Chappell Roan is confronted by fame.
“Be a voice for the voiceless until we take your voice away,” says the brochure in the record label waiting room.
First: I love Chappell Roan.
Second: Chappell Roan should seek out the counsel of Lady Gaga. Kayleigh could do herself a treat to spend this weekend with Stefani discussing a topic the former is being confronted by, and the latter did the confronting of.
Fame.
This weekend is perfect because, at the time of this writing, Chappell has canceled her higher than highly-anticipated appearances at the All Things Go festival in New York and Washington, DC.
I remember thinking what a get it was for the young festival to trip into having Chappell as a headliner by booking the appearances before Chappell’s rapid ascension to notoriety and requisite crowds this past summer. As with other Chappell appearances at more prominent festivals, which had to move her set to larger stages to accommodate her growing popularity, I assumed All Things Go would renegotiate her deal and all would prosper.
As it stands, when Chappell announced that she would not appear because “things have gotten overwhelming,” I was not the least bit surprised, and at the same time, I was upset for the festival and the fans. Don’t get it twisted; I am upset for Chappell, too. She should have called Gaga for help a few weeks ago.
On Sept. 11, as Chappell made her first appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards, much of the talk in the media was not about her performance but about her arrival on the red carpet where she yelled, “You shut the fuck up!” at a photographer.
It felt like a punk rock moment to me; it felt authentic and like an artist standing their ground, unwilling to be mistreated by the industry.
It also felt deeply troubling.
Chappell had already been speaking out in the prior month or so about stalkers, about fans using her real name as if they knew her while touching her body without consent, and about a general frustration with weird attention that had really only just begun to get weird.
She spoke authentically about what was happening to her and, more importantly, what she would not let happen to her. She railed against those who asserted that this new reality was the price of fame, and that it is what she had asked for.
Chappell was absolutely right to speak her truth. She empowered herself and anyone who heard her words to not accept mistreatment for doing their job. She made it clear that she is Kalieigh and that Chappell Roan is her “project” and that you had better understand the difference.
As with the All Things Go cancellation, the “You shut the fuck up!” on the VMAs red carpet was also no surprise. When it happened, it was clear that Chappell was grappling with the fact that the music industry is a bad system designed to elevate the dreams and aspirations of artists for profit and then to discard them when there is no more money to squeeze.
In many ways, this is no different from any industry, except this one preys on those who trade in vulnerability and who often come to the interview already psychologically and emotionally damaged.
“Be a voice for the voiceless until we take your voice away,” says the brochure in the record label waiting room. This fact should come as no revelation, but it is still jarring when it happens right before your eyes.
Gaga can speak to Chappell about this. Madonna can speak to her about it, too.
I don’t equate the three artists simply because they are women who go by a name other than their own (although Madonna, like Prince, is so uniquely and actually named that dropping Ciccone was all that needed to happen — let Sonic Youth have it!), but also because they are all women who disappeared into a persona that is bigger than the person, and good for that!
Madonna and Gaga, regardless of, and especially despite, being women, built audiences that transcended the control that the male-dominated music industry could assert over them. Once you have a fan base that will follow you wherever you go, you win.
Chappell’s “You shut the fuck up!” was not the theater of Chappell. It was not the world of “world building” that she has talked about in interviews when she describes what she is attempting artistically. It was Kayleigh being frustrated with the confines and objectification of the music industry.
If Madonna or Gaga were to yell “You shut the fuck up!” at a photographer, it would be as part of their persona. They would do it for the camera, not at it.
I compare Chappell to Madonna (a transplanted New Yorker from Detroit) and Gaga (a New York native) in another way, as well.
Madonna and Gaga pursued fame relentlessly and were undoubtedly aware of its trappings and pitfalls. Like, really aware. Manhattan’s Lower East Side during Madonna’s rise in the 80s and Gaga’s rise in the 2000s was a messy place (and in many ways, it still is, and always will be.) Their associations and proximity to the worst of the art and music world at the time are legendary.
On the other hand, Chappell is from Willard, Missouri, which is not exactly the bastion of beating people to a pulp about the realities of what it means to make it in music. This is only an observable fact, and it is not meant to assume or assert that Chappell is naive. Signed to an Atlantic Records deal when she was only 17, and dropped before the success she is seeing now, Chappell’s early experiences with corporate apathy while living in Los Angeles likely helped fuel her current attitude towards the industry.
Madonna and Gaga willingly submitted to cage matches with the beast because they knew that if they survived, their fans would lift them up. They would not have to rely on the fickle, feckless, and fucked music industry to propel their careers. They could dictate terms and merely allow the industry to either take a small cut or tell it to sit the fuck down.
A third comparison is artistic. I fell in love more quickly with Chappell Roan than my peers because I am a creator on TikTok, the place where just about everything in culture catches fire first. I was already deep into obsessing on repeat with Chappell’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, when the VMA appearance came up on the calendar.
When TikTok reactions came in, and I saw the performance, I was reminded of Gaga’s iconic appearance when she was just 23 years old, to do her single “Paparazzi,” which she concluded at the piano, one leg perched on the keyboard, before she then stumbled to center stage, “bleeding” from her gut, and was hoisted by dancers and hung from the rafters.
Unforgettable. Gaga did not come here to play. Fifteen years later, even with the comparatively dated-looking production and Gaga’s less-developed early-20s vocal abilities, this appearance remains stunning. Gaga knew precisely what she was doing.
Not so much with Chappell.
The 26 year old was given the stage, and had the budget to “world build” whatever she wanted, and she built to be sure, but unfortunately, the result was a triumphic production of a muddied vision.
Muddied visions are fine. They are part of the artistic process; however, this, like with Chappell’s outburst on the red carpet earlier in the day, felt more impulsive and reactionary, unlike Gaga’s appearance, which was nothing but intentional.
None of this is Chappell’s fault. She was forced to react! Chappell has a monster, the fame monster (as Gaga herself would title the album that followed up and amended her declarative debut, The Fame), on her ass.
I saw all of this and hoped a fellow artist who had been there before would sit down with Chappell and say something to the effect of,
“Girl, this is happening right now, and this is how it works. Gather the people you trust who have known you forever and who won’t be jealous or vindictive.
Augment that group with inner circle professionals who have been through every facet and permutation of this industry. They can tell you: ‘If you do this, this is what happens. If you don’t do this, this is what happens.’
Then, you can make informed choices that serve you, and you can harness your popularity and notoriety to do whatever you want to do and say whatever you want to say without negative consequences for your mental health and the wellness and safety of the people in your personal and professional world.
Then get Madonna and Gaga over here to be your Moms for the rest of time so that you can lean on them as you navigate an artistic journey that you hope will last a lifetime, including those bungled records, bad performances, and botched career moves.”
I do not think such a conversation happened in the past week before Chappell’s All Things Go cancellation, in which she took to TikTok, as if under duress, to assert and then defend her political views (which seemed half-baked, frankly), and in the process, make lots of people angry at her or defensive of her.
This final September straw only served to further exacerbate an already tense month where all Chappell should have really needed to do was connect with fans, play great shows, and enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Chappell is a culturally progressive rock star at a time when we need one. She is gay, she stands for trans rights, and she is outspoken about it. Her songs are not afraid of lyrics like, “Knee deep in the passenger seat, and you’re eating me out. Is it casual now?” Prince would blush.
I did a Google search for “Chappell’s dirtiest lyrics,” which oddly did not return any matches. When I posted about this fact, a commenter rightly responded, “It’s because they’re all dirty.” I love this about Chappell Roan!
I want everyone to hear The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and recognize the genius of how it does not even recognize its own genius. The album is fun and authentic and doesn't try too hard. It feels fresh and curious and alluring. Most of all, it is insanely catchy, a description that rarely accompanies the word “genius.” This is the same reason that comedies don’t win Oscars. It seems too easy and care free and not serious.
One wonders if Chappell could ever top it. She doesn’t have to top it. Chappell must continue her career and make another record when the next record is making her. When she is inspired to unleash her fame monster after experiencing her fame. But, to do that, Chappell needs to find herself first.
Fully embodying a persona as a public figure that honors, and yet is safely removed from the private one, is a trick all artists must learn to perform. The ones that pull off this sleight of hand always shine the brightest. I want that for Chappell Roan because I am a fan of her songs and how they make me feel. I am aware of the pressure she is feeling right now to be everything to everyone. It’s that pressure that she needs to say, “You shut the fuck up!” to.