> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.hypebot.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Lalu's Corner: Scaling on Adjacency - URL: https://www.hypebot.com/lalus-corner-scaling-on-adjacency/ - Published: 2026-07-20T14:51:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-20T14:51:52.000Z - Description: Lalu's Corner is a monthly column about the power of music and brand partnerships, and how indie artists can benefit from them. - Author: Lauren Thackray - Tags: Lalu's Corner, sync, sync licensing, licensing, #trending, branding, Alyssa Liu, Pinkpantheress, Zara Larsson, Pop music, Features, Columns *Welcome to* [***Lalu's Corner***](https://www.hypebot.com/tag/lalus-corner/)*, a monthly column by music and brand partnership agent *Lauren Thackray*, exploring commercial music applications and sync placements, and the most pertinent takeaways for independent artists.* In February, **Alysa Liu** won Olympic gold and then did something no one asked her to do. In the exhibition gala - the free skate, no medal on the line - she skated to "Stateside," the [**PinkPantheress**](https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15495835-pinkpantheress?utm%5Fsource=hypebot&came%5Ffrom=900) and [**Zara Larsson**](https://www.bandsintown.com/a/1602952-zara-larsson?utm%5Fsource=hypebot&came%5Ffrom=900) track, in an outfit modelled on PinkPantheress' look from the [music video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIxQe1R5hs0&ref=hypebot.com) [The song went to No. 1](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/alysa-liu-effect-pinkpantheress-zara-larsson-stateside-bump-1236523804/?ref=hypebot.com) on [**Spotify's**](https://www.hypebot.com/tag/spotify/) Global Daily Chart the next day. Interesting to think about why it was primed to travel the second someone gave it a reason to. ## **Adjacency over reach** Zara Larsson has had hits for over a decade, like "Lush Life," and "Ain't My Fault," and a genuine pop CV to boot; not to mention a Grammy nod for *Midnight Sun* and a full viral moment of her own in 2024 when a TikTok meme sent "Symphony" back up the charts nine years after its release. She wasn't obscure, and she wasn't waiting to be discovered, but she was back as a nostalgia act (the "decade-old song people were rediscovering"); not as the artist setting the temperature. Then she turns up on a PinkPantheress remix and the register changes entirely: a [Coachella](https://www.hypebot.com/tag/coachella/) appearance, a No. 1, a different kind of attention altogether. Zara didn't need PinkPantheress' audience, she already had reach of her own, plus a meme that proved she could still go viral without help. What she got instead was **adjacency**: **proximity to an artist coded as *taste***, placed next to her on a record built to be shared. PinkPantheress handed Zara her credibility. This is the thing worth sitting with for anyone advising an artist on features: stop asking who has the numbers. Ask who's coded as taste-aligned in the exact way your artist isn't yet. The right feature changes what an artist is allowed to mean. ***+Read more:*** [*"For PinkPantheress, a Minimal Stage Is Key to Intimate Fan Connection"*](https://www.hypebot.com/for-pinkpantheress-a-minimal-stage-is-key-to-intimate-fan-connection/) ## **Authenticity is the adjacency you can't fake your way into** Which is really the whole game. Zara didn't just co-sign a hot feature — she co-wrote every track on *Midnight Sun*, working the record with MNEK, aligning herself with the self-made pop star that PinkPantheress and **Charli XCX's** *Brat* had already made the default. The manufactured, untouchable pop star like Britney or Beyoncé — built at arm's length from the audience — wasn't the model she was reaching for. > [@britishvogue](https://www.tiktok.com/@britishvogue?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "@britishvogue") > > [#PinkPantheress](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pinkpantheress?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "pinkpantheress") fangirls over [#Olympic](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/olympic?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "olympic") gold medal-winner [#AlysaLiu](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/alysaliu?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "alysaliu") at the [#Burberry](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/burberry?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "burberry") AW26 show at LondonFashionWeek. > > [♬ original sound - British Vogue](https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7610183824890219294?refer=embed&ref=hypebot.com "♬ original sound - British Vogue") That matters here specifically because adjacency runs on trust. PinkPantheress could transfer credibility to Zara because PinkPantheress *has* credibility to lend — earned by being visibly, audibly the author of her own music. A figure skater could reach for "Stateside" unprompted because the song read as real, not as product. Authenticity isn't a value statement anymore. It's the currency that makes every other adjacency possible. ## **Adjacency compounds** Liu didn't just skate to a song — she lent it something back. An Olympic gold medal, an exhibition slot with no scoring on the line, a look built off PinkPantheress' own video: a 20-year-old volunteering her biggest platform to a pop record because the association already made sense to her. That's the second half of the mechanism. The PinkPantheress feature bought Zara one adjacency, deliberately, with a deal behind it. Liu's skate multiplied it. Once an artist is coded as credible enough, other people start doing the work of standing next to them - unpaid, spending their own reputation on the association. The first adjacency is never the last one. The payoff is everyone who borrows it after you. ### What's the takeaway in all this? **For the artist:** Your next feature isn't a numbers trade, it's a credibility transfer - pick the person who allows people to believe in something new about you. **For the manager:** The adjacency you can build is the deliberate one - the feature, the co-sign, the right room. Get that right and the free ones, the unbriefed skates, the borrowed looks, start compounding on their own. **For the label or brand** backing either: You're not just buying reach for a campaign or a release, you're buying what strangers will be willing to lend it next, for free. Zara Larsson had the songs, the numbers, even a meme, for years. It took one adjacency, and one moment nobody planned, to change what she meant. --- ## [**PinkPantheress Tour Dates**](https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15495835-pinkpantheress?utm%5Fsource=hypebot&came%5Ffrom=900) ## [**Zara Larsson Tour Dates**](https://www.bandsintown.com/a/1602952-zara-larsson?utm%5Fsource=hypebot&came%5Ffrom=900) --- [***Lauren Thackray***](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenthackray/?ref=hypebot.com) *is the Founder of* [***LALU&CO***](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lalu-co/?ref=hypebot.com)*, a music culture agency helping brands build artist partnerships and cultural strategy. Her clients include Unilever, L’Oréal Paris and Heineken amongst others. And via her Substack newsletter,* [*LALU Dispatch*](https://laluandco.substack.com/about)*, she writes about brands and music.*