All hail Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, AKA Chappell Roan

she's currently on tour promoting her first album. i saw her for the first time at Heaven in London tonite - holy fuck.

started off with an incredible drag performance by inga rock and someone else whose name i didn't catch. chappell apparently always chooses local drag acts for her openers, which is very cool.

her set got off to kind of a rough start (no fault of hers) - for the first couple songs her vocals were mixed really low. also his girl next to me was singing every single lyric, very shrill and out of tune, directly into my ear

then they turned her vocal up and oh my god. she's everything. she's an absolute superstar and i'm so grateful i got to see her before she really takes off. she's an INCREDIBLE singer and has such a fantastic, warm, confident stage presence. she just seemed to be having so much fun and she had incredible chemistry with her band (aubrey on bass and lucy on drums - both were fantastic)

please do yourselves a favour and listen to this piece of pure american pop magic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsqyPMIg6I

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Didnt mean for that to look sarcastic I’m just emphatically agreeing .

<3

i’m gonna keep on dancing at the pink pony club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4WiXKGCJhg

really incredible tiny desk

That was very nice indeed!

"Casual" and "Coffee" are the ones I keep sending to friends. I've heard this in a few other places, but she seems like a great example of someone who grew up with Max Martin 2000s songs and fully leans into that as well ("H.O.T.T.O.G.O." etc)

Got around to the Tiny Desk this morning, sounds great live without all the layers of the studio versions.

knee deep in the passenger seat and you're eating me ouuuuuut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RKqOmSkGgM

pink pony club is an earworm

Coachella set happening at the moment, the audience is crazy and knows every word:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13QtsdFLVG4

Really a fantastic set, and I think it wasn’t a mixing/editing thing but the audience really was so intensely connected to the music. She did great.

I saw her live this past Monday in KC, and the entire audience was exactly like that, intensely singing every word, even for the new song that came out just a few days before. Plus they were dressed in some variation of pink cowboy gear (like, 90% of the crowd was in pink cowboy gear, we didn't get the memo). It sold out one venue, got moved to a larger venue, and sold it out. If that's happening across the country - which I imagine is the case - she's truly on the rise. And deservedly so...

Seems like she just keeps building momentum, just based on from friends and others discovering her in the past months + hearing her in coffee shops all the time.

Thinking how part of the fun of this phenomenon is that the album has been out a long time, so individual songs don't feel like singles but instead have equal presence out there.

She's good but I gotta say, I started listening to this, listened to it a lot for two weeks, then ran out of interest in it and haven't listened to it since. But it's good! Just... not with staying power for me.

Went to see Katie Pruitt last week and she did an acoustic cover of "Casual" that successfully lodged that tune in my head for three days straight.

similar to when this was happening with “espresso,” i think when a song/artist experiences a lot of growth in a short amount of time, spotify is set up to assume this will be of interest to most of their users and therefore it gets recommended liberally https://t.co/76GxtcpWo0 pic.twitter.com/qyRApPrukf

— jaime brooks ☭ (@elite_gz) June 7, 2024

lots of requests for chappell roan at the gay bar lately so i hear

people who use spotify live inside a little spotify created bubble that the rest of us exist outside of, and it distorts their understanding of the world around them. imo

i for one am shocked that spotify is recommending sabrina carpenter and chappell roan to listeners who enjoy pop music

xpost 100%. for an increasing number of people, there is basically no music outside Spotify, imo.

which sucks real bad.

"good luck, babe" is the first thing from her that isn't really annoying

I think people habitually underestimate the power of social media when discussing these phenomena. If you move in any kind of sub-50-yr-old queer-ish circles online it is basically impossible to avoid suffocation under an avalanche of Chappell Roan references. This seemed to start about a month ago.

It's difficult to untangle cause and effect here - did Spotify's algorithmic amplification effect precede or follow the above? Almost certainly they feed on each other. But in an era when traditional music journalism manages less than ever, I think a lot of the void that has left has been filled by people deciding what to check out because of the "conversations" they see happening around them online and a desire to be able to at least understand if not join in.

In this specific case an Australian parody IG page modelled on the Onion published a story a few days ago which both reflects the above and ironically adds to it: "Local Lesbian Has Her Subaru Keys Revoked After Revealing She Doesn't Know Who Chappell Roan Is".

*In an era when traditional music journalism matters less than ever

I would argue that social media and especially vertical content platforms (tiktok, reels) are driving what new acts and artists are breaking now. Spotify is definitely the tail of the dog at this point. Labels compete in digital marketing on those platforms, playlisting is kind of cheugy when you're talking about discovering new acts, lol

In this specific case an Australian parody IG page modelled on the Onion published a story a few days ago which both reflects the above and ironically adds to it: "Local Lesbian Has Her Subaru Keys Revoked After Revealing She Doesn't Know Who Chappell Roan Is".

Meanwhile, Hard Times (the punk-rock Onion) just did "Man To Be Honored at GLAAD Awards for Giving Bisexual Girlfriend a Ride to Chappell Roan Concert."

When Azealia's right...

I dunno, i feel like lots of female artists really wanna do this weird Lolita shit well into their 50/s and she sings like a WOMAN. That’s what i appreciate the most. The truth and reality in her neeeeeed to express. And how cathartic it is.

— Azealia Banks (@CHEAPYXOMIAMI) June 22, 2024

I saw buzz about the album somewhere or other late last year, listened to it and liked it a lot (still do). I was surprised at the time that there wasn't MORE buzz about her, because she seemed pretty buzzable. I think festival season was primed for her, she'd built up a good following and she rocked those shows. Her Bonnaroo set got moved up to the 2nd-biggest stage, probably on the basis of the Coachella buzz plus whatever LiveNation was gleaning from users on the festival app. As with anyone who blows up, I don't think it's any one thing pushing her, it's mostly that she made a good pop album that is in line with the tastes of the moment — smile, Dan Nigro! — and she's spent the last year building audiences on the road. Opening for Olivia Rodrigo no doubt helped.

But yeah, I did just see a Facebook friend in her 40s asking "who the hell is Chappell Roan and am I a bad lesbian for not knowing?"

She's insanely charismatic and her songs are brilliant. Feels like the most deserving Huge Popstar Blowup in a long time.

Her NPR Tiny Desk was my first exposure to her, it’s an incredible performance and I immediately understood why she was a star. Listening to the album after was slightly disappointing - I mean the songs are great, but something about the production didn’t quite click for me. “Good luck, babe!” is excellent though

My wife is a very casual music fan in general, but recently she's been getting kind of obsessed with individual artists, and Chappell Roan is the latest.

(Before that, it was Taylor.)

She talked about this when she was on Fallon, but it's pretty funny that some fan inside Google made it do this in the "Did you mean" line.

https://i.imgur.com/gts393u.png

"some random twink that works at Google" as she put it lol

I haven't paid attention to any pop for the last 20 years, but recently became a taylor swift fan. Then I randomly heard good luck babe and thought it was phenomenal, the album ain't half bad either.

"Good Luck Babe" doesn't have the same kind of charisma as the best tracks on the album in my view

"Good Luck Babe" is quite the earworm, caught me more than "Red Wine Supernova" (which was also good). I should check out the album

maybe 200 20-somethings at the gay bar singing "good luck babe" at the top of their lungs last saturday night.

I'm genuinely surprised y'all embrace her! She's fine. I'm figuring out what about her voice bothers me.

Current 20-somethings were pre-teens when Katy Perry's singles were omnipresent. I feel like Roan's big numbers play into that nostalgia while making the lyrics young-and-single-adult. The album deepens from there with "Coffee" and other non-anthems.

oh my god lol. how can i even describe it. i feel like you either hear it or you don't. there's a sour confidence that offsets the purest of feeling. there's a yelpiness and then grade-a organic midwestern honey. her tone when she's at her most direct, yearning and heartfelt just melts my armor away. carly rae jepsen would kill for this kind of voice. that probably does a disservice to crj. i just mean that crj, her thing, it could have been huge if she had this kind of voice.

there's also an incredibly refreshing honesty in the drive of her heart through the lyrics. (is she writing these songs or does she have help, i genuinely don't know?). like, she isn't dumb, but she knows what she wants and it's l o v e. worldliness is a part of that but it isn't all of it. uncompromising. the feeling when all these kids are singing along to it warms my heart. it's a wholesome moment. you either feel it or you're soulless (j/k ;)).

xp as far as i can tell, at least from the 3 big songs, there's something less cookie cutter about her "american girl" persona than perry. she's like "american girl" post billie eilish or something. the american girl persona just feels more natural somehow. i hope she doesn't succumb to being another katy perry, that would suck.

oh, she's more convincing than Perry.

Thanks, map. I'll give the album another try. I do hear the worldliness.

tbh i didn't really get what the fuss was all about until i heard all of those kids singing it.

i feel like there's also a kind of "fartiness" to the production on the songs, like a brown plastic sound (sorry for the gross metaphor), it seems to communicate that she doesn't want to be seen that she takes herself too seriously. i noticed the same style in the sabrina carpenter songs.

I don't know if this holds water, but thinking again of 20-somethings growing up on Kidz Bop versions of pop songs, with their chintzier production, and playing a bit into that nostalgia (unbridled kid-like singalongs, but also as Azaelia said, songs about being a woman, not a girl).

Oh, well if there's a fartiness to this, I guess I'll go check it out.

Chappell Roan is expected to chart five singles on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 6th, 2024), all at new peaks:

#11. (+5) Good Luck, Babe!
#38. (+17) Hot To Go!
#46. (+8) Red Wine Supernova
#66. (+24) Pink Pony Club
#83. (NEW) Casual pic.twitter.com/70qmjvBafv

— Talk of the Charts (@talkofthecharts) June 30, 2024

The production is the only weak point to me, tho its datedness makes it feel kind of relatably affordable or something… the Midwest adopting like an old idea of mainstreamed indie, idk. But she’s a huge talent / persona / force of nature, her star& vision makes the production feel like it’s struggling keep up with her like she just wills these aspiring 2008 Robyn sounds into good-enough canvasses …. Imho

(is she writing these songs or does she have help, i genuinely don't know?)

Album was produced and mostly co-written by Dan Nigro, who performed same duties on Olivia Rodrigo's albums. (And has written with/produced assorted others.)

maybe robyn with the house/dance elements removed? i don’t really hear robyn otherwise, she would never be caught dead using the cheerleader gang vocals that pop up throughout “red wine supernova,” for example. it feels like teenage dream-era katy perry but with smarter lyrics and supreme vocal control

i agree that the production is the weak point, but i appreciate that she doesn’t go fully into camp or 80s nostalgia (“hot to go” and its clear toni basil inspo, notwithstanding). it’s a tricky balance because these songs are clearly massive and arena-ready, but until “good luck babe,” the production has kind of been…humble?

I guess I hear katy Perry on “red wine supernova” but her three biggest records (“good luck babe” “hot to go” “pink pony club”) all feel like late aughts indie efforts at 80s pastiche. Like bat for lashes era shit. “Pink pony club” is very fake Kate bush right, but also kind of “modern” in an mgmt era sense (Which is kind of what I mean about the production feeling more slight than the songwriting and performances).

The album itself has production that’s also kind of all over the place imo like you can id different pop referents but to me the albums spirit is just not something I locate in the production which feels kind of “servicey”

TS: "Pink Pony Club" vs. New Young Pony Club

What immediately came to mind for me was Marina and the Diamonds circa Electra Heart; there's also a theatre-kid quality to what she's doing that scanned more like... Born This Way Gaga than Katy Perry to me. But to be honest I only gave the album a couple of plays when it came out last September, took "Super Graphic..." and ran, so I'd have to revisit it to see if that opinion still holds.

By Robyn I’m thinking of “dancing on my own” era more than “honey” era

She sounds exactly what I would imagine Katy Perry to sound like if she was a member of Gen Z.

The singles are pretty irresistible!

"Casual" is killer. No wonder Katie Pruitt covers it.

katy perry if she could sing and had good songs

"Casual" is also a perfect song if you don't really need a new Taylor Swift song but you don't want to give up that kind of pop.

I thought of Katy Perry in part because I remember hanging out with some friends and their five-year-old daughter in 2010, and the kid sang the "Hot N Cold" chorus nonstop and loved Gaga's "Bad Romance" too; and now that kid is 19 and at Berkeley, and I imagine Roan hitting that balance between nostalgia for being five and being a young woman in college.

i like your kidz bop theory btw.. that's kinda what the production reminds me of most.

bat for lashes era shit

you have a weird sense for what Bat for Lashes sounds like

anyway I tried the album and liked it slightly more than my first attempt to listen to her which, it turns out, was HOT TO GO which I still think is terrible. But the new single is better than anything i heard on the album. I could really do without those horrible cheerleader bvox, it reminds me of the worst parts of Born to Die and Electrheart.

when i first heard her i admired her lyrical candor, how she included things in her songs other artists would be too embarrassed or self-conscious to, and in that respect she brought to mind early kesha for me

I could really do without those horrible cheerleader bvox

otm

you have a weird sense for what Bat for Lashes sounds like

he's right about the late 00s indie pastiching the 80s bit, just not the bat for lashes reference in particular

this thread clearly wants her to be less annoying i see but i dont because she’s having fun and that makes me have fun

i think Good Luck Babe is super fun and I enjoy it. I heard it on the radio (in Mexico City) for the first time this week and had to shazam it which is what led me to giving her a second listen.

i think Good Luck Babe is super fun and I enjoy it. I heard it on the radio (in Mexico City) for the first time this week and had to shazam it which is what led me to giving her a second listen.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, July 3, 2024 9:17 PM

The melodic ascension into the chorus is some serious Robyn/Max Martin "music = math" rowdiness, but the real triumph is the bridge, with those "Call Me Maybe" strings, the extra bite she adds to the vocal before winding it down, then screaming at us like Ani in "The Million You Never Made" as it literally goes off the rails, like when my 3rd-grade neighbor's battery-operated ladybug record player died before finishing side 2 of Pat Benatar's "Crimes of Passion"

*applause*

BABY DO YOU LIKE THIS BEAT?????
I MADE IT SO YOU’D SLEEP WITH MEEEE

he's right about the late 00s indie pastiching the 80s bit, just not the bat for lashes reference in particular

― ufo, Wednesday, July 3, 2024 9:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Im thinking of “Daniel” specifically, that sounds exactly like the sound I mean

will preface this by saying I’m completely out of the market these days for teen pop or whatever you might call this, but my fiancée was playing some of her songs in the car the other day and when “pink pony club” came on I had to be like — wait, who is THIS? incredible track, makes me hopeful that there are other artists out there doing kate bush pastiche after that brief buzz “stranger things” seemed to have augured

about halfway through the rest of her stuff and while it’s fine it’s nothing special, as others have mentioned kind of a gen Z theater kid coded katy perry or gaga, not terribly dissimilar to what taylor swift seems to be going for these days I guess

"Pink Pony Club" achieves what "Florida!!!" was aiming for.

yeah I like PPC too, I thought it was going to be massively annoying based on the title alone but it isn't at all. I like the video too.

i am hosting a chappell roan night next saturday

Is it at a club? I've been seeing those types of nights popping up all over in the past few weeks.

yeah

OK this is embarrassing but I'm just gonna say it -- I listened to the album a lot in the runup to seeing her open for Olivia Rodrigo, really liked the songs, really liked her set, but had no idea there was anything queer about her or her music until she started blowing up about a month later

Like that half of her songs are about girl-girl sex?

I could see missing it really. I first read about her as a “lesbian pop princess” or something, so she arrived pre-queer-coded for me.

I knew the songs were about sex, I just didn't register anything about the gender of the other person or people involved!

album was introduced to me as a sort-of concept album about giving up on dating straight men and entering one’s gay era and it is one of the reasons i ended up loving her music a lot yes

same for me, eephus. when she's singing to the other party "you" gives nothing away. probably there are other lyrical clues certainly good luck babe is obvious in hindsight but even then I thought with the "you" she was referring to herself.

it's fine not to pay too much attention to lyrics but yeah they're pretty explicit! have a read at "Naked In Manhattan".

I'm not sure "Red Wine Supernova" or "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" could be more obvious lol

well, yeah.

Yeah I'm notorious for missing the meaning of lyrics but "Red Wine Supernova" basically screams its meaning

finally listened to the whole thing lol. i think it's very good, a few more forgettable tracks but some of the slow songs are among the best ("kaleidoscope," which looks like a sole amstutz credit.)

sole amstutz writing credit tbc

sole amstutz writing credit

Title for the belabored sophomore follow-up

"Chappell Roan says she’s “pumped the brakes” on fame after fans give off “stalker vibes”"

https://www.nme.com/news/music/chappell-roan-says-shes-pumped-the-brakes-on-fame-after-fans-give-off-stalker-vibes-3775922

ITEM soooo a very beautiful young woman friend of ours works in a high-end attelier in new york and she told us that chappell roan came through two weeks ago. after giving 'don't talk to me' vibes CR pulled a bit of a diva card before leaving, saying something like "it's great that you're so friendly, most people don't realize how much money i make" lol.

That sucks but oh I love her. The album is great and she's always fabulous but it was when she performed in what was basically Divine drag that really got me. I think she's fantastic (and hope that story isn't true or at least maybe there was a reason she was an asshole).

yeah it's a second hand story so who knows what was really going on. i imagine the past few months for her especially have been insane.

okay that's pretty mild diva-ness. normalize art heroes being difficult imo.

haha yeah i agree tbh

and not to spin too much out of it but our friend is like scarrrry beautiful, people tend to act weird around her.

Free NY Times link to their story on the challenges of booking Roan when her audience has blown up so quickly.

she's not even headlining her day at Outside Lands in SF and I think that's quickly becoming clear that she should

i mean...second in line behind Sturgill Simpson? in San Francisco? What?

xp interesting article, nice photos. thanks for sharing.

Not just songs from the album, but the crowd sang along with the newer unreleased ones as well ("Subway" being the latest):

Chappell Roan absolutely packs Grant Park at 5pm, the humongous crowd singing songs from The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess at the top of their lungs.
It is electric. And it’s pink. Very pink.#OnAssignment for @BlockClubCHI with @melodymercadotv https://t.co/2BqGjOiz7e pic.twitter.com/hhVxRTfiqr

— Colin Boyle (@colinbphoto) August 1, 2024

help she's in wrestling gear and her drummer is drumming in a wrestling ring... help....

Your group should be her opener.

all my "quick video" feeds (idk what we're supposed to call them) on social media have gone from zero CR content to somewhere around 1/3rd CR content in the past week.

Really good read, this.

https://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2024/08/06/a-feminomenology-of-chappell-roan/

that's a nice read. i've played the dancier songs every weekend all summer and last night they sounded better than ever? instant classics.

I was at karaoke on Friday night and someone did "Red Wine Supernova," and the whole room sang along with it, even getting the California King spoken part down just right.

i think "red wine supernova" is probably still my fav, what a rush

Really great Outside Lands performance— I think she’s figured out how to handle the big crowds easy.

yeah that was good, though basically the same as her other festival sets I've seen online recently. she really should have had the headlining slot. also why is the outside lands amazon stream torturing me with shit now and apparently going to skip slowdive?

I suppose if anyone else here has opened a social media site (or even a news site) in the past week they've been innundated with reposts of her begging her psycho fans to leave her the fuck alone. I'm not on twitter or tik tok so have no idea how well that's playing with said psycho fans, but reaction in most places seems to be supportive; on the other hand, it feels like this video is getting more press than anything else she's done. I'm also curious because I hadn't actually heard of any instances of her being harassed or grabbed by people while out in public. It does seem she isn't quite prepared for the level of fame she's reached, which is on her management and the label, I think. It did make me think about ehe report above that she 'wasn't nice' when visiting a store.

There are promotional videos from her label that interview her grandparents and spend a lot of time in her hometown (not to mention the Hot to Go video); I'm surprised those haven't been taken down since that's likely what's leading young weirdos to stalk out her family's home etc.

I find behavior by 'stans' online and in person in recent years really sickening and weird. I honestly don't think if I saw her outside without makeup and an outfit I would even recognize her, she literally looks like any other white woman in her 20's.

it's also, I think, naive of her to think that she could continue to live her life in an anonymous way because I don't think that is true for anyone who achieves even a little fame, and has always been the case. But people really should not be so weird to celebrities.

I think she went from "kinda famous but not instantly recognizable" to "so mega famous can't walk down the street" very quickly.

she went from "barely famous at all" to "so mega famous can't walk down the street" very quickly

It's naive inasmuch as it has to be truly disorienting, and is probably literally unimaginable until you're in it. And so few people comparatively reach that state, quickly or not, that it is hard to appreciate the impact from outside it.

Anyway I’ve watched this performance approximately 7 million times. I think it’s extraordinary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL92xyS0IEM

shazamed a song while at a restaurant the other night and it was 'red wine supernova'. got my ass

i'm kinda curious if 'love tempo' by quando quango would go over well at a chappell roan night. feel like you could almost mix it into 'hot to go' lol

so ... maybe someone closer to this world can tell us ... is Nigro just white hot / untouchable at this point? I can only assume he's the new "it man"? or has he been the "it man" for a while and i just thought it was, like, Jack Antonoff or something, like how i'm still saying "very demure" even though that was over a month ago?

guy seems like he's on a crazy run right now.

do i need to go back and listen to As Tall As Lions???

yes

there's a pretty big difference in the volume of artists that those two producers work with, even though there's other broad similarities between them, that make that comparison feel somewhat ill fitting to me. i also feel like nigro's taste is quite present in his work, or at least he seems to seek out or connect w/ artists who have similar musical inspirations, whereas antonoff's whole thing is more of a rick rubin-esque taking in wayward souls and guiding them thru the process of finding their own inspiration type situation. i think nigro more so has a "sound" whereas the frustrating or interesting or both aspect of antonoff's work is the absence of such a fingerprint

to me nigro exists on some continuum between antonoff and (nigro's former collaborator) ariel rechtshaid

As you do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65m4u4IxZLg

i'm kinda curious if 'love tempo' by quando quango would go over well at a chappell roan night. feel like you could almost mix it into 'hot to go' lol

― flopson, Sunday, August 25, 2024 12:30 AM

This sounds like a fabulous idea.

This feels like one of those “I hope she plays “Hot To Go!”” Memes.

“Girl this is a local DJ night playing Quando Quango”.

this is a good performance but not nearly as good as her doing the same song on Fallon in the spring.

I hope she stays real and weird.

goddamn this woman's got jams

H.O.T. T.O. G.O.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Casual" is a masterpiece of relatable devastation

HTG was my gateway but Casual is my current fave.

my fav right now is the deranged "my kink is karma". i love vamping to it at the club, feigning orgasm to an ex having a meltdown

It's hot when you're going through hell
And you're hating yourself, I'm feeling myself
It's hot when you know that you're caught
And you're getting pissed off, it's getting me off
It's hot, it's hot, oh god, oh god, oh god

htg i never loved that much for whatever reason. literally every song in the album is good to great though.

recently awakened to "naked in manhattan"

touch me baby (touch me touch me touch me touch me!)

could not stop listening to "hot to go!" for the past month bc my life was full of lesbian intrigue... and remains so

Lesbian Intrigue is your side project name, natch.

is the weather in Manhattan nice now? I'd like to be naked there.

oh it’s been SO nice

The Poppa Johns song was my least fave for a while but I’m fully assimilated now. Any good non-album stuff?

sorry but between the whole lack of boundaries thing (which yes I know is not exclusive to her fans) and now this whole "why isn't she endorsing Kamala" thing, does her music emit some kind of frequency that makes her fans especially stupid

no artist deserves a fanbase this illiterate

I think it’s… unsurprising… that a pop star whose appeal seems partly grounded in her relatability to people who spend a lot of time kneedeep in their twitter feeds publicly revelling in their emotional damage and idiosyncrasies would then be vulnerable to a portion of that fanbase imposing their emotional damage and idiosyncrasies back onto her.

not sure this backlash is coming from chapell roan fans so much as fans of being a scold on the internet

no artist deserves a fanbase this illiterate

this is the modern day fanbase of pretty much....everyone now, sadly

the issue is not w/ her fanbase, which has large membership crossovers w/ the stan communities of other pop stars. the difference is that she is willing to tell the truth about the experience of being on the other end of that relationship, and she is apparently willing to engage her fans in a near constant battle over boundaries ... most pop stars do not want to do this

in all the press the eras tour spawned about the magic that is the relationship between taylor swift and her fans, i'm not sure there was ever much unpacking over how her relationship w/ her fans is, actually, insane. i think there is a downstream effect on the chappell roans of the world who are having to contend w/ an environment where the biggest pop star in the world has normalized i.e. having her fans over to her house for brownies. i don't think the generation of current day pop fans responds well when pop stars actually try and establish boundaries (for many reasons of course, the largest of which is certainly not taylor swift, but w/in the sphere of modern music pop stardom in particular i think it's relevant)

it crops up in other areas too. reality TV stars get a TON of terrible fan behavior, judgment onslaughts, etc., without even the resources a typical popstar might use to insulate themselves a little. and it doesn't even matter if 99% of the fans are saying "hey other fans, stop doing creepy stuff," because 1% of five million or twenty million people is an untameable horde of people projecting their fandom and mediated sense of "access" into some terrifying presumptions of intimacy etc. etc.

I also kind of think part of what we're seeing is just an artist becoming really, really famous. saying its about her 'stans' as if the people acting like psychos were all day-ones instead of just a transition from one tier of fame to another, much more exposed one, is mischaracterizing, I think, *why* people are acting so nuts (ie that shes become famous with more people than many of her ostensible peers)

chappell can sing but this does make me appreciate what nancy wilson does on the original a bit more haha

chappell roan’s cover of ‘barracuda’ by heart full performance at ACL ✨ pic.twitter.com/RXqTWoUVqm

— best of chappell roan (@bestofchappell) October 7, 2024

Audience clearly doesn't know the song. Philistines!

not too proud to admit that this edit gave me goosebumps (ignore the stan tweet)

chappell performing pink pony club at a small gay pride event 3 years ago vs now. you did it chappell, you made it. we’re all so proud of you. pic.twitter.com/4mbgyHjkQe

— mel ❦ (@mykinkisroanie) October 15, 2024

same here, but whoever made that should've closed with footage of her on the ACL stage doing the song!

here's this, in case anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJB7O-vGCA4

Goddamn and once again

(Giving a Ziggy/Ronson moment with the second solo: brilliant.)

Trying that again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il3u_gZy5Z4

It's been confirmed by folks who were there that the call & response part was indeed live and perhaps the first time something like that has been allowed to happen on SNL.

Brilliant. I was half-wondering about that.

Really liked the sound of the second song she did on SNL (I say this as someone mostly indifferent to her musical output thus far (somewhat too theatrical for my taste) but enamoured of the way she’s dealt with her parasocial fanbase and the dogmatic liberals who derided her for not endorsing Kamala). We need more country romps about pegging!

the new song is straight out of shania-ville

it is not about pegging, tho it does involve the strap

only a woman knows how to treat a woman right

i mean i actually take that back as a woman who would have to be pegged in this instance

Everything is about pegging to some degree

https://www.thecut.com/article/chappell-roan-the-giver-song-snl-fem-top-fall.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaiyQ7jJMaI

i've been chappell agnostic at best but that snl performance is really great

Hi I had somehow lost my old Zing app but then it downloaded on my new phone and since Twitter is dead I wandered by for the first time in years.

That new lesbian Shania song is excellent and I desperately need Dan Nigro to lean all the way in re: Mutt Lange production for the studio version.

So this happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3CZMn6z0ZI

just wanted to announce I'm all aboard the Roan train, every one of her singles has been a bop to my ears. think I'm going to approach "Hottogo" burnout if I don't pull back, but I love "Good Luck Babe" very much. idk her songs I've heard just give me warb, positive vibes in general. going to dig into deeper cuts now.

*warm

I just listened to her Midwest Princess album for the first time yesterday waiting to board my flight and found myself headbopping along to most of it! Sounded like saucier After Laughter-era Paramore to me.

I listened to Good Luck Babe more than any song this year, according to apple music. like embarrassing numbers of times.

the only one that's worn out its welcome for me is "hot to go!"

anyone want to save me a goog and lmk if the country song has a release date?

i don't believe it does, nor does 'subway', the other new song she was playing live recently.

oh i thought this revive would be about the nardwuar interview which rules

this song is so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ReWF4VoHX4

I’ve heard the intro to “Ultra Graphic Super Modern Girl” a million times and finally looked it up expecting a pop Marie Davidson and oh no I can see why videos cut it off after 40 seconds.

I can't believe it's 2025 and it's still acceptable to sing a cliche like "it's not over till it's over"

Hat's off, Yogi Berra, you would have loved poptimism

the version of "pink pony club" she did at the grammys is so much better than the studio version

i forget if the journey guitar solo towards the end was in the recorded version but it's a fun element nonetheless

it's on the recorded version

she seems to have shuffled up her band members again. I think the solo last night was pre-recorded though.

she's so fucking great

like i guess i understand the complaints about theater kidness or the chintziness of the production but she's a lesbian who has a really beautiful ear for hooks and honestly i think almost all of her theater kidness is derived from drag instead of high school so it's kind of twisted and wrong in all the right ways

When I think of theatre kids as popstars I think of Lady Gaga, but Roan codes much more as Tori Amos in terms of performance catharsis to me

I increasingly don't get any complaints about "theater kid" performances, especially if the artist is queer. Performing is what we do -- unless we want an authenticity argument again?

Thought her performance was amazing last night and all the more powerful in the context of the LA fires and Trump second coming.

The journey from the Pink Pony Club performance in the Tiny Desk Concert at the top of this thread to the Grammy performance is quite something

feel like there's a broader trend happening towards embracing the artifice of performance again (just last night, doechii, sabrina, chappell). people want to be entertained, not just related to

yeah, Sabrina seemed to be going almost for a 70s variety show vibe, down to drinking out of her golden flask at the table.

I can relate to being entertained.

Sabrina seemed to be going almost for a 70s variety show vibe

I didn't see the Grammys performance, but she did a Christmas special for Netflix that was basically an old-fashioned variety show

she seems to be legit committed to heavily incorporating humor into her work/performances, and she showed it again last night.

just wish she would've tap danced a little longer!

this surge of young female pop stars is really feeling like a golden era. they're all variations of really great, interesting, funny, outspoken, talented, etc., etc., etc. it's awesome.

probably goes without saying, but i'm avoiding work.

I increasingly don't get any complaints about "theater kid" performances, especially if the artist is queer. Performing is what we do -- unless we want an authenticity argument again?

My complaint, which I have made multiple times in multiple ways across multiple threads, is the usage of “theater kid” with white performers tends to be complimentary and the usage of “theater kid” with Black performers tends to to be derogatory.

So, I am consciously and intentionally using “theater kid” in a derogatory sense with Roan until we agree it’s a meaningless critical term and we can get people to flesh out what it is they are reacting against.

theater kid, complimentary: Chappell Roan
theater kid, derogatory: Amanda Palmer

ya i have no stake in this, but good or bad, ap is quintessential "theater kid" energy.

Anne Hathaway is the main figure I've heard tagged with this label.

Nearly every actor was a theater kid. Some just hide it better.

So, I am consciously and intentionally using “theater kid” in a derogatory sense with Roan until we agree it’s a meaningless critical term and we can get people to flesh out what it is they are reacting against.

― my favorite herbs are fennel and Drake (DJP)

I agree with you.

Loved Roan's speech last night, good for her. I figured she had to win that category, it's been a while since there was a breakout star like that.

Also agree about Carpenter's humor, she's funny! You can hear that just in the songs, but her whole stage persona is pretty charming. She reminded me of Goldie Hawn, and then I read that part of her performance was a Goldie Hawn tribute: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFnjC_-pwMj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Pfft. This…is something else.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/chappell-roan-grammys-speech-misguided-1236128051/

The author’s career won’t surprise you!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rabhan

Should Chris Blackwell put a mint on her pillow and tuck her in at night, too?

Wow. What a dick.

not important in context, but chris blackwell hasn't been the island records ceo in years, if not a decade

lol, some chappell fans have had fun editing his wikipedia recently

Following Chappell Roan’s searing indictment of the music industry during her acceptance speech at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on February 2, 2025, music executive Jeff Rabhan rushed to the defense of record labels with a tone-deaf and widely condemned op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter. In a desperate attempt to justify the exploitative business model that has drained artists of their earnings for decades, Rabhan shamelessly dismissed Roan’s concerns about fair wages and healthcare, insisting that labels have “no obligation” to ensure the financial well-being of the artists they profit from.

Rabhan, a relic of an industry built on taking advantage of young talent, peddled the tired narrative that artists should simply be grateful for any opportunity to work under a system that routinely underpays and discards them. His remarks were met with immediate outrage, as musicians and industry professionals called out his blatant disregard for the well-being of those who actually create the music that fuels his paycheck. Critics were quick to highlight Rabhan’s own cushy career—one built on exploiting artists—making his defense of corporate greed all the more revolting.

The response to Rabhan’s op-ed was swift and unforgiving. Artists, fans, and industry insiders tore apart his argument, labeling him as nothing more than a mouthpiece for record executives desperate to maintain their stranglehold on the industry. His name trended for all the wrong reasons, as many called for a complete overhaul of the label system he so fervently defends.

Roan, though she didn’t address Rabhan directly, didn’t need to—her speech had already ignited a larger conversation, one that made it clear that the days of unchecked label exploitation are numbered. Rabhan’s feeble attempt to silence that conversation only confirmed what many have long suspected: the industry’s gatekeepers are more terrified than ever of artists demanding what they deserve.

superb

her speech was... um... fanciful on merit but you have to be a massive dickhead to condemn her for that instead of seeing it as the public surfacing of a conversation that needs to be had at a much more visible level

his argument that artists should pool their advance money to support each other is so evil, what a poisonous person

lots of social media backlash because apparently her team asked a nail tech to do stuff for free with 'exposure' being her payment and she accused CR of hypocrisy. I do have to agree there that it's a bad look, as much as I like CR.

For real, pay your people for god's sake. Her nails are a big part of her public presentation, she oughta be paying top dollar for them.

Hypocrisy is my kink

obviously the federal government should be providing health care not employers

she said "emerging" artists on the grammys, right? maybe i'm wrong. that's what i remember. she didn't say that everybody signed to a label should get healthcare. though that would be nice. she was obviously thinking of those long ago days at the donut shop. anyway, that seems to have been lost on the doofus who wrote for the throbbing industry organ of journalistic excellence that is the hollywood reporter. when i was watching CR on the grammys it did make me feel like labels are stupid to not have more short-term deals with artists that were actually, you know, more attractive to artists/writers and their more immediate needs? not some horrific development deal where they own your soul and the future souls of your future family, but, hey, a salary and benefits for a year or two might look pretty good to a struggling artist and then if the label likes what you are doing you can take it from there and sign your soul away properly for big bucks. i dunno. there must be some labels that aren't evil. maybe. but i also think there should be some 21st century version of United Artists online where artists don't even have to deal with these outdated skeevy music biz jackalopes. something more than bandcamp. though if an artist can do it on their own that is always the best way.

Huh, just catching up on this.

Step one regarding “holding labels accountable” is complete divestment from Spotify; it’s the labels that have allowed Ek to create this hellscape. If labels aren’t willing to do this, they collectively remain a parasitic force on the creative community; not sure why anyone would expect health and dental from them

otm

Was thinking of this chart from last year and how it'll need a new point as very-late adapters adapt after this weekend's combo of Elton & Chappell duet-ing last night and Rick Astley covering the song on TikTok and (for the late-late adapters) Facebook.

similar to when this was happening with “espresso,” i think when a song/artist experiences a lot of growth in a short amount of time, spotify is set up to assume this will be of interest to most of their users and therefore it gets recommended liberally https://t.co/76GxtcpWo0 pic.twitter.com/qyRApPrukf

— jaime brooks ☭ (@elite_gz) June 7, 2024

snl shania song is finally out and is called “the giver”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbHFi68E78k

disappointingly it doesn't include the spoken word "only a woman knows how to treat a woman right" bit

I went to school in podunk East Texas when Shania Twain and Billy Ray were hitting it big. It was the worst thing to my ears. "The Chattahoochee." I have no affection for this sound at all but Chappell does a good job of it, turning it into Shania drag. An album where she tries on different styles could be fun, but I would be skeptical of a full-on country thing.

I love Beyonce but still haven't heard much of Cowboy Carter. Garth Brooks makes me want to chew rocks, I just can't do it.

On first listen, something about the layers of vocals in the chorus keep it from having quite the same singalong/belting quality of her other big songs.

when i was watching CR on the grammys it did make me feel like labels are stupid to not have more short-term deals with artists that were actually, you know, more attractive to artists/writers and their more immediate needs? not some horrific development deal where they own your soul and the future souls of your future family, but, hey, a salary and benefits for a year or two might look pretty good to a struggling artist and then if the label likes what you are doing you can take it from there and sign your soul away properly for big bucks. i dunno.

co-signing this excellent scott seward post a month later. do it, music industry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ARhsXF9eWQ

I thought this was a new song but it has actually been floating around for a bit. The news is it will get a video tomorrow.

it's a new song but she's been playing it live for a while

Start of it reminds me of Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. But luckily that doesn't continue.

It has a late period Cocteau Twins feel (circa FCC). Not the monster hit that « GL,B! » was but I like it

yeah lovely fake cocteaus song

This is such a big improvement over The Giver. It wouldn't be out of place on the first Hatchie album.

Beautiful song, thanks for the info ufo. Here is that video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLfAvD5iXI

I feel like this belongs firmly in that Cocteaus-meets-Smiths gauzy jangle-pop lineage of The Sundays (esp. the “Wild Horses” cover), parts of the first Cranberries album, “Kiss Me”, Natalie Imbruglia’s “Wrong Impression” and Taylor’s “August” (and yes Hatchie but only specific moments).

I love that lineage so this works for me

Yup, very good stuff in that vein.

i love this song. she's been playing it for a year? i had an early live version for a chappell party last summer. it blew me away but i'm not sure anyone really recognized it haha. that outro is gorgeous - abba baby. the polished up version isn't that much different thankfully. video looks like a marvel movie or something, all that drama works well for her of course.

fuck this city, i'm moving to saskatchewan 🤠

she's been playing it for a year?

almost two years i think!

not to be that guy or anything. i just remember enthusing about it to crickets lol.

The Subway really popped tonight at the Øya festival, first live since release. Tbf all her songs basically pop as a greatest hit kind of show even though it's just one album.