Eve Upton-Clark is a freelance features writer and copywriter from London, based in Amsterdam, covering culture and society. Her work has been published globally in publications including Business Insider, i-D, Vice, Dazed, Refinery 29 and more.

The self-made mythos is as powerful as ever, despite societal upheaval testing its limits. Even mundane pastimes have been monetised as people cash in on massive audiences and leave no niche unexplored. Selling out is no longer a source of embarrassment, it’s just what makes the world go round.

Generation Sell

Despite smash hits and bestselling albums, pop artists today can no longer rely on album sales or streaming alone to generate substantial relevance and income. To retain significance for more than a news cycle, they have to create a zeitgeist-defining 

 – one that cuts across platforms, formats and fandoms. “The traditional album-and-tour cycle was designed for a scarcity-driven market, when listening was an event and musicians weren’t nearly so accessible,” says Ashray Urs, head of livestreaming platform 

Interview with Ashray Urs conducted by the author

 In the age of streamers and 24/7 access via social media, that model is now, and likely forever, obsolete. In order to impact the ever-spinning wheel of pop culture, an artist’s ‘moment’ must now hit every touchpoint: film, fashion, live experiences and digital content. Anything less risks being lost to infinite scroll.

Consider Charli xcx. Just when it seemed that ‘

 summer’ had reached its sweaty end – spanning 

Variety

Blending footage from the Brat Tour with scripted scenes, it recontextualises said moment – while extending its shelf life. Its closing scene even parodies Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film, the highest-grossing concert film of all time, later dovetailed by a Disney+ docuseries. 

 “Previously, album sales drove significant income. Streaming revenue has now replaced that,” explains Darren Hemmings, founder and managing director of strategic marketing consultancy 

. “Instead of selling a unit upfront to generate significant revenue, artists now need to drive millions of streams. For most, achieving this requires a long slog of maintaining awareness and attention.” 

Interview with Darren Hemmings conducted by the author

86% of Gen Z identify as fans, and half report that their fandoms help them make sense of the world. 

Ogilvy

But in a parasocial world, artists are expected to be increasingly accessible to them in myriad ways. Young concertgoers are even prepared to go into debt, with 86% of Gen Z admitting to overspending on live events. 

MERGE

But as concert tickets skyrocket – the average entry price to the top 100 worldwide tours was $135.92 in 2024 – those who failed to secure or couldn’t afford them require supplementary avenues for connection. 

Pollstar

 Today, fans throw money at IRL experiences, from 

Fathom

Spotify

 Cinemas now host album release parties and sing-a-longs, including for Taylor Swift’s 

 screenings, to sate fan demand for communal experience. In an increasingly fragmented society, as traditional institutions falter, young audiences have come to rely on fandoms for a sense of community. 

Rolling Stone

 But when relevance demands constant sacrifice to an insatiable beast, how can any artist trust that their moment in the light won't simply pass?

“Previously, culture moved much more slowly. Once an artist cut through, they could remain in the spotlight for a long time,” says Hemmings. “Now, achieving initial resonance is one thing, but maintaining it long-term is entirely another.” 

 What allows projects to cut through the noise is a coherent aesthetic. Take the 

 phenomenon. With its bold recognisable branding – the word ‘brat’ stamped across a flat yellow-green background – the release became shorthand for a specific rebellious mood and party-girl vibe. But when the hype began to fade, Charli xcx extended the life cycle with 

 and even puffer jackets dropped as a nod to the mockumentary, one a cropped black style stamped with a brat-green ‘M’, the other a red-and-cobalt design nodding to Marlboro cigarette packaging – both mirroring the mood the album had built. 

Vogue

. Clothing connected to events and experiences has become a marker of participatory Gen Z fan culture: 29% purchase a new outfit for a live music event, with 19% doing so six months in advance. 

AEG Europe

Miley Cyrus has taken a similar approach. 

, the visual companion to her latest album, arrived on Disney+ and Hulu as an aesthetic extension of the music release. 

Cosmopolitan

Cyrus dubbed the project her “dream come true”, calling it “fashion, film and original music coexisting in harmony”. 

ELLE

 Even on stage, tour aesthetics are becoming content engines in their own right. 

 of Zara Larsson’s technicolour make-up for her Midnight Sun Tour rack up hundreds of thousands of likes across social media platforms. 

 The looks feel instantly recognisable, a shorthand for Larsson’s current era, and allow fans to participate in her celestial pop world by creating their

 from home. Clipse approached their return with the same holistic approach. The reunited duo, brothers Pusha T and Malice, marked the release of 

, their first album in more than 15 years, with a 

Hypebeast

Today, 52% of US Gen Z feel heightened FOMO around viral or limited-edition products. 

 After years of frictionless social commerce, where a mindless scroll could trigger a purchase in seconds, fatigue has set in. Younger audiences are now gravitating towards experiences and communities that require effort, intention and even a little friction. A tightly defined aesthetic offers fans a way to signal taste and belonging, while FOMO gives them a reason to buy in. Buying the jacket, streaming the film or showing up to the screening becomes a small act of co-authorship. “Each format both amplifies the product and reinforces the artist’s identity,” says Urs. “Give them a reason to listen, and then give them a reason to keep talking.” 

Audiences are swimming, some might say drowning, in content. For most artists, with a few exceptions, a single album drop 

 before it’s buried by the next wave of releases. However, Taylor Swift has engineered the long game in her favour. Months after, and before, an album drops, she rolls out vinyl, CD and cassette preorders, pairing each with merch drops – including something as inane as a 

USA Today

 Swift has mastered the art of keeping an era on life support for as long as possible, but she’s not alone. FKA Twigs has extended the 

era with a companion album, as has Pink Pantheress with the 

remix double LP, and even SLAYYYTER has pre-empted her 

Pitchfork

 In each case, fans engage with multiple reimaginings of the same output, serving to reinvigorate, but ultimately reinforce, the same product for an extended period. “It’s a natural result of how we consume any kind of art today,” says Urs. “Discovery happens mainly through social algorithms and in-app recommendations.” 

 One week’s viral obsession is quickly outpaced by the next, and musicians must be creative to maintain longevity.

“Fan immersion happens when audiences move from simply listening to an artist’s songs to actively participating in their creative world,” Urs says. 

 Tour films, behind-the-scenes footage and merchandise extend the life of a tour, creating shared touchpoints that fans continue to dissect in online threads and comment sections. For Björk’s Cornucopia tour, the artist blended concert and theatre under the direction of Lucrecia Martel. The subsequent 

, at just under 100 minutes, came with three music videos curated by Björk herself. 

Monocle

 Each additional layer of content invited fans back into the world she had created, keeping the experience alive long after the tour ended.

Part of the appeal of immersive experiences is due to the shifting ways in which young audiences are socialising. Young adults have long built their identities and communities in digital spaces, but now they're craving something tangible, with 95% saying they want in-person events that reflect their online interests. 

Eventbrite

 To capitalise on this need, Coldplay hosted a 

 global listening experience at more than 700 locations in over 40 countries. 

Deadline

In South Korea, the band paired concerts with a pop-up store selling limited-edition merch and exclusive tour posters. 

Marketing Interactive

The same logic applies to brand events; 70% of Gen Zs are very or somewhat interested in attending in‑person brand events or activations, and 72% of those that have attended report that the experience made them view the brand more positively. 

 The goal: to create moments that fans can step into.

What comes after selling millions of records and packing out stadiums? Musicians such as 

 are fronting campaigns, partnering with labels on exclusive moments and becoming brand ambassadors to bolster visibility. “By bridging music with sports, film, fashion and gaming, artists generate headline moments that extend beyond New Music Friday and reposition themselves within a broader cultural conversation,” says Urs. 

 Most collaborations tread familiar territory: limited-edition sneakers, make-up campaigns, capsule collections. Sabrina Carpenter even turned her hit ‘Espresso’ into a custom Dunkin’ iced coffee, for better or worse. 

Eater

 But then there are wild cards. Ice Spice dropped her single ‘Big Guy’ in late 2025 from the official soundtrack of 

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants

, Ice Spice heads down to Bikini Bottom, rapping: "Feel like that fish, so I'm pumpin' my chest / I blow bubbles so big like Mrs. Puff.” The unconventional crossover has been widely embraced and meme-ified online – in much the same way as fans felt like ‘holding space’ during the 

 press tour – with the chorus "SpongeBob, big guy pants, okay" now a common clapback on platforms such as X. 

Them

Unsurprisingly, Gens Z and Alpha are driving this trend forward. Viral moments now carry more weight than traditional marketing, with 45% more likely to trust a product simply because it went viral, while a third trust TikTok and social media trends over ads or brand websites. 

 This is even more pronounced among Gen Z, where 43% have bought something purely because it was trending, almost twice the rate of the general population. 

Weird, memorable collabs tap into both impulses – exclusivity and FOMO. Travis Scott has married the two during his recent wrestling era. For WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, Scott dropped the CJ for WWE WrestleMania 41 Legends Collection, a Cactus Jack release timed to the massive wrestling weekend. 

 Scott also made appearances at Elimination Chamber and debuted his song ‘4x4’ during the first Netflix episode of 

, tying his music directly into WWE’s programming to expand his reach and connect the two fanbases. 

Brands can benefit from this arrangement. But with the average American exposed to thousands of ads everyday, cutting through the noise is near impossible without help. “Tapping into pre-existing fan bases with strong loyalty and purchasing power increases audience attraction and commercial optionality,” notes Urs. 

 The zanier the partnership, the greater the impact as each borrows from the other's world. Nearly 69% of 13–39-year-olds are more likely to buy from brands they see as ‘cool’. 

YPulse

 By bringing together fans from entirely different worlds in never-seen-before collabs, it creates moments fans feel like they truly can’t miss.

Build the world, and the brand will follow

“Artists are not just competing with other musicians but also with streamers and digital creators who tell big, ongoing stories,” explains Urs. “An artist’s worldbuilding ‘lore’ becomes insider currency, reinforcing the sense of community that will build long-term value and cultural longevity.” 

 These communities are where artists’ economic power lies. 41% of Gen Z dress up for concerts, and 12% even get tattoos to connect with their favourite artist. 

 Worldbuilding transforms an artist’s aesthetic into an extendable universe of fashion, gaming, live events and brand partnerships. Beyoncé turned her 2024 

 release into a full cultural reclamation project that stretched far beyond the album and initial tour, from the 

, a cowboy-coded Netflix halftime spectacle during the NFL's Christmas Day broadcast, to Levi's building an entire global campaign, 

, around a single track, ‘Levii's Jeans’. 

 For brands, it’s an opportunity to plug into living cultural worlds rather than one-off campaigns, participating in the stories, symbols and communities that fans are already invested in.

“First-week numbers show how well a release is marketed,” says Urs. “Cultural impact requires staying power.” 

 For 73%, trust in a brand increases when it authentically reflects culture, leaving only 27% who prefer brands that focus solely on products. 

Edelman

 The key is to invest in follow-up experiences that continue the narrative in fresh ways, even if separated by months or years. The Weeknd's 

 rollout began months in advance with a haunted house at Universal Studios and a cryptic password-protected website. 

Forbes

Billboard

 The 2025 release was the final chapter of a trilogy that started with 

 in 2020, a five-year narrative told across three albums, multiple tours and a Super Bowl halftime show. “Artists who last do more than drop a song and hope it charts,” says Urs. “They tell stories, build a community of fans and create moments that people remember and talk about.” 

Artists who turn an album rollout into a lasting moment tap into the culture fans are actively building themselves, turning listeners into participants in a shared story. 66% of Gen Z Americans spend more time watching content that discusses or unpacks something than they do watching the thing itself. 

YouTube

 For brands, the opportunity lies in supporting the spaces, both digital and physical, where that fandom lives. London-based pop-up cinema 

 screens concert films ranging from Lana Del Rey's 2012 Roundhouse show to ‘90s performances, reigniting deep cut performances while recreating the communal experience of live music long after the moment has passed. Micro-communities, pop-ups, IRL meetups become extensions of pop universes. “What’s important is connection. If a fan feels a deep sense of connection to an artist, they will invest in them accordingly,” says Hemmings. 

 For music labels, it’s a chance to facilitate and amplify these fan spaces, creating touchpoints where communities can gather, interpret and extend the cultural moments they already care about.

 of US Gen Z feel heightened FOMO around viral or limited-edition products

 of Gen Z and Gen Y in the US want in-person events that reflect their online interests

) say their trust in a brand would increase if it authentically reflected today's culture

Creating lasting cultural impact now depends on extending a release across formats, platforms and real-world experiences that allow for complete fan immersion

A coherent aesthetic turns a music release into a world fans can inhabit through fashion, film, tour visuals and brand collaborations

Gen Z's trust in viral trends and appetite for the unpredictable in a chaotic world make the most unconventional of collaborations feel the most impactful

Darren Hemmings is the founder and managing director of 

, a strategic marketing consultancy in the music industry whose clients cover some 30+ indie labels, including Dirty Hit, Domino and Ninja Tune, as well as management clients including anyone from the Spice Girls to Chase & Status. He also writes the influential 

keeps a steady pulse on the creator economy, identifying streamers’ and influencers’ evolving needs and ensuring his teams are innovating to meet them. An accomplished tech leader, Urs has helped build Streamlabs into a livestreaming powerhouse that helps creators make content for multiple channels and audiences, craft a unique brand and build communities around their output.

Gen Z (born 1997-2010)

Gen Y (born 1982-1996)

United States

United Kingdom

Media and Entertainment

The album-and-tour tradition is dead. To cut through the infinite scroll, artists must build worlds across industries, stretching a single release into a multiformat era. With young people overspending on concerts and experiencing fandom as identity, nothing less will hold their attention for long.

Analysis

Eve Upton-Clark

Darren Hemmings

Ashray Urs

Related Macro Behaviours

Generation Sell