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20 Things You Didn’t Know About The New Disney Music Stars

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Five Disney Channel kids are trading soundstages for recording studios, and none of them needed a script to do it.

TheThings Celebrity dropped “20 Things You Didn’t Know About The New Disney Music Stars” on February 4, 2017, and it skips right past the Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus era to focus on the crop of talent actually running the Disney Channel in the mid-2010s. Dove Cameron, Sabrina Carpenter, Sofia Carson, Laura Marano and Ross Lynch are the five names the video zeroes in on, each one balancing a lead role on a Disney Channel Original Series or Disney Channel Original Movie with a recording contract on the side. The trivia ranges from YouTube cover songs to a third-place finish in a singing competition most fans never knew existed.

• Sabrina Carpenter placed third in the 2009 singing competition “The Next Miley Cyrus Project” after uploading cover songs to YouTube, and her debut single “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” was co-written by Meghan Trainor.
• Dove Cameron built her name on the dual-role sitcom “Liv and Maddie” before headlining the “Descendants” movie franchise, while Sofia Carson plays Evie in the same franchise after guest spots on “Austin & Ally.”
• Ross Lynch fronts the pop-rock band R5 while also leading “Austin & Ally” and the “Teen Beach Movie” films, and Laura Marano has released her own music alongside her role as Ally Dawson on “Austin & Ally.”

Sabrina Carpenter’s Slow Build From YouTube to Studio

Before Disney Channel ever cast her, Carpenter was posting cover songs online, the kind of grassroots grind that got her noticed in the first place. That work paid off with a third-place finish in “The Next Miley Cyrus Project” back in 2009, a contest built to find the network’s next singing-and-acting hybrid. She went on to land a starring role in “Girl Meets World,” but the music side of her career kept pace, with her debut single “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” carrying a co-write from Meghan Trainor.

That pairing mattered. Trainor was already an established hitmaker by the time Carpenter’s debut dropped, and having her name on the songwriting credits signaled that Disney’s music arm was pairing its young talent with real industry pros rather than in-house staff writers alone.

Dove Cameron and Sofia Carson Share a Franchise

Cameron’s break came on “Liv and Maddie,” where she played twin sisters in a dual role that demanded she carry entire scenes opposite herself. That range translated directly into the “Descendants” movies, Disney’s musical franchise built around the kids of famous villains, where Cameron took the lead. Sofia Carson stars alongside her in that same franchise as Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen, after cutting her teeth with guest appearances on “Austin & Ally.”

Two “Descendants” leads, one shared launching pad: “Austin & Ally” gave both Carson and her castmates the screen time to build toward bigger roles.

The overlap between these performers’ resumes isn’t a coincidence — Disney Channel has spent years cross-casting the same bench of young actors across its music-driven shows and films, which is exactly why a rundown like this one groups them together instead of treating each as an isolated case.

Laura Marano and Ross Lynch Anchor Austin & Ally

Marano spent years as Ally Dawson on “Austin & Ally,” the show that doubled as a launching pad for multiple names on this list, while releasing her own music in parallel rather than waiting for her acting career to slow down. Ross Lynch played the other half of that title, but his music career actually predates his TV stardom in scope — he fronts R5, a pop-rock band that toured and recorded well beyond anything tied to his Disney Channel contract. Lynch also led the “Teen Beach Movie” franchise, giving him arguably the widest mix of acting and music credits among the five performers the video covers.

Current Pipeline Development Status

Taken together, the five names in the video map out how Disney Channel was building its next generation of crossover stars heading into 2017: cast a performer in an Original Series or Original Movie, let them build a fanbase through the network’s built-in audience, then hand them over to Disney’s music arm with professional songwriters attached. Carpenter’s Meghan Trainor co-write, Cameron and Carson’s shared “Descendants” spotlight, and Lynch’s independent band success all point to the same strategy playing out in slightly different ways for each star.

Fans wanting more of this same rundown format on other Disney-adjacent transformations can check out Musicians That Are Nothing Like They Seem or dig into the earlier generation with Tragic Details About Eminem for a look at how music careers built on early exposure tend to play out over time.