"All in This Together": How Disney built a pop empire
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"High School Musical." Photo: Disney/Fred Hayes
"High School Musical" didn't just mint stars — it taught Disney how to manufacture them at scale.
Why it matters: The formula that elevated Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in 2006 later powered a generation of Disney-bred stars, from Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato to the Jonas Brothers, Zendaya and Olivia Rodrigo — names that now dominate pop culture well beyond the channel.
The big picture: The Disney Channel franchise about six East High students premiered 20 years ago, and its cultural aftershocks are still reverberating.
- The trilogy has garnered over 1.2 billion lifetime viewing hours across streaming and linear, according to Nielsen.
Flashback: Before Troy Bolton ever sang about breaking free, the Disney Channel's music strategy was largely outsourced.
- Teen pop stars like Britney Spears and *NSYNC appeared in concert specials on the network, but the company was looking for homegrown stars.
The pivot began with 2003's "The Cheetah Girls" — a film starring Raven-Symoné about four teen girls from Manhattan who become a pop group.
- The success of the movie (and the quartet subsequently becoming a real-life music act) paired with Hilary Duff's crossover into music set the stage for Disney's next act.
Enter "High School Musical," a made-for-TV movie about a basketball star (played by Efron) and a bookworm (played by Hudgens) who bond over their love for the stage.
- "Hannah Montana," a Miley Cyrus-led series about a girl hiding that she's secretly a pop star, premiered the same year.
The intrigue: Both were massive hits. What separated "High School Musical" from earlier Disney Channel fare wasn't just the choreography or catchy songs like "Get'cha Head in the Game" — it was relatability.
What they're saying: "There hadn't really been a live-action musical that resonated with the public since 'Grease,'" Disney Branded Television's SVP of music and soundtracks Steven Vincent told Axios.
- "The important thing is that Disney casts real teenagers. We don't cast 30-year-olds to play high school kids, and so it feels authentic to what real kids out there are going through."
A repeatable business model was born.
- "High School Musical" and later franchises like "Camp Rock," "Descendants" and "Zombies" produced soundtracks, consumer products, touring, merch and constant reengagement thanks to the arrival of streaming.
- All four "Descendants" soundtracks reached No. 1 on the Billboard Kids Chart.
Behind the scenes: Disney began actively casting kids who could act, sing, dance and be funny.
- That model produced some of today's biggest stars, including Coco Jones, Sabrina Carpenter, Ross Lynch, Lovato, Cyrus, and Rodrigo — who starred in the television homage to "HSM" that aired 2019–2023.
Today, the Disney Channel has to spread its content across Disney+, YouTube, TikTok and games because kids don't gather around cable TV.
What's next: Making a "High School Musical" level franchise for today's pre-teen starts with the intellectual property, Vincent says.
- "You got to have the great idea, develop it and then find those special actors who can bring it to life."
- "That's what Disney does better than anybody — make things that you watch when you're a kid that you then show your kids and then you watch with your grandkids, whether it's 'Mary Poppins' or 'The Lion King' or 'High School Musical,' it needs to be timeless entertainment."
The bottom line: "High School Musical" wasn't just a movie — it was a blueprint the entertainment industry is still trying to replicate, even as the rules keep changing.
