band, with Sydney on piano, Sean on drums, Mindy on flugelhorn, and Sunspot on electric guitar.
46	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
47	** In "Something You Can Do With Your Finger", the boys form a pop group called "Fingerbang" ([[PingPongNaivete because Cartman thinks]] it's another word for forming {{Finger Gun}}s).
48	** In "Christian Rock Hard", Cartman becomes a Christian rock singer who performs pop tunes about loving Jesus... intimately.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Real Life]]
52	* Swedish CultClassic Arvid Tuba started at 13, although he didn't release stuff until he was 15.
53	* [[Music/JustinBieber Justin Bieber's]] "Never Say Never" featured clips from videos dating back to kindergarten which showed him singing and playing different instruments. He also became famous at age 16.
54	* Music/{{Bjork}} started out as one.
55	* Black Out Band, better known for "Video Games"
56	* Cex, oddly enough; featured on the Starship Galactica EP was a version of said song done when he was a little kid.
57	* Charlotte Church
58	* Experimental band Ctephin comprises, for the most part, a married couple and their eldest daughter, but sometimes invoke this trope when the whole family, some of which aren't even ten, join in.
59	* Music/MileyCyrus began her musical career at 12 going on 13 with Series/HannahMontana.
60	* Creator/RossLynch was 15 going on 16 when he started his Musical career as Austin Moon on Series/AustinAndAlly, 13 when his band R5 was formed, and 17 when R5 released their debut album
61	* Music/TheDeFrancoFamily: When they had their first hit, three of the five siblings were under 18, and the youngest (lead singer Tony) was 13.
62	* [=Dev2.0=] a one-off {{Music/Devo}} tribute.
63	* Included on Dokaka's debut album were some snippets and recordings he did when he was a small child.
64	* HarshNoise musician Elizabeth Floersch claims she has been classically trained "from a young age."
65	* Girls With Attitude
66	* Music/{{Hanson}}, when they started.
67	* [[http://www.libera.org.uk/ Libera]]
68	* Puerto Rican boy band Music/{{Menudo}} used to be, with their members being less than 15 when they became a sensation all over Latin America. Music/RickyMartin, their most successful ex-member, joined the group at the age of 12.
69	* Music/TheJacksonFive started as young children. Music/{{Michael\|Jackson}}, the youngest of them, was only six when the band was formed (while Randy is three years younger than Michael, he was 14 when he replaced Jermaine).
70	* Hailie Jade allegedly held the record as the youngest charting performer for the song "[[Music/{{Eminem}} My Dad]]'s Gone Crazy".
71	* Music/KidzBop
72	* Music/LadyGaga, who started playing piano ''at age four.''
73	* Lil Bow Wow started when he was still too young for high school. Indeed, he was once on the Guinness Book of World Records by sheer dint of his age.
74	* Music/LilWayne started when he was twelve.
75	* Series/TheNakedBrothersBand, at least initially.
76	* Oblive admitted in a May 2011 interview for Musique Machine that when he was eleven, he tried to form a punk band.
77	* Two members of Series/ThePartridgeFamily
78	* Prussian Blue were a teen vocal duo who made pop music for the neo-Nazi/white supremacist movement. This is actually what they were, not a [[PoesLaw satirical premise]]. To their credit they eventually broke free of this direction, as well as brainwashing from the adults around them.
79	* [=RedSK=] started when he was ten.
80	* Before getting into the business as Scissor Shock in 2003, Adam Cooley spent from age 12 to his puberty as Stagedive Suicide.
81	* Connie Talbot reached second place in the first series of ''Series/BritainsGotTalent'' in 2007, at the age of six. She has released four full albums and an EP since.
82	* Notoriously, there's the Tangerine Awkestra, a jazz ensemble composed of 3-7 year olds who had been played free jazz recordings and Art Ensemble of Chicago albums.
83	* Violent JJ
84	* Vziel Projet was 13 when his career (and with it, his netlabel) kicked off in earnest, although he has recordings dating back to age 5.
85	* Music/WillowSmith in her early career.
86	* Music/StevieWonder, back when he was credited as "the twelve year old genius" -- from the beginning, he played the piano, harmonica and percussion and he was about seven in the beginning.
87	* Cody Simpson and Greyson Chance started out as this in the same year.
88	* Death Angel drummer Andy Galeon was only ''14'' when the band's debut album was recorded. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AooZ9L6L1KU You'd never know that from listening to it.]]
89	* Salserín, a ''salsa orchestra'' full of these. One of their signature songs is even named "Bebé Salsero", "salsa-singing baby", always given to the youngest member (the kid who first recorded it was about four years old at the time). On first their popularity peak in the mid-to-late 1990's they got a movie and a short soap-operas; then two of their oldest singers, the brothers Servando and Florentino Primera, left the band and became a latin pop TeenIdol duo, in a move that give them another teen soap and a movie deal.
90	* CountryMusic has had several:
91	** Brenda Lee first started charting at age 12. Her most famous song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", charted when she was 14.
92	** Music/LeAnnRimes' career had been fostered before she hit double digits, but "Blue" broke her through at age 14.
93	** Billy Gilman was 12 when "One Voice" made him the youngest solo male with a Top 40 country hit.
94	** Ashley Gearing was also 12 when she barely charted with "Can You Hear Me When I Talk to You?", breaking Lee's record for the youngest female to chart a Top 40 country hit. However, her career never took off.
95	** Music/HunterHayes had been a child prodigy who won accordion contests as early as age 4. His major label career didn't begin until he was 20, though.
96	** Danny Cooksey (yes, him) had performed with some respected country veterans by age 8. This would also count as an example of HeAlsoDid.
97	* Child opera prodigy Music/JackieEvancho.
98	* No one from Music/JobForACowboy was over the age of sixteen when they formed.
99	* Music/{{Lorde}} was 15 when her extended play ''Music/TheLoveClub'' was released, which featured her first hit "Royals". In fact, the song was first discovered when an agent heard her sing it at a school talent show (!) and got her to record it.
100	* Mini pop group S Club Juniors (later S Club 8). Spun off from the already-successful Music/SClub7 (later S Club), the group was made up of 8 children, all 11 and 12 years old when their first single was released. They had 2 hit albums and about 6 singles before breaking up some 4 years later. Some of the 8 children have gone back to normal(ish) lives, while the rest went on to be in other pop groups (notably Frankie Sandford, the lead female singer of S Club Juniors, who went on to be 1/5th of Music/TheSaturdays).
101	* French pop singer Jordy started his career and scored his biggest hit, "Dur dur d'être bébé" ("It's tough being a baby"), at the age of four. He's actually certified by Literature/{{Guinness\|World Records}} as the youngest singer to have a #1 hit single ("Dur dur d'être bébé" went platinum in France).
102	* Everyone in Noisem was under the age of 20 when they formed as Necropsy; while Ben Anft and Sebastian Phillips are both 23 as of now, Sebastian's brother Harley is still only 19.
103	* Nikki Yanofsky's professional career began at age 9, when she sang on an Music/EllaFitzgerald tribute compilation. By the time she turned 20, Quincy Jones had already taken notice.
104	* A few members of the Osmond family were this. Perhaps most notable is Jimmy Osmond, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff who became the youngest UK #1 artist]] at just 9 years old.
105	* Breze, an English girl group from the 1990s, made up of 4 girls aged between 10 and 12. They had precisely one hit single (''"My Heart Goes Boom"'') before parents began to complain to 19 Management about the perceived exploitation of children by the music industry, and the group's second single (and album) were promptly dropped, the group never to be heard from again. This was about 2 or 3 years before the even-more-popular S Club Juniors (see above) first appeared, and were met much more warmly by the public.
106	* Marcus & Martinus, a Norwegian teen pop duo who were in their early teens when their first single dropped.
107	* Music/TanyaTucker had her first hits when she was only 13.
108	* Creator/LeifGarrett released his first single at age 14.
109	* Music/TheLindaLindas, a RiotGrrrl-inspired punk band whose members ranged from 10 to 16 when their May 2021 performance of "Racist, Sexist Boy" went viral and got them signed with Epitaph records.
110	* Music/{{XOMGPOP}} was formed with the help of Jojo Siwa, whom also stared as a Child Popstar
111	[[/folder]]

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