Joshua Bassett
➜ Age 18 ➜ Label RCA ➜ Publisher SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING ➜ Management HARD 8 WORKING GROUP ➜ Total streams 1.4 BILLION
➜ Age 20
➜ Label WARNER
➜ Publisher BLACK DIAMOND ARTIST PUBLISHING/WARNER CHAPPELL
➜ Management FOUNDATIONS MUSIC
➜ Total streams 143.8 MILLION
Thanks to the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Joshua Bassett became an instant Gen Z staple. With the series renewed for a third season and a chart hit under his belt (“Lie Lie Lie,” a rumored response to co-star Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license,” reached No. 25 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart), Bassett is “dying to get on the road and tour.” In the meantime, he’s leaning on his A&R executive at Warner, Nate Albert, to teach him more about the industry while teasing new solo music for his 2.8 million TikTok followers: “The collaborative nature and content-focused algorithm is the peak of social media.”
Since breaking out in 2020 with “You Broke Me First,” an emotive hit that cracked the Hot 100’s top 20, Tate McRae has been enjoying success in the fast lane.
The Canadian artist — who moved to Los Angeles and splurged on her first apartment after graduating high school — has scored collaborations with Khalid and Troye Sivan, performed at Lollapalooza and Governors Ball, and will soon hit the road opening for Shawn Mendes on his Wonder: The World tour. “My situation is so weird, because everything happened for me during a pandemic,” says McRae. “I haven’t been performing as much as usual artists. I’ve never experienced tour bus life. I’m just kind of going into everything blindfolded because I have no idea what to expect, and that’s the fun part about it.”
What surprised you the most after getting discovered and signed?
That nothing happens quickly or easily. It takes so much work, time and effort before you can even put out your first song. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that artists stress over for hours upon hours that no one will ever see. You write a million songs and end up releasing two. The process is so much more demanding than people realize.
Whose career do you admire most?
Zendaya. She has been an idol for me since I was super young. And it’s funny because usually your inspirations and idols change as you grow up, but the older I get the more respect I have for her. I watch her interviews, movies and projects all the time and I feel like she’s so invested in her art. The biggest thing that inspires me as an 18-year-old is how she presents herself. She’s one of the most educated, classy and admirable individuals.
What’s the biggest misconception about being a teen in this industry?
That we are so clueless and we’re going to say yes to everything. I feel like people think they can convince me way easier than they actually can. I’m super stubborn and also very opinionated at my age, and I feel like I can read through people so easily when they try to spitball me random information that clearly isn’t going to win me over, but they really think it’s going to. Our generation is way smarter than people think — people underestimate that.
What’s the most adult decision you’ve made since turning 18 this summer?
When I moved into my apartment and started writing my album, which I’m in the process of now, I realized everything is in my hands, and that’s terrifying. I was like, “I’m out of high school, I’m out of my family’s house, and I have no one around me to ask for a second opinion.” It was the first time where I was like, “Wow, I’m doing this on my own.”