Chappell Roan is heading our way. Are we ready?
Chappell Roan is heading our way. Are we ready?
Twelve months ago, she was a camp counsellor. Now she's the world's biggest festival drawcard - and she's due here soon.
“Look at the crowd forming behind us,” say the hosts. Their eyes widen as the camera swoops across tens of thousands of people spread across the San Francisco site. Fans wearing pink hats and feather boas stare at the stage in anticipation. They clutch phones and signs, one of which reads: “We bone to Chappell Roan.”
As the Outside Lands festival livestream continues, the hosts attempt to explain what’s happening. “We know she’s been breaking festival records,” they say. “We might be in line to break another one.” They know what everyone at home is thinking. “We know you don’t want to see us … you want to see her.”
Then, as it has been for the best part of six months, and as it will be for a good long while to come, it was Chappell Roan time.
Booked to play on a Sunday afternoon, traditionally the quietest moment of a three-day festival, it was clear Outside Lands’ bookers had completely misread the growing momentum behind the 26-year-old Missouri singer.
They’d booked The Killers, Post Malone and Sabrina Carpenter as headliners, but everyone was there for this moment, to see Chappell Roan with their own eyes, to join the groundswell movement behind her, to wave their homemade signs while witnessing a phenomenon play out in real time.
Roan’s performance at Outside Lands, which was available to livestream via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel, isn’t a one-off.
Meteoric is the only way to describe her rapid ascent over the past few months. From Bonnaroo to Hinterland, from Governors Ball to Boston Calling, she has consistently drawn some of the biggest crowds these festivals have experienced.
At Lollapalooza just a few weeks ago, organisers were forced to issue a statement. “Chappell’s performance was the biggest daytime set we’ve ever seen,” a spokesperson told CNN. “It was a magical moment added to Lolla’s DNA.”
Yes, it’s been a resurgent year for female pop stars, with Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and Tinashe all having their moment. As The Spinoff put it, “Horny and hypermelodic pop stars are suddenly back”. Or, as NBC News put it, “Chappell Roan's success marks the rise of the ‘middle class’' pop star.”
But Roan’s rise is dizzying, faster than anything in recent memory. I have to cast my mind back all the way back to 2018, when Lil Nas X went viral with his country hip-hop hit ‘Old Town Road,’ to find a comparison.
But this feels bigger, more organic, and longer-lasting. Perhaps that’s because fans aren’t just jumping on the rollercoaster with her, they’re helping to push it as fast as it can go. “This is a religious experience,” one told Amazon Music before her set.
Things have happened incredibly quickly. Just a year ago, Roan had been dropped by her label and was working as a camp counsellor. Then, one song after another went viral on TikTok, her streaming numbers began rising, momentum grew, and suddenly her festival performances became must-see events. (There’s more detail about her rapid rise in this piece from The Guardian, which says she perfectly straddles the divide between Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and a Broadway show.)
It’s happened so fast even Roan’s admitted she’s not sure she can cope with it. “I just feel a little off today ’cause I think that my career’s just kind of gone really fast and it’s really hard to keep up,” she told fans in Raleigh in June.
Next up, it’s our turn.
On a recent livestream, Roan revealed she would be visiting New Zealand “next February”. That could mean she’s headlining Electric Avenue, which recently expanded to cover two days and will need a star capable of pulling in 60,000 people, or it could mean she’s on top of the Laneway bill, which may or may not have already locked in Charli XCX.
A festival seems like the best place to experience Roan’s brand of campy pop. After sitting through yesterday’s vibrant, joyous, exuberant livestream, then turning the TV off and seeing rain hit the deck outside, I honestly can’t wait for a summer festival season that has Roan sitting there like a giant exclamation point at the end of a sentence.
See you there. I’ll be wearing my fake Gucci sweater.
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Everything you need to know.
Australia’s music festival scene is nose-diving. Harvest Rock has joined Spilt Milk, Groovin the Moo, Falls Festival and Splendour in the Grass in cancelling this year’s event. “This decision was made to ensure that Harvest Rock continues to deliver the experience that our local, national and international fans have come to know and love into the future,” organisers say. Meanwhile, Ministry of Sound Australia CEO Tim McGee has addressed this issue; he believes kids don’t want to camp for three days anymore. “A large portion of the crowd are not interested in being fed 40 things at once,” he says.
When Phoenix were asked to perform at the Paris Olympics, it was supposed to be at the opening ceremony, but bees thwarted their performance. So, instead, they were asked to perform at the closing ceremony. They were told: “This is a party for the athletes. This is their prom. The athletes are going to be wild and possibly drunk.” Vulture has a great interview with front man Thomas Mars.
Ever wonder what a two-day Donald Trump music festival headlined by Kid Rock is like? “The shows felt like Trump rallies without the former president, unburdened by policy talk, speeches from lesser-known G.O.P. players, and the buzz-kill tendencies of Mr Trump himself,” writes Richard Fausset for The New York Times ($$). “What remained was a … dizzying mash-up of hedonism and piety, angry rebellion and beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness.”
Jack Black is backtracking on his decision to cancel his joke-rock band Tenacious D. To spur your memory, Black cancelled the band’s Australian and New Zealand tour after band mate Kyle Glass said five words about Donald Trump’s near-miss. “Everybody takes a break sometimes,” he said at the debut of Borderlands, his new movie that has flopped with critics. “We’ll be back.”
Also cancelled is 30 Seconds to Mars’ Auckland show at Spark Arena. Ticketmaster blames “logistical considerations,” NZ Herald reports. Did Jared Leto want jet packs and flying elephants? Full refunds are being offered.
What is ‘brat green’? It turns out the simple colour scheme that adorns Charli XCX’s hit album brat took five months and 500 iterations to create. “Charli had comped up what she wanted and was like, ‘This is what I think it should be.’ Truthfully, as a designer, I was a little bit like: OK?” Brent David Freaney tells The New York Times ($$). “The challenge became – how do I take this thing and make it something that is special?”
My favourite local interview series is The Mixtape on RNZ, an hour of cosy music chat with familiar faces picking five songs and talking them through with Charlotte Ryan. It’s a great way to expose yourself to music you may have never heard: case in point, Ant Timpson, the local movie mogul and Bookworm director who picked influences from some of the movies he’s made. You can listen to it here. (Please, if anyone’s reading this, pick me! It’ll be a good one, I promise!)
Finally, JPEGMAFIA’s new album, I Lay Down My Life For You, contains the best production I’ve heard in a long time. It embraces hardcore metal one minute, bruising neck-snapping raps the next, then chucks Succession quotes into the mix, almost daring you to try and keep up. It twists my brain into weird and warped shapes, but then comes ‘either on or off the drugs,’ the album’s ‘Bound 2’ moment, a glorious, graceful, soul-laced ballad, a place to find your feet in amongst the unsteady chaos. I dig it a lot.
Oh god I don’t want to go to a festival lol ffs
Chris you had me googling!! Damn, don't jumpscare the girlies lilke that...