You would think that teen- and tween-oriented pop music would be a girl’s game – and for a long time, it was, what with Taylor Swift ruling the genre.
And the audience is no question still overwhelmingly female, as the crowd of 14,000 at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday for radio station WIOQ-FM, Q-102’s annual Jingle Ball clearly showed.
But when it came down to performance, it was the males who dominated the 10-act, 3 ½-hour show. And not only in a teen-idol way, but in a their-music-was-way-better way. It also showed the influence Justin Timberlake has had on male pop music.
Charlie Puth again led the 10-act pack, with a set that as just four songs and 20 minutes was far too brief, but condensed his best material into an offering that showed just how good he is, and the growth he’s undergoing.
The 26-year-old Puth, backed by a four-man band, opened with his most recent platinum single, “Attention,” which has more of an R&B groove and his previous hits, and shows he is moving from a Billy Joel-piano-rocker to more of a Timberlake vibe.
That was also true of Puth’s new single, “How Long” (both songs are from his disc “Voicenotes,” to be released Jan. 19), which also showed his transition. His falsetto, though he used it in earlier material, also sounded closer to Timberlake’s.
And his older hits that ended the set still sounded great. “One Call Away” had the whole crowd singing – because it’s good and catchy. And he still sang it with gusto, including a long, gutsy note near the end.
And, of course, his closing song “See You Again,” his nine-times-platinum hit from 2015, will be Puth’s forever can’t-miss song. Its opening still brings chills, and its choral ending still has power.
Perhaps the night’s second-best performance was One Direction’s Niall Horan, who displayed surprisingly good singer-songwriter chops in a five-song, 20-minute set.
Playing on acoustic guitar and also backed by a four-man band, Horan also showed that One Direction’s audience apparently has followed him: He may have gotten the biggest reaction of the night.
He opened with his 2016 platinum debut solo song “This Town,” with the auditorium also singling along with him. With its slow-and-quiet start and rising journey, it sounded very much like One Direction’s “Story of My Life.”
“Seeing Blind” gave more indication that Horan has a good voice – on key and powerful when it needs to be. His current single “Too Much to Ask,” with its more prominent piano influence, was a nice change, and touching, as well.
The least successful of his set was “On My Own,” an Irish chanty. But it let him show he’s also a performer, as he raised his guitar to play at the mic. The best was his platinum hit from this year, “Slow Hands.” It’s a good song, and Horan performed the heck out of it, walking the stage to sing without an instrument.
Horan plays Allentown Fair on Sept. 2, and if Jingle Ball was any indication, it will be a strong show for the fair.
The other One Direction member on the Jingle Ball bill, Liam Payne, also was good, but clearly a step behind Horan.
His three-song, 12-minute set was very much like One Direction. He opened with his double-platinum debut hit “Strip That Down,” which also had a slow groove, and “Get Low.” Both songs sounded like they could have come from the One Direction songbook.
His closing “Bedroom Floor” gave Payne a chance to also check out his falsetto, and it wasn’t bad, but was inferior to Horan’s.
A surprise was pop-punkers Fall Out Boy, which seemed like a stylistically ill fit for the lineup, but which sounded good and was well received by the crowd.
Its five-song, 20-minute set started with its triple-platinum hit “Sugar We’re Goin Down,” which – released in 2005 –now is 12 years old. The four-time-platinum hit “Centuries” showed that singer Patrick Stump’s voice has held up well.
And the five-times-platinum “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” was still strong.
But it weirdly felt the songs were far older than they are – and as if the young audience was reacting to them as oldies. The new song “Hold Me Tight or Don’t” from the upcoming album “Mania,” to be released in January, even had a slight Calypso feel to it.
But if it was oldies, the closing “Uma Thurman” was good enough to again have the crowd singing – and dancing – along.
New rapper Logic’s 13-minute set showed he has potential, but isn’t yet as good as the two Grammy Award nominations for his song “1-800-273-8255” suggest. His speedy rap style is initially impressive, and his positive energy is entertaining, but he’s still a talent without a direction.
He opened with his 2015 gold hit “Fade Away,” which was speedily rapped, indeed. But for someone who told the audience he was about lyrics, his style made it virtually impossible to make out a single word. If he has a message in his music, it was lost.
His gold hit from this year, “Everybody,” was, like the rest of his set, entertaining, as was his gold hit “Black Spiderman.” And his closing “1-800-273-8255″ was a crowd favorite. Strangely, he skipped his second-biggest hit, “Sucker for the Pain.”
During his set, Logic told the crowd, “I stand for one thing: Love, Peace and positivity.” But that’s actually three things. The positivity came through in his likable set, but Logic seems to still need to find himself as an artist.
Conversely, the night’s opening act, new boy band Why Don’t We, already has its style down pat.
It did a 10-minute medley of five of its songs, opening with the more intentional R&B “Air of the Night (Smooth Step).” But better was “Nobody Gotta Know,” which also had a Timberlake feel — sort of like ‘NSync, but with all five members being Timberlake.
And the best was the closing “These Girls,” the group’s newest single, which had a hooky, slow-groove, R&B feel.
It’s hard to say which of the three female acts was best, but all were at least a little disappointing.
Kesha, backed by a six-person band, focused on new material in her four-song, 20-minute set, showing that she has changed (grown?) in the tumultuous five years between albums.
Her opening song “Woman” was more of an R&B rocker that did little to showcase her voice, nor did her new single, the slightly Caribbean “Learn to Let Go,” though it was clearly important to her.
The best of the new songs was her platinum single “Praying,” in which she clearly was invested, opening her heart and singing with an honest desperation. Ironically, in doing that, Kesha also showed her vocal shortcomings.
The only one of her older hits she played was a too-fast, tossed-off “Tik Tok,” her five-times-platinum 2009 hit. That was too bad: it clearly was the song the crowd liked best singing – and even jumping – along during a confetti shower worthy of the old Kesha.
Sabrina Carpenter did a 15-minute, four-song set in which she sang like a cross between Miley Cyrus and women crooners of old. She even did a bit of scat singing on her opening 2017 gold hit “Thumbs.”
When she sang the Christmas song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” she also showed a limited vocal range, though she did have a nice tone and good power.
Her best songs were the new “First Love” with electronic DJ duo Lost Kings, which was catchy and hooky, and by far the best her closing with her new single “Why,” which she sang with attitude and confidence in spades.
The worst thing about chart-topper Halsey’s four-song, 15-minute set was that it was kind of boring.
She opened with “Bad at Love,” her recent gold hit, which was her highest-charting song, then her 2016 platinum hit “Colors,” on which she barely sang, instead delivering lyrics half-spoken, half-rapped.
The most distinctive thing about her song “Gasoline” were the flames burning around her on stage. On other songs, she simply incessantly walked back and forth across the stage. She closed with her platinum hit “Now or Never.”
Much better than Halsey’s entire set was her performance with Jingle Ball headliners The Chainsmokers.
Halsey helped make that happen by joining the DJ-and-guitar duo – supplemented by a drummer – for the hit “Closer,” which wasn’t as good as the recorded version, but still was good.
The Chainsmokers set was consistently solid, starting with the opening triple-platinum “Roses.” And the group moved right from “Closer” into this year’s platinum hit “Paris,” followed by its best, this year’s triple-platinum “Something Just Like This.”
That song missed the inclusion of Coldplay it has on the record, but The Chainsmokers singer Andrew Taggart did surprisingly well.
The duo closed the set with “Don’t Let Me Down,” again showing the male dominance of pop at this year’s Jingle Ball.
