Pop Stars Who Haven't Figured Out They Aren't Famous Anymore

Pop stars don't typically have the longest shelf life. For every Madonna, who's been around for almost four decades, you have about 20 has-beens or never-wases. There are a slew of one-hit wonders in the genre for a reason: It's really hard to maintain a presence, a fanbase, and a high quality of art in a field that's so fickle and trendy.

In the age of social media celebrities, stars have to work extremely hard, release work often, and reinvent themselves enough times to stay relevant and not be swept away in a wave of newer, shinier singers with more Instagram followers and YouTube streams. That's not easy, and most pop stars can't manage to accomplish it. However, that doesn't mean their egos aren't the size of Lady Gaga's inflatable dress.

These pop stars can't seem to accept the fact that stardom is fleeting and they've fallen by the wayside — and some of these try-hards never even made it big to begin with.

Austin Mahone was poised to be the next Justin Bieber ... but that never happened. In fact, his sales were so poor despite his hype being so huge that Billboard dubbed the phenomenon "Austin Mahone Syndrome."

"The kid can close down any mall in America, but we are struggling to sell a meaningful amount of records," Republic Records president and co-founder Avery Lipman told Billboard.

On paper, Mahone may have seemed like a success story at first: His EP The Secret debuted at No. 5 on Billboard 200, selling 46,000 copies in its first week. However, it was for naught, Lipman lamented, comparing Mahone's sales to golf: "It sounds good, looks good; goes right in the weeds."

That's because Mahone sells a lot less than Bieber did when he first emerged from YouTube and into the mainstream. In their first weeks, Bieber's 2009 debut My World sold 137,000 copies, My World 2.0 sold 283,000 copies, My World Acoustic sold 115,000 copies, and Never Say Never: The Remixes sold 165,000 copies. Bieber's records continued to sell, eventually reaching gold, platinum, or multi-platinum status.

Mahone also has issues selling singles. His only two to reach the Hot 100 were "Mmm Yeah," which only peaked at No. 49 on the Hot 100 in 2014, and "What About Love," which stalled out at No. 66 in 2013.

He released a tour docuseries in 2017, but at this point, breaking into the mainstream doesn't seem likely.

Some of Katy Perry's recent struggles on the charts are due to her feud with Taylor Swift. On June 8, 2017, Swift's catalog was released on all streaming services — stealing the thunder from Perry's album release for Witness on June 9, 2017. Spin reported that Perry's streaming numbers for Witness' opening week barely beat Swift's 1989, coming in at 19.2 million streams for Perry and 18.9 million for Swift. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 but dropped off the charts after 21 weeks.

That said, Witness just didn't have any hits. "Chained To The Rhythm" peaked at No. 4 in March 2017 but dropped off the Billboard Hot 100 entirely after just 15 weeks. "Swish Swish" peaked at a dismal No. 46 that June and dropped off the chart within 10 weeks. "Bon Appétit" fared even worse, peaking at No. 59 and disappearing after only six weeks.

Capitol Records chairman Steve Barnett told Variety, "I talk about how engagement is so important and I don't believe you can have big cycles between projects [as Perry did]. I think that's changed. So you sit down and have tough conversations with her."

Hey, at least she's got American Idol, right?

Azealia Banks' hit "212" garnered her an incredible amount of hype in the music industry. But, unfortunately for her, Banks squandered whatever hype she'd gained with petty (and often racist and homophobic) social media beefs with everyone from Zayn Malik to Iggy Azalea to Bill Cosby's rape accusers, leading her to get permanently banned from Twitter and Facebook.

Her antics also cost her a collaboration with Lady Gaga, who told fans that Banks had "a bad attitude." By July 2014, The Guardian reported that Banks left her record deal with Universal, and Vice reported that she had to cancel a Norway performance the same month because no one showed up to it. Add that to her legal troubles, and Banks' outlook is bleak.

Banks may have celebrated signing a new record deal in February 2018, but it remains to be seen if she'll actually release any music on it — and if anyone is left to care about it.

When Rita Ora appeared on The Wendy Williams Show in December 2016, host Wendy Williams asked, "I know you from [Fifty Shades Of Grey] and from Adidas, I know you as the fashion girl ... but what else does she do?"

The question was symbolic of the way most of America feels about Ora, who's actually a singer. Ora's got a great voice, so it only makes her lack of breakthrough success stateside all the more tragic.

Her struggle became glaringly apparent in October 2014, when she tweeted (via BuzzFeed), "Dropping my new song Monday if this gets 100,000 retweets." It got about 2,000 retweets, and then she retweeted a fan account that wrote, "Where [are] her 3.9 million followers when you need them? SMH." She later said she'd been hacked, but the damage was done.

To be fair, not all of Ora's issues are her own fault. Though she was heavily pushed by Jay-Z's Roc Nation label when she first got signed, battles with the record label, as well as with her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris, led to her releasing just one album, Ora, in 2012. She had some success, going platinum in the UK and collaborating with Iggy Azalea, Chris Brown, Snoop Dogg, and Charli XCX. But for every hit, she seems to have a gaffe, whether it be a public breakup with Harris or Rob Kardashian, or being busted buying her own single.

Maybe modeling is her true calling after all.

Meghan Trainor dominated the charts with "All About That Bass" from her platinum debut album, Title, in 2015.

Unfortunately, the M-Train derailed with her sophomore record, Thank You. The album peaked at No. 3, which isn't terrible ... until you learn that it sold half of what Title did in its first week. Her first single from the album, "No," peaked at a respectable No. 3, but her subsequent releases, "Better," didn't even break the Hot 100, though it did peak at No. 35 on the Adult Top 40. ("I'm A Lady" fared similarly, not breaking the Hot 100, but landing at No. 40 on the Adult Top 40.) "Me Too" stalled at No. 13.

At the time of this writing, album No. 3 isn't shaping up to be much better. "No Excuses," the first single from her upcoming third album, was a return to her Title style of modern day doowop, but debuted at No. 46 in March 2018.

Nick Jonas overestimated Jonas Brothers nostalgia and his own mainstream appeal as a solo artist.

His 2014 debut solo effort, Nick Jonas, peaked at No. 6, while Last Year Was Complicated, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts in June 2016 — behind Drake's Views, which dropped two months earlier. In its second week out, Last Year Was Complicated dropped out of the Top 10 completely. His singles started out strong, with "Jealous" peaking at No. 7 in January 2015, but everything released after it performed worse than the single before it. "Chains" and "Close" peaked at No. 13 and No. 14, respectively, but "Levels" stalled out at No. 44 and "Bom Bidi Bom" only hit No. 54. His May 2017 single, "Remember I Told You," didn't even crack the Billboard Hot 100.

Not that you'd know it based on his ticket prices. In November 2015, People reported that his and Demi Lovato's "Ultimate VIP Dressing Room" package for their Future Now tour cost $10,000 for a backstage dressing room (including a rider), a visit and photos with Lovato and Jonas, autographed merchandise, access to a stage-side lounge, and dinner ... but not an actual ticket to the show.

Still, his movie Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017) did amazingly at the box office, so Jonas could have a future in acting if he hangs up his guitar for good.

My, how the mighty have fallen. Justin Timberlake was once branded the next huge male pop star, carrying the torch Michael Jackson left behind (despite throwing Jackson's own sister under the bus after the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl). However, his solo Super Bowl performance in 2018 was panned as a flop, and many believe it led to dismal sales of his album Man Of The Woods. That Grape Juice reported that the record was initially projected to sell upwards of 700,000 copies in its first week ... but actually sold less than 250,000 copies. (To be fair, it did still debut at No. 1 despite poor to middling reviews from critics.)

The album has yet to produce a hit single. "Filthy" and "Say Something" each peaked at No. 9 (with the former dropping to No. 51 in its second week), "Supplies" hit No. 71, and the title track made it to No. 79 on the Billboard Hot 100. That's not great for most artists, but that's abysmal for someone of Timberlake's level and caliber, especially when "Can't Stop The Feeling" topped the charts less than two years earlier.

Then again, maybe it's karma for all his past shady behavior.