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Small Artists With Cult Fanbases: The DIY Community is Winning
There’s viral success, and then there’s true artistic community. If you’re only familiar with the former, then you’re missing the real story — and ethos — of today’s music scene. Online, behind the facade of the FYP and engagement farming, there’s a new underground class of smaller artists reshaping what it means to build a following — no more algo appeasement, no more playlist payola. Instead these artists are creating communities of deeply connected, ultra-online fans. Call it a new cult era, led by these six artists who prove that community always trumps streams — and it’s paying off for everyone involved.
Flawed Mangoes: Hopecore Before It Went Viral
Before TikTok could meme “hopecore” into existence, Flawed Mangoes was already doing it. Yet, aside from creating shoegaze-adjacent music perfect for late-night walks, the band is building a community of fans. Dubbed the “Midnite Cult,” fans trade memes, Discord secrets and lyric tattoos in an online community not unlike underground communities surrounding the original shoegaze greats. It’s music for anyone who wants to feel seen without oversharing on main, powered by a DIY ethos and community-first approach that gives active listeners a network of like-minded fans.
Erika de Casier: The Y2K Whisper Queen
If you grew up on Aaliyah CDs and late-night MSN chats, Erika de Casier might be your new north star. Her fans are magnetized by the artist’s ability to fuse R&B nostalgia with futuristic production and introspective lyricism. But it’s her understated vocal delivery—soft, close, intimate—that cements her cult. Reddit threads decode her sample sources; Twitter stan accounts run “cassette club” swaps and flip out over every limited drop. While Erika’s music is quiet, fans are vocal in their appreciation and devotion to her and her artistry.
Jane Remover: A Digicore Corner For Weirdos
Jane Remover’s following is a new type of fandom: hyper-online, lore-obsessed, and fiercely protective. Jane’s sound — a whiplash blend of digicore, shoegaze, and nightcore — is part therapy, part catharsis for fans, drawing in listeners like moths to a flame. Every alias, unreleased leak, and cryptic tweet gets documented in fan-run spreadsheets. But it’s not just about the music, in the Jane Remover universe no one is too weird to belong, with fans creating a true community based on shared vulnerability and obsession.
Malcolm Todd: The Wholesome Rockstar
Malcolm Todd’s rise is proof you don’t need a persona to draw in fans, you can just be yourself. With Malcolm Todd fans seem more like friends, and the cult-following he’s built goes both ways. The musician is known to interact with fans at concerts in an authentic, off-the-cuff way, reply to fan DMs, and respond to fan-created content. He’s an artist who consistently breaks the fourth wall, meaning everyone’s invited. It’s a fan-base that seems to go both ways — listeners show up for Todd and he shows up for them.
The Hellp: Indie Sleaze Revivalists
No act embodies the indie sleaze resurgence like The Hellp. Beyond the genre-defying sound — digital electroclash meets Y2K — the duo’s enigmatic presence and high-voltage performances keep the cult buzzing. Fans are often leather-clad, Hedi Slimane-coded and shows are often equal parts mosh pit and runway.
Chanel Beads: Cinematic Obsession
With a sound somewhere between ambient pop and shoegaze, Chanel Beads feels less like a band and more like a cinematic soundtrack. With an opening spot on Lorde’s 2025 Ultrasound World Tour, the Chanel Beads fanbase is sure to grow exponentially. While the cult is growing fast, the fanbase hasn’t lost any authenticity of fervor. On stan-run forums, fans dive deeper into the music, swap art and edits, and analyze every sonic crumb for meaning.
Why Cult Fanbases Matter
Cult-listeners and their devoted corners of the internet aren’t just niche echo chambers — they hark back to the history of cult followings while integrating today’s technology to build bigger, more expansive communities. As platforms keep squeezing artists for viral soundbites and extra content, these artists with their cult communities are building something algorithms can’t compete with — word-of-mouth discovery and loyal, community-driven fan bases. In an industry obsessed with numbers, it’s the small artists with cult fanbases who prove that less can be more.
