“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”

In a sea of polished, media-trained pop stars, Chappell Roan’s raw, unfiltered approach wins her fans — and haters.

By: Charlie Hoang and Aashi Mehrotra

[Kirt Barnett/Polyester]

Self-coined “your favorite artist’s favorite artist,” Chappell Roan is breaking pop clichés with her genre-bending style, and unapologetic persona. Winning MTV VMA’s Best New Artist for 2024, Roan has been rapidly gaining recognition after almost 10 years in the music industry. With VMA nominations for Song of the Summer and Best Trending Video, the number one spot on the Billboard 100, and the “biggest daytime set” in history at Lollapalooza under her belt, it’s no surprise that Roan’s support and influence go far. Her glittering vocals and authentic campy lyrics have resonated deeply within the queer community and beyond. Camp is an aesthetic that refers to over-the-top garb and getup, and a theatrical and amusing style. It has long since held a place in pop culture within 80s horror films, Rocky Horror, the rise of drag queens, 80s and 90s rock, and Lady Gaga’s bold style. Typically, it expresses irony by exaggerating certain characteristics, but over the years has become synonymous with LGBTQ+ culture. But Roan’s rise to the top and her struggle to fit celebrity conventions ironically mirrors the phrase that brought her to her newfound fame: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

The Birth of Chappell Roan

Roan has learnt to embrace both the pain and power of reinvention. Raised in a strict Christian household in Missouri, Roan—born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz—spent her formative years where the rules were rigid and the expectations high. Queerness wasn’t an option in the deep Midwest. While her parents were always her biggest fans, the environment she grew up in was neither welcoming nor open-minded and safe for members of the LGBTQ+ community. “I felt so out of place in my hometown,” the singer told Rolling Stones in an article. “I wish it was better. I wish I had better things to say. But mentally, I had a really tough time.” Drawing inspiration from Katy Perry and other pop stars of the 2010s, Roan discovered her love for the arts and singing. She started uploading videos of her singing to YouTube in 2014. She earned recognition from the music industry after releasing an original song titled Die Young in November of that same year.

Roan was signed to Atlantic Records in 2015 when she was 17. The time came for her to invent herself. She chose the name Chappell Roan after her grandfather, Dennis K. Chappell—who played a big role in her childhood and died of brain cancer in 2016—and his favorite song,“The Strawberry Roan” by cowboy Curley Fletcher. At first, she would take flights constantly to L.A. and New York with the help of her supportive parents, but in 2018 she moved to L.A on her own. “I was told this city is demonic and Satanists live here. But when I got to West Hollywood, it opened my eyes [to the fact] that everything I was afraid of wasn’t always true—especially [what I’d been told] about the queer community,” she recounted to NME in an interview. Her religious upbringing, unfortunately, had cemented many prejudiced and hateful assumptions about queer people in her mind that she still works hard to unlearn. In the same Rolling Stones interview, Roan confessed “I was scared of flamboyantly gay people because I was taught that. People hate flamboyantly gay people because it exudes femininity, and people hate women.” Having now come out as a lesbian and embracing her sexuality, Roan has made quite the progress for herself. “It took a lot of unlearning, and there’s still things I’m still confused about, and [it’s] why I feel so uncomfortable being gay sometimes. I don’t get why this is such an issue for me. It shouldn’t be, but something’s just going on and I need to just accept that.”

Initial Failures 

With the backing of a record label, one would assume the road to fame is clear. That assumption is wrong. Roans’s early career was riddled with setbacks. By signing at such a young age, she traded her senior year of high school for the pressures of the music industry. Her first EP, School Nights, released in 2018, featured a dark and angsty collection of teenage anthems that mirrored the styles of Lorde and Lana Del Rey. Though it failed to gain traction, her collaboration with producer Dan Nigro on the singles Pink Pony Club and California in April 2020 hinted at her potential. Pink Pony Club marked the beginning of her journey into making unapologetically queer music, despite her not feeling unapologetically queer yet. It tells the story of moving out of the Midwest and finding herself in LA. With moving lyrics like “Oh mama, I’m just having fun, on the stage in my heels. It’s where I belong, down at the Pink Pony Club,” and “Don’t think I’ve left you all behind. Still love you and Tennessee, you’re always on my mind,” Roan allows herself to embrace both sides of her identity: the girl who grew up in the midwest as a pink pony girl, and the young woman who discovered herself amongst the welcoming clubs of LA.

Sadly, the early days of the pandemic were not suitable for new artists trying to build a fanbase. Just ten days after California was released, Roan’s label dropped her, saying she wasn’t profitable. To add salt to the wound, her partner of 4 and half years broke up with her that same week. Roan, instead, persevered. She even received clarity about her mental health issues by speaking with a therapist about her “inner child.” She recounts, “As time has gone on, I realized that no matter how hard that label experience was for five years, it was the biggest blessing ever. And being independent has taught me I can do it by myself.” 

The Rise of a Midwest Princess

By May 2020, Roan had moved back to her hometown in Missouri. She was forced to work odd jobs as a nanny and a barista to provide for herself. In early 2021, Dan Nigro had his big break working on Driver’s License with Olivia Rodrigo. While Nigro’s attention was understandably pulled toward Rodrigo, Roan wasn’t discouraged; she even opened for a couple of Rodrigo’s SOUR tour dates, a taste of the stage that she hoped to own one day.

When Roan and Nigro finally reconnected, his advice was blunt but necessary: “Get off your a**.” Taking that to heart, she returned with a new sense of purpose. Her first release as an independent artist was Naked in Manhattan. Published mid-February, 2022, it was the first explicitly queer track she released, with moving lyrics such as: “Boys suck and girls I’ve never tried,” and “Could go to hell, but we’ll probably be fine.” Within the song, Roan, for the first time, creates lyrics with a very explicit, sexual component that she continues to use in her later songs. The soft, ethereal pre-chorus whispers “Oh, I’ve never done it, let’s make it cinematic

Like that one sex scene that’s in Mulholland Drive,” while the upbeat, rocky horror-esque chorus yells “touch me, baby (touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me)!” Shortly thereafter, she released empowering singles:  Karma, Femininomenon, and Casual, each playing into her “thrift store pop star” aesthetic.  

By September 2023, Roan’s hard work culminated in the release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Her momentum only grew when she decided to open for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour, from February to April 2024—a full circle moment for her after opening for SOUR 2 years prior. Having now fully embraced her own queer identity and performing in drag queen makeup with DIY outfits, she made waves with her bold and fearless representation of queerness and what a celebrity should be. Drag queens are known for their over the top makeup, wigs and style, but when they take it all off, are regular everyday people. Like a drag queen, Roan performs in elaborate, avant-garde clothes, exaggerated makeup, and her own signature curly red-haired wigs and go-go boots. The stage persona she has cultivated for herself creates an air of confidence that she would neither be able to recreate as a normal person while performing, nor would it fulfill the purpose of empowering the authenticity that initially drew in her fanbase. However, when she takes it all off, she transforms into Kayleigh Rose: a person she would rather keep a stranger from her fans. 

April 2024 brought another defining moment for Roan when she released Good Luck Babe! as a single from her debut album. From that point forward, her steady rise to recognition turned into overnight fame. The song went viral over social media platforms, propelling her into the mainstream spotlight. What appeared to be a sudden success was, in reality, a grueling 10-year journey. Now 26, and 9 years older than the closeted teenager who began in the music industry, Roan’s story is a testament to the saying “it takes 10 years to blow up overnight.”

The Fight for Boundaries

Chappell Roan’s recent rapid growth and success have sparked tremendous hate. Much of Roan’s appeal is attributed to her authenticity and candor in her self-expression. With millions of eyes now on her and scrutinizing her every move, these qualities are easily misconstrued as Roan being rude and ungrateful. As Roan continues standing her ground and speaking out, more are growing agitated. A few months ago, Roan was riding her high. Now, the public is rushing to demolish her empire. 

Five months into Roan’s rise to fame—or one month ago—she received her first large wave of backlash due to her establishment of personal boundaries. On August 19th, Roan posted two TikTok videos expressing her frustration with fans violating her boundaries. 

In the first video, she asks the viewers: “If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from your car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say ‘Can I get a photo with you’ and she’s like, ‘No’ . . . and you get mad at this random lady? Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time?” 

She questions, “Would you stalk her family? Would you follow her around? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online?” 

In the second video, she directly states “I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job… that does not make it okay.”

A few days later on August 23rd, Roan further detailed her frustrations and experience in a lengthy Instagram post. 

In the post, Roan wrote “For the past 10 years I’ve been going non-stop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries. I want to be an artist for a very very long time. I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you shit.” 

She continued, “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.” 

Following these statements, countless fans and outsiders took to social media to express their thoughts. Many of Roan’s fans broke out in support of her, defending her right to boundaries and a private personal life. Others, however, erupted in criticism. The overarching sentiment was that Roan was “not fit to be famous” because she wouldn’t tolerate harassment. Some in this group took particular offense to Roan refusing to take photos with fans, as mentioned in her TikTok on August 19th. They largely failed to acknowledge the intense harassment Roan was facing; this included getting her flight information and her father’s number leaked, being kissed nonconsensually and aggressively by fans, being stalked at the airport, and more. 

Comprehensive opinions regarding Roan’s boundaries include: “Fame comes with sacrifices,” “She is not ready for fame,” “Get used to it,” and as seen above, “Chappell Roan is such a baby.” 

Ultimately, this outrage comes down to entitlement. Not Roan’s entitlement, but the public’s. 

It is entirely perplexing from a rational standpoint that many have decided that there are conditions for accessing the basic human rights of privacy and safety. One would encourage internet dwellers and fanatics to step back and fully grasp the lengths they have stretched to defend the sexual and verbal harassment of a random 26-year-old woman. However famous Roan may be, no argument permits the public to seize her private life. As an artist, her job is to create art and, of her will, share her art with fans. As fans, it is their will to consume the art and enjoy it. That is where the exchange ends. 

Moreover, if the outrage was caused by how Roan delivered her statement, perhaps the baby is not her. Regardless, the truth stands: demanding basic decency will never require delicacy. 

Political Backlash

More recently, Roan has been under fire for her political stances. As the U.S. presidential election approaches, fans have started pressuring pop stars to endorse their preferred candidate. 

Roan, however, refuses to succumb. In an interview with The Guardian, she said she would not endorse any candidate: “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. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote—vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”

Ironically, this quote—in which Roan stresses the importance of critical thinking—was taken entirely out of context, earning her another huge wage of backlash. Her comment, “There’s problems on both sides,” enraged many fans and liberals. Many concurred that Roan was a “privileged centrist,” invalidating her queerness, and claiming she was profiting off of gay culture because she equivocated the notoriously homophobic Republican party to the Democrats. Some went as far as to say that Roan was a Donald Trump supporter because she did not explicitly state who she was voting for, despite every pre-established political stance of Roan’s conflicting with the former president’s. 

Evidently, this group skipped over Roan’s emphasis on critical thinking, as anyone who possesses the skill could easily comprehend that Roan was simply encouraging her audience to research the presidential and local candidates and not just rely on influential figures to think for them. It is obvious that a statement from Roan, who has already shared her strong, left-aligning views on multiple occasions, would never lean towards permitting or voting for Republican candidates, much less Trump. 

In response to this backlash, Roan further clarified her views in a TikTok, stating “If you come to my shows, if you read my full interviews, if you literally know anything about me and for what I stand for . . . Actions speak louder than words, and actions speak louder than an endorsement. ” She continued, “So, hearing from my mouth if you’re still wondering – no, I’m not voting for Trump, and yes, I will always question those in power and those making decisions over other people, and I will stand up for what’s right and what I believe in . . . F**k Trump, for f**king real . . . I’m voting for f**king Kamala, but I’m not settling for what has been offered, because that’s questionable.” 

She clarified why she refuses to endorse the democratic party’s candidate Kamala Harris: “There is no way I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views…This is not me playing both sides. This is me questioning both sides because this is what we have in front of us.”

Essentially, Roan stated that she was voting for the lesser of two evils—a move not unheard of in a two-party democratic system—but still questioning both authorities and their substantial flaws. Specifically, Roan criticizes the democratic party’s retracting support of transgender rights and absence in advocating for Palestinian victims. It is rather jarring to witness this concerningly large group crucify Roan for simply acknowledging the flaws of the party and encouraging others to do the same for both parties. 

It is understandable that fans want more influential figures to encourage others to vote for their preferred candidate. However, this extreme devotion to party candidates—allowing no room for criticism—is plainly ignorant and dangerous thinking. Roan shining light on this is essential, and the outrage proves that this is necessary. It is imperative to criticize complacency and encourage nuance in politics; Roan’s endorsement of critical thinking is far more valuable than any perfunctory endorsement of a presidential candidate. 

Chappell Roan’s “fall” has been portrayed by the public as carelessly self-imposed, despite the attempts of many to deliberately villainize her for merely defending herself. This is not a reflection of Roan; it is a reflection of entitlement in fan culture and political ignorance. Perhaps this perceived fall of Chappell Roan is a breakthrough in the fall of media illiteracy and widely accepted parasocial norms. 

Whatever the reason for Roan’s supposed fall, it stands as proof that toxic fan culture is indeed casual now, as fans make a new excuse and another stupid reason to cancel her. The only bit of advice we can offer is: “Good Luck, Babe!” 

Bibliography:

Ahlgrim, Callie. “Chappell Roan Controversy: PR Experts on How She Can Protect Mental Health.” Business Insider, Insider, 4 Oct. 2024, www.businessinsider.com/chappell-roan-controversy-explained-pr-experts-respond-2024-10. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

D’Souza, Shaad. “Chappell Roan, Pop’s next Big Thing: “I Grew up Thinking Being Gay Was a Sin.”” The Guardian, 29 Dec. 2023, www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/29/chappell-roan-pops-next-big-thing-i-grew-up-thinking-being-gay-was-a-sin.

Grady, Constance. “Chappell Roan Spent 7 Years Becoming an Overnight Success.” Vox, 2 July 2024, www.vox.com/culture/358464/chappell-roan-rise-and-fall.

Hoskin, Olivia. “How Chappell Roan Became 2024’S Breakthrough Artist.” Forbes, 16 Sept. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/oliviahoskin/2024/09/13/how-chappell-roan-became-2024s-breakthrough-artist/#. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Levine, Nick. “Chappell Roan: The Pop Supernova Who Feels like One of the “Drag Race” Girls | the Cover | NME.com.” Nme.com, 5 Feb. 2024, www.nme.com/the-cover/chappell-roan-05-02-2024-3582467. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Roan, Chappell. “･ﾟ: *✧ Chappell Roan ✧*:･ﾟ on Instagram: “I Turned off Comments Because I’m Not Looking for Anyone’s Response…”” Instagram, 2020, www.instagram.com/p/C_CGxsrP4Bc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Spanos, Brittany. “Chappell Roan Is the Independent “Thrift Store Pop Star” Ready to Take over the World.” Rolling Stone, 27 Oct. 2022, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/chappell-roan-casual-release-1234618237/.

“Chappell Roan Reveals Which Famous Pop Stars Have Reached Out Amid Scary Fan Incidents, Addresses Her Comments About Boundaries.” Just Jared, 10 September 2024, https://www.justjared.com/2024/09/10/chappell-roan-reveals-why-sabrina-carpenter-asked-to-meet-addresses-industry-plant-allegations-turning-down-white-house-invite-comments-on-fan-boundaries/3/. Accessed 7 October 2024.

Di Placido, Dani. “Chappell Roan’s Endorsement Controversy, Explained.” Forbes, 27 September 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/09/26/chappell-roan-is-fighting-a-losing-battle-with-her-fans/. Accessed 7 October 2024.

Kreps, Daniel. “Chappell Roan Sets Boundary Between Public and Private Personas in Forceful Statement.” Rolling Stone, 24 August 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/chappell-roan-boundary-fans-statement-1235087528/. Accessed 7 October 2024.

“Pop star Chappell Roan says she’ll vote for Harris after previously waffling on 2024 election choice.” CNN, 25 September 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/25/politics/chappell-roan-kamala-harris/index.html. Accessed 7 October 2024.