CHAPPELL ROAN IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE POP STAR
Chappell Roan for Paper Magazine. Photography by Hector Clark.
She swears at rude photographers; she is direct, and she doesn’t want to be a politician’s puppet.
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz - her full name – did not come out of nowhere and has many hit songs. The reality is she has been trying for years. Back in 2017, she moved to La La Land with a breakthrough in mind. In her case, that breakthrough came seven years later. In the meantime, COVID happened and she had to move back to her parents’ house. Roan grew up in a conservative part of the United States, the Midwest. Her hometown is Willard, Missouri. She described it as "conservative and Christian." She went to church three times a week as a child. In a Variety interview, Roan said she wanted to escape. But part of her wanted "to be a good person."
At the age of 17, she signed to the record label Atlantic. When they realized she didn’t make enough money, they left her without one after three years. It was the start of the COVID lockdown. They canceled the tours. So, I needed to save money and cut unprofitable artists. The funny thing is she recorded “Pink Pony Club” four months before her label dropped her. Roan didn’t make enough money, and they didn’t see the potential in the song. The song imagined and made for the dance floor couldn’t fulfill its aim. That could have been the case for Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. It had her superstar status and hits like "New Rules" and "Don't Start Now." It had to stay in the dust for four years until it exploded this year.
After this, she went independent. Her first single, "Naked in Manhattan," was released two years later. All of this forced her to move back to the Midwest and postpone her music dream for some time. She was working different jobs when she moved back to Missouri. She could not afford the high costs of Los Angeles. “I worked at a doughnut shop for a long time and I loved it because I would just leave work and I would just go watch TV and it was great," Roan said. But she didn’t give up and all the time was persistent with her music career. The musician described that while working in the drive-through, she would come up with melodies and wrote them on Notes app. Eventually in the fall of 2020, she moved back to Los Angeles to try once more. At the very beginning of covid, Roan released “Pink Pony Club.” Roan didn’t publish any new music for two years, breaking her silence with “Naked in Manhattan." In the same wave, she recorded “Femininomenon” which was huge and became even bigger thanks to Kamala Harris’ political campaign during the latest summer months.
The moment the shift started happening was in February this year. American musician Olivia Rodrigo chose her to be the supporting act for the “Guts World Tour.” Billboard reported a 32% rise in Roan's streams, from 941,000 to 1.24 million, during the first weekend of shows. It is not a coincidence Rodrigo chose her. Dan Nigro is the man behind the production of both Roan and Rodrigo’s music. He produced the three songs mentioned. But, after Rodrigo's hit debut single "drivers license," they stopped collaborating. Midwest Princess was left without her creative partner. They finally reunited on “Good Luck, Babe!” in the first half of this year, and it became her biggest song so far.
Roan's debut record, The Rise and Fall of Midwest Princess, explores sexuality. Its title seems like a nod to David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Anyway, she started going to drag clubs after moving to Los Angeles. There, she discovered a whole new world. In “Pink Pony Club," she tells a story of a woman moving from Tennessee to LA: I know you wanted me to stay / But I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in LA / And I heard that there's a special place / Where boys and girl can be all be queens every single day. It seems moving away from Midwest benefits her. One more escape from conservative surrounding was Summer camp at Interlochen in Michigan. “I’ve never met creative kids before that camp, and it changed my trajectory forever. Everyone was a fucking hippie, and I’m from Trump country. I’m from a heavily church background, and this is not that. There were kids from all over the world there.” She was longing for belonging and her hometown couldn’t provide it.
Apart from songs, she gains attention with public appearances and TikTok videos. Female stars are taught to learn a very crucial lesson - to be nice and polite. They are not told to stand up for themselves when their personal space is threatened or when they are taken advantage of. At least, not in the first years when the goal is to create a perfect public image. Roan is not that kind of pop star. She doesn't shy away from discussing the music industry's toll on mental health and doesn’t tolerate rude photographers on the red carpet. At the latest VMAs, she shouted, "You shut the fuck up" after he yelled at her. “I mourn being a kid because my career took that away from me pretty immediately when I signed. But I also didn't know how to protect myself," she told Vanity Fair. She is not the first to start that classic music industry chat. Her case is different. She started peeling away layers of this problem early in her career. Musicians like Selena Gomez filmed a documentary “My Mind and Me," which has mental health in its focus. Roan started talking about it as soon as she stepped into the spotlight. Gomez, yet, took years to do so. But, some rarely talk about it. In the Rolling Stone interview in 2019, Taylor Swift said to journalist Brian Hiatt how she never had therapy, telling she feels “very sane.” Big pop stars don’t start that conversation early on because that is not what their fans want to hear. Or at least, that’s what they or management think. Fans want to see them always smiley. It shows a fun pop music world. Privilege is one another key word. Main argument on social media is how musicians can complain when they got so lucky. The logic is this: fame, success, and wealth equal perfect happiness.
Album artwork of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
Furthermore, people see musicians as superhumans who are ready to serve the fans. Problems started to occur when those “fans” crossed boundaries. This summer, Roan spoke out about '"superfan"' behavior on Instagram. “I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.” Her Instagram post was a result of ‘”superfan”’ kissing her without permission. Roan answered to everyone who tells this is part of being a public person and successful. „I embrace the success of the project, the love I feel, and the gratitude I have. What I do not accept are creepy people, being touched, and being followed.“ Roan highlighted this even more to The Guardian telling them she is not complaining about her success but about being abused. Musician Phoebe Bridgers shared for Los Angeles Times her experience with the rude behavior of a so-called fan when she was at the airport on the way to her dad’s funeral - “I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me f— dehumanize me and shame me.“
Female musicians are taught one more important lesson – don't complicate about politics and don’t be too loud. That did not happen in a vacuum - as Kamala Harris famously put together “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” In 2003, The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) called out President Bush for starting the Iraq war. They were canceled for it. Dixie Chicks’ music was no longer on main radio stations, their CDs were burnt. People treated them like America’s traitors. Many young female musicians saw that as the lesson to not be vocal about politics. One of them was Taylor Swift. In 2018, she became involved in politics but told Variety about her past relationship with political advocacy. “Every time I didn’t speak up about politics as a young person, I was applauded for it. I said, "I'm a 22-year-old girl. People don't want to hear my views on politics." On the other hand, Roan has no problem being loud. That’s partly because what being loud meant before is what silent means today.
Chappell Roan at Lollapalooza. Photography by Deanie Chen.
Fans expect their favourite artists to be clear on every political issue. But fan bases don’t expect their favourite musician to have more than a black and white point of view. When Roan refused to endorse a candidate in the recent U.S. elections, she faced a huge backlash. “I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone," Roan said in September to The Guardian. This quote sparked a hate train on the Internet. In response, a musician made a few angry TikTok videos explaining her quote. Before that, she declined a White House invitation to perform at a Pride celebration. At one of her concerts, she said, "We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, I'll come." This referred to transgender rights and the war in the Middle East.
It is refreshing to see a young musician who tries to protect herself. She does so because she is not afraid that someone or something will destroy her career. She doesn’t expect people to understand the overwhelming busyness of her schedule but to see her as a human being.
