Chappell Roan Rules

Art as commodity and the valuing of ownership.

Chappel Roan Performing at Lollapalooza 2024

Chappell Roan rules. Like so many others, I became obsessed with pop music’s newest it girl during her meteoric rise this past summer. For those of you not in the know, Chappell Roan exploded in popularity after ten years of struggling in the industry. After signing to a label at 17 and eventually being dropped during the pandemic, Roan went from scraping by as a barista to breaking the attendance record at Lollapalooza. Her sound is reminiscent of the queens of the new wave, evoking Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. Her songs are dancy and synthy, blending the 80s with contemporary queer and online dating culture. Her throwback sound sent me into a months-long synth pop deep dive. I listened to over 50 albums from the experimental origins of the new wave in Germany and Japan to more recent electrono-pop darlings like MGMT and Magdalena Bay. I could write an entire post about my favorite synthpop albums and artists (and I just might), and I could also write about how I think Chappell Roan exemplifies the best qualities of those artists, but Roan doesn’t rule for her music alone, but also for how she advocates for herself in the music industry.

The 26-year-old singer-songwriter has shown no reluctance to speak her mind, resulting in several instances of public backlash. One of the more prominent examples of this came after she spoke online about her discomfort with many fans’ treatment and perceived entitlement over her. In two videos posted to Tik-Tok Chappell said, “If you saw a random woman on the street, would you scream and yell at her out of the car window? Would you harass her in public… Would you be offended if she said no to your time because she has her own time? No that’s weird.” After establishing these boundaries, the singer faced a wealth of criticism from fans online claiming this is simply what comes with fame, and if she can’t handle it, she doesn’t deserve the adoration. In contrast, many long-revered and respected women in the music industry have expressed support for Chappel Roan. Singers like Miley Cyrus, Haley Williams of Paramore, and Lady Gaga have commended Chappel Roan for setting boundaries and advocating for herself. Roan’s comments, and the support from her peers in the industry, shine a light on an issue that has been unaddressed and excused as the norm for decades. The cult of celebrity worship has existed for ages and has only been exacerbated by our current digital age. Now with social media, fans have a direct line of communication with their favorite artists, leading to countless instances of bullying and harassment. It has been so rampant and so taken for granted that Chappell Roan’s self-advocacy has been perceived as a shock; an unwelcome disruption to the status quo from an ungrateful idol. Just as important as it is for someone of her status to call it out, it is equally important for us to analyze why this culture of celebrity worship and entitlement has manifested.

Under the current framework of the economy, we place tremendous value on ownership. Our possessions and private property are synonymous with our value, as perceived by ourselves and by others. The validity of your association with any given item or property is dependent on your ownership over it. Even your ideas, your intellectual property, are not legally yours if there is no official certification of ownership. As a result of this, valuing ownership has disseminated into many aspects of our culture. The language and attitudes surrounding romantic relationships are dominated by ownership. Possessiveness is ubiquitous in dating and marital relationships. Many men and women feel entitled to control how their partners behave or present themselves. This is no wonder, as we should recall that within the last 200 years, wives were regarded as their husband’s property. Additionally, parents exercise control over their children based on perceived ownership, and under the law, children are not regarded as autonomous individuals and more akin to property. This ideology extends to our interests and the things we feel constitute our identity. People gatekeep and proclaim ownership over their interests, their hobbies, and even their favorite artists. Which leads us back to Chappel Roan.

Under capitalism, where everything is assigned a monetary value, music and musicians are rendered commodities. The image, the brand, the very idea of Chappell Roan is something that is bought and sold, not just by labels, streaming platforms, and record executives, but by all of us listeners. Over the years, many artists have struggled with their commodification at the hands of the music industry. Perhaps most famously, the late pop legend Prince underwent a public name change to a symbol in protest of the music industry’s rapacious conduct. Roan has spoken on the industry’s predatory history, saying in one podcast appearance “You really flourish if you don’t protect yourself…We’ve all seen it.” After which she states: “It is at the end of the day just a job.” In saying this, Roan rejects the notion that she is herself a commodity, or should I say Kayleigh Rose Amstutz does. Kayleigh is the woman behind the Chappel Roan stage name. In many interviews, she has discussed the importance of drag in her work. Drag’s influence is most evident in her lyrics and loud campy wardrobe, but the most important element of drag for Roan is the separation of her identity from her art. In that same interview where she discussed protecting herself, Roan stated “[I]t’s been very freeing to be like, oh, Chappell Roan is my drag project, and I think that has also helped personally to separate it as like a job and a project.”

Chappell Roan with Sasha Colby, winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season 15

Recognizing the way artists are exploited and commodified, she creates a conscious separation between her and her music brand. This is very novel for a woman in pop stardom, where the norm has been to commodify and exploit the personal life and identity of the artist. Just take Taylor Swift, who built her brand on various public romances. Because treating artists as products has been the status quo, the resultant entitlement and sense of ownership fans have over these artists has been inevitable. Hopefully, Chappell Roan represents a 21st-century new wave, one where the rules of engagement demand that artists be separated from the commodities they produce, and in turn, fans can recognize and respect the humanity of their favorite performers.

So long as we live in a money-based society, where commodity value supersedes all other kinds, art, and by extension artists, will always be treated as property. Under this model, the distribution of art amongst a population will always be transactional, and the buyer will always feel a sense of ownership. This process removes humanity from the art, something antithetical to that art's very existence. We fall in love with musicians based on their relatability. We identify with the truth latent in the expression of their lived experience. We shouldn't be forced to separate an artist from their art, but if we insist on commodifying art, it will continue to be paramount that artists and fans do. With this separation, we can preserve the purity of the art as it exists in isolation, as well as respect those who produce and share it. Which is, at the end of the day, all Chappell Roan is asking for.