You would not have to be chronically online to recognise the phrase “Is somebody gonna match my freak?” and the correlating meme that goes with it. After rewatching the meme enough times, you too might find yourself winding your waist, biting your finger and gently cooing “I’ve been a nasty girl” at any given opportunity.
Spreading like digital wildfire over the past month, “Nasty” by R&B-pop singer Tinashe has been one of the defining songs of the summer. As with most things in our age, “Nasty’s” success story can be traced to unexpected virality.
The song blew up online after being memed by X user @grruessome in April. Featuring a sprightly, spectacled British man named Nate di Winer and his dance partner, the meme overlays Tinashe’s “Nasty” on a video of the pair engrossed in a dancehall routine. Thus began “Nasty’s” gradual ascension on the charts, garnering Tinashe her first solo hit in 10 years.
While “Nasty’s” online ubiquity might seem instant, Tinashe is far from an overnight success. She is the textbook definition of a slow burn artist—a musical act that has hustled for years at their craft and traded immediate commercial acclamation for a niche, loyal fan base.
While the slow burn artist may never graze the upper ranks of the charts, they become beloved guardians of their fans’ pregame playlists, daily commutes and obscure music forums, anointed with the affectionate moniker of “underrated.”
As witnessed this summer, the success of the slow burn artist is a timeless exercise in long-term brand building.
Tinashe: The power of perseverance and expert brand-building
Tinashe has spent her career on the precipice of pushing through the mainstream, but never quite getting there. Her breakout hit “2 On” (2014) should’ve been a harbinger for explosive commercial success, but as time went on, Tinashe’s place at the top felt like a lost future in pop music’s annals.
Caught in major label purgatory that delayed her from releasing albums for years, Tinashe worked around the system to deepen her relationship with her fanbase. Releasing several genre-defying projects, she architected the icy-cool alternative R&B that dominated the 2010s.
Despite industry setbacks, her consistent release schedule and multi-channel campaigns—popups, live-streamed concerts, entrepreneurial ventures—ensured that she would never fade into the background in a pop landscape that is as mercurial as it is obstinate.
Her consistency paid off. Even before “Nasty” blew up, Tinashe secured high-profile performance slots at Coachella and NPR’s Tiny Desk this year. Operating in contrast to the pop world’s need for instant gratification, Tinashe’s focus on her niche fanbase prioritized loyalty over ubiquity.
Brands should take a page out of Tinashe’s book and think about how to cultivate culture over time, rather than focusing on immediate domination.
Charli XCX: When culture trumps commerciality
Beyond commercial viability, slow burn artists have shown that success is articulated by something more seismic and intangible—cultural impact. And no other artist captured culture in the way that Charli XCX did this year.
Charli XCX’s “Brat” album campaign is an ode to the crushing duality of being an “it girl,” filled with diary-penned club anthems that detail Charli’s ponderings on her place as an “underrated fave” in music. Her career trajectory ran similarly to Tinashe’s. After also being caught in label friction, Charli XCX stopped chasing the charts and aligned herself with the avant-garde underground dance scene. From there, she developed a unique sound that subverted the sonic and aesthetic parameters of pop music.
With the release of “Brat,” the niche she created became mainstream. The album—an amalgamation of years working behind the scenes — is her most commercially successful and critically acclaimed record. “Brat’s” cultural vernacular transcended its commerciality, with its lime-green artwork and indie-sleaze aesthetics penetrating fashion, politics and pretty much every sector of public life. The summer of 2024 will forever be synonymous with “brat girl summer.”
Tinashe and Charli XCX are part of a group of slow burn artists that are now receiving their flowers several years into their careers. Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Raye and Victoria Monet have all emerged from the shadowed destiny of “the underrated fave” after their songs went viral online. Their widespread recognition is delayed, but retributive for the years watched from the sidelines, waiting for their turn at pop stardom.
There is a poetic justice knowing that the same thing that prevented these artists from fully breaking through—instant virality—is now propelling them into the spotlight, only this time, they have the experience, artistry and fanbases to back them up.
The changing logic of virality and new model of success for brands
Slow burn artists demonstrate that slow-and-steady not only wins the race, but upturns the rules of the race altogether.
An oversaturated music ecosystem, algorithms and the death of radio has made the logic of virality increasingly arbitrary. With fewer opportunities to gain immediate and widespread commercial appeal, the slow burn artist strategy emerges as a more viable model for success that both artists and brands can follow.
For a time, artists could assume that an instant, viral hit would guarantee a long, illustrious career. But the slow burn artist renaissance reveals a shift: Longevity now sets the foundation for virality, rather than the other way around.
Artists propelled into immediate stardom are struggling to sustain the momentum of their viral hits. Laced with TikTok-baited one liners and shock value aesthetics, recent releases by Lil Nas X and Ice Spice have been met with diminishing returns, for instance. The work of slow burn artists, on the other hand, are laser-focused crystallisations of their artistry rather than hollow imitations of their past glories.
In a volatile attention economy, the key to virality is not instancy, but consistency. And it pays off in the long-term, for artists and fans alike. As Tinashe and Charli have shown us, brands should focus less on being everything to everyone and redirect their efforts into being something to a few people.
Slow burn success offers a framework of engagement that prioritizes patience over immediate profit. It incentivizes labels, artists and brands to invest in creative development, cultivate a deep understanding of their audiences and evolve—not erase—their identities.
Ultimately, it proves that adaptability does not have to come at the cost of artistry.
Siddhanth Sequeira is a strategist at Ogilvy.
