Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, Chappell Roan, Gracie Abrams, and Olivia Rodrigo have all become well-known names in the past couple of years. What makes their careers similar or different from one another? What factors have skyrocketed them to success?

There are countless ways in which today’s celebrities have risen to fame, but there are a few notable patterns.

First off is the Disney child star pipeline. Celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez are some notable names from this category. Sabrina Carpenter got her first big break in 2014, when she co-starred on the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World. She began releasing music around this time, which gradually grew more mature as she separated from Disney. Her music made it to top charts with her album Emails I Can’t Send in 2022. Olivia Rodrigo similarly got her start on the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark, and later starred in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Her hit song “drivers license” jump-started her career in 2021. Tate McRae won third place on So You Think You Can Dance when she was 12twelve, which helped her gain fame from an early age.

Another fame trajectory seems to be public controversy: Carpenter and Rodrigo were rumored to be in a love triangle with Joshua Bassett, the rumored subject of “drivers license.” According to rumors that were never proven true, Basset and Rodrigo dated, and then Carpenter stole him from her. It brought more attention not only to “drivers license” itself, but also to singles Carpenter and Basset released that were rumored to be about the scandal as well. Rodrigo and Carpenter both gained a lot of attention from this, although especially for Carpenter, the attention was not all positive. A previous example of this is the VMA incident in 2009 between Taylor Swift and Kanye West. West took the attention off of Swift after she had won an award, clearly upsetting Swift, but also bringing her more into the public eye. 

Unsurprisingly, other celebrities’ support can be helpful in furthering a pop star’s career. Sabrina Carpenter, for instance, opened on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which jump-started her career. Fans of Swift got a chance to watch her, which grew her audience, increasing her streams from 680 million in 2022 to 1.5 billion in 2023—when she opened for the tour. As of now, her song Espresso was the most streamed song on Spotify in 2024 at 1.6 billion streams. Olivia Rodrigo was also supported by Taylor Swift, as the two had a very close relationship which spread on the internet. Gracie Abrams also opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour, which jump-started her career. Chappell Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo, which helped her to gain a wider audience: Her streams increased by 32% and she was able to become more mainstream.

Many of these stars also use gimmicks or performances that help them to stand out to fans. Tate McRae, for instance, uses her dance background as a way to further entertain crowds during her shows. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter both use their unique stage presence to stand out to crowds. Many viral sounds and trends on TikTok were heavily influenced by these artists and their performances.

There are many different ways of getting to the top of the pop music industry, but childhood fame, opening for established artists, and playing to social media certainly help to get an aspiring celebrity in the spotlight.