The new pop music superstars of 2019 didn’t need to adhere to the industry’s long-held (and fast-aging) trajectory to be anointed as such. They were perfectly motivated to carve out a fresh path, detouring around some of the existing gates and the old one-size-fits-all guard, to head straight for their audiences.

Masters of self-marketing that were relative unknowns before 2019, these four artists — Lizzo, 31; Lil Nas X, 20; Billie Eilish, 18; and Rosalía, 26 — leveraged social media platforms to broadcast their talent and larger-than-life personalities, and somehow managed to come across wholly authentic at the same time. The result: billions of streams, millions of devoted fans, sold-out concerts, Grammy nominations and many records broken.