TikTok Kickstarting Music Careers: Claire Rozinkranz’s Story

Image Courtesy of French Fries Magazine

By Ryn Cole

These days, there are a plethora of music streaming services and an insane amount of people trying to become stars in a sea of talented artists. With the help of social media, a music career is much more obtainable for everyday people. As an example incarnate, 17-year-old Claire Rozinkranz used her social media platforms, specifically TikTok, to promote her music to a variety of music-lovers, and she has made a name for herself within the music industry in a very short period of time.

Rozinkranz began her public music career during the peak of quarantine in 2020 even though she had been writing her own songs since she was eight years old. She writes all of her own songs and records them in her own studio alongside her dad, Ragnar Rozinkranz. On her personal website she has a brief biography explaining that she comes “from a family with deep musical roots,” referencing her grandparents’ careers in the music industry. Love for music is not uncommon in the Rozinkranz family tree.

In 2020, she created a Youtube channel under her name, and her first video was entitled “Claire Rosinkranz – Backyard Boy (Official Lyric Video).” This song, “Backyard Boy,” became her first single, and it quickly grew in popularity as it became a trending sound on TikTok. This pop song has an upbeat, happy feeling to it that had the ability to transport you into a blissful summertime setting even during the lockdown of COVID-19. Rozinkranz described the lyrics, saying, “I think people are connecting to that song because it’s about a feeling you long for, especially during this time. Everyone wants to have this experience but it’s something we can’t have right now because of COVID. But ‘Backyard Boy’ makes you feel like you can.”  

She now has 268,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel and just shy of 700,000 followers on TikTok. She promotes her music on both of these platforms on top of simply interacting with her fans through personal and more casual videos, including vlogs and making tendy TikTok videos.

Just like “Backyard Boy,” many of Rozenkranz’s songs are cheerful and catchy. In an interview with Coup de Main Magazine, she described her songwriting by saying, “I like writing from my experience, but at the same time, everything’s different all the time… it does not have to be my own experience, but I totally write about my own experiences and how I’m feeling at the time.” 

She released her first EP entitled BeVerley Hills BoYfRiEnd on August 14, 2020 under the Republic Records label. Rozinkranz described the songs on this EP as “alternative-blues-pop.” Her music is not heavily produced, and she takes a more casual approach in recording by using voice memos and spoken words in her finalized songs. Most importantly, her relatable, authentic lyrics set her songwriting apart from others. This EP includes the songs “Backyard Boy,” “Tough Guy,” “BeVerley Hills BoYfRiEnd,” and “Seriouslaay.”

She then released her second EP entitled 6 Of A Billion on July 9, 2021, which includes six new songs. She described the basic premise of each song in a TikTok promoting this EP. It includes a song about sneaking out with her high school friends called “Hotel” and a personal story about when she had a crush on her guy best friend called “Fall Apart.” One of the most original songs is entitled “Frankenstein,” which Rosinkranz describes as her “building her perfect boy” in which she describes a fictional man that “Talks for hours, walks in with flowers” and has “Dirty converse, 6 ‘2, and brown hair.” 

She headlined her own tour in the United States from November 2021 to March 2022, which was the first time she played for a live crowd with a small band to back her up. Next, she will play in Lollapalooza 2022 in Chicago, IL from July 28-32 this upcoming summer. Touring nationally this early on in her career shows how far she has come in such a short time, and much of this success can be attributed to her activity on her social media accounts.

Claire Rozinkranz is not only extremely talented in writing and producing songs, but also in marketing her music to the teenage crowd. Her popularity is only growing, and her fans cannot wait to see what is in store for her future.