Trend Analysis
January 25, 2025
Artwork by Jubran Haddad
When Chappell Roan took the stage at Governor’s Ball in New York last year, longtime fans cheered and winced. Was this the moment their best-kept secret became everyone’s favorite artist?
For early supporters, Roan’s rise was bittersweet. On one hand, it was gratifying to see an artist they championed finally gaining the recognition she deserved. On the other, her growing popularity stirred a familiar anxiety: Would mainstream success change her sound? Would new fans understand the raw vulnerability and theatrical edge that defined her music from the start?
This tension isn’t unique to Roan. It’s a common struggle in music fandoms when an artist transitions from niche darling to mainstream sensation. Fans often feel protective, as if they hold a piece of the artist’s identity that could be lost in the flood of new listeners. This protective instinct often leads to gatekeeping, where fans draw lines between “real” supporters and casual listeners in an attempt to preserve the authenticity of a music community that suddenly feels overcrowded.
Gatekeeping has long existed in music fandoms and subcultures. From die-hard Ramones fans to Swifties, some fans set arbitrary standards for what qualifies someone as a “real” fan. Maybe it’s knowing every lyric, attending small early shows, or understanding the deeper meanings behind an artist’s work. Can you truly call yourself a Ramones fan if you don’t know the name of their bassist?
At its core, gatekeeping is about drawing boundaries to maintain exclusivity and authenticity. But those boundaries are harder to maintain in today’s music landscape where songs can be “TikTokified,” and artists can explode into the mainstream overnight. Fan communities on platforms like Reddit, X, and TikTok are full of debates over who “discovered” an artist first or who truly appreciates their music. But why do fans feel the need to gatekeep?
A 2010 study by Zeynep Arsel and Craig J. Thompson offers insight into how fans protect their spaces when they feel they are being encroached upon. The researchers explored how consumers protect their identity investments in the indie music scene, which became culturally linked with the “hipster” label as the subculture gained mainstream attention. The term “identity investments” refers to the emotional, cultural, and social capital fans build over time, such as discovering new artists before they become popular, attending intimate shows, or connecting with others who share their niche tastes. These investments are deeply personal and establish credibility and community status.
To protect their status and the authenticity of their involvement, indie fans engage in what the authors call demythologizing practices. This involves drawing symbolic boundaries between themselves and newer fans, who are seen as trend-driven or lacking genuine appreciation for the scene. For example, indie fans might insist they love an artist because they connect with the music, not because it’s suddenly popular. The study also highlights aesthetic discrimination, where fans emphasize their deeper understanding of an artist’s work while criticizing newer fans for engaging superficially. For instance, an old fan of an artist might say: “You only like them because they are trendy now,” or “Their first album is way better than their mainstream stuff.” This aesthetic discrimination reinforces their deeper connection to the artist while dismissing newer fans as superficial.
While this dynamic is rooted in the indie scene, it mirrors how fans in border communities often “gatekeep,” asserting their deeper connection to an artist when faced with the growing popularity or commercialization of their favorite music.
But what exactly makes an artist or a sound niche? Is it based on streaming numbers and sales, or are there certain sonic characteristics that define a genre as a niche? In Chappell Roan’s case, her sound blends '80s synth-pop with theatrical alt-pop, which is a niche on its own. Is she still considered niche now that she’s reaching mainstream audiences and headlining major festivals around the world?
Once, niche music was easier to define. It lived outside the major label system, thrived in underground clubs, and spread through word-of-mouth. But today, streaming platforms and social media have erased those boundaries, and artists are less constricted to specific genres and labels. While pop has always been seen as the mainstream sound, an artist can release a deeply personal, genre-blending track to a small audience one day and go viral the next day. Take Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine,” a gothic country track that reached number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and crossed over 1.5 billion streams. A song that might once have remained in a small corner of the internet is now part of the mainstream conversation.
Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have further complicated things. Curated playlists like POLLEN and Lorem focus on mood rather than genre, blending hyperpop, indie rock, and electronic music. These playlists expose niche artists to wider audiences, blurring the line between underground and mainstream. This blurred line between niche and mainstream fuels much of the gatekeeping we see today. Fans may accuse artists of “selling out” or criticize new listeners for not understanding the music on a deeper level. But maybe the real issue isn’t the music changing but the fear that these once-intimate communities are becoming too crowded.
Yet, the democratization of music discovery has allowed more artists to thrive without needing mainstream approval. Platforms like Bandcamp and online radio such as NTS and The Lot Radio still offer havens for experimental sounds and underground scenes. But the internet has made it nearly impossible to keep music insulated from mass appeal.
Perhaps the idea of “niche” is evolving. Instead of being defined by limited exposure, niche music might now be about how deeply music connects with specific communities, regardless of how many people listen. “Hidden gems” are inherently subjective; what feels underground to one listener might be mainstream to another.
As artists like Chappell Roan balance staying true to their roots while reaching broader audiences, fans are left to reconsider what it means to belong to a music community. Maybe the real challenge isn’t keeping music exclusive but finding ways to celebrate its growth without losing what made it special in the first place.
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