Lizzo is a good recent example of this. She had the backing of a major studio, critical acclaim and even appearances on movie soundtracks and her third album went largely ignored. It was one of the best in its genre for the year. She was so dispirited she wanted to quit.

Then a few years after release, one of the songs got featured on a Netflix show, which then allowed it to gain popularity on Tik Tok. Then she blew up as people went back through her catalog and realized how good it was.

If it wasn’t for that Netflix show, it probably never would’ve happened for her.