What’s up with all that nonsense with those two emerging pop stars? Is 2024 the year of pop? Do the names Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan sound familiar to you? Well, these two artists are the most prominent names in the pop world right now with their hits “Espresso” and “Good Luck Babe.”
While you may have heard the name Sabrina Carpenter, as she is a former Disney Channel star, Chappell Roan gained her success steadily under the radar. It was Roan’s single “Good Luck Babe” that gained more traction for her as an artist.
TikTok has become a platform where songs can become popular due to its reach of 1.04 billion active users worldwide. Before a song’s release, many artists have begun to upload snippets of their upcoming songs to give fans an idea of what’s ahead. These snippets can help artists get discovered and put them on the music industry map.
Compared to Carpenter, Roan had a more difficult path becoming a mainstream artist. Before partnering with Daniel Nigro, producer for Grammy Award-winning artist Olivia Rodrigo, she was signed with Atlantic Records, but was later dropped as an artist back in 2020. She then began to release music as an independent artist with Nigro by her side as a co-songwriter and producer. Together they created her hit album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Nigro realized what kind of talent Roan had when they started to work together in 2018. Later, when he launched his imprint of Amusement Records, he signed Roan as the only artist.
Roan’s success came from the social media presence she created for herself. Due to their similar personalities and styles, she received comparisons to Lady Gaga. Her debut for Lollapalooza was unspeakable, as she never even attended the festival, but was breaking records. Despite not being a headliner for the festival, she drew in more than 110,000 people – more than any of the headliners.
Sabrina Carpenter started her career back in 2010 in a guest acting role in Law and Order: SVU. Then, two years later, she received a role on the Disney Channel television show Girl Meets World. Fast forward to 2014, Carpenter landed a deal with Hollywood records where she released her debut album Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying. Despite releasing her debut album in 2015, she didn’t receive her first gold-certified single until 2017 with “Thumbs.” Carpenter has spent the last decade releasing music, but hadn’t reached the height that her current album Short n’ Sweet has achieved until this year.
This then raises the question of why these two artists both took at least a decade to blossom into their current stardom. The quick answer is social media, and its massive impact on the music industry, ultimately changing how artists are discovered.
Is being an overnight sensation still a thing that happens to brand-new artists?
Overnight sensations can still happen, but many of these artists aren’t putting out music on streaming platforms as quickly. They typically like to post their talents on platforms like YouTube or TikTok to get their name out there and get discovered by a record label in hopes of getting signed. Many different artists who have become successful and tried this route are Justin Bieber, Tate McRae, Olivia Rodrigo, and many more.
Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter worked hard for their success today. It shows that those who want to become artists in the industry have to test out who they are as artists before becoming the “real deal” and getting signed to a record label. Roan showed herself as an artist by singing online and releasing music as an independent artist. Carpenter initially showed her talents through the acting world but showcased her singing abilities later on in her career.
To be a successful artist, you don’t have to be signed to a label. All you need is your voice and a camera to use social media’s power and influence to get your name out into the industry.