“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” came out in 2023, but for most it wasn’t until summer 2024 that they really found the album. Most immediately fell in love with Chappell Roan’s music and demeanor, some saying her album was the hit of the summer, and others saying her lyrics were creating the songs of the year. People love her uniqueness and realness, finding her relatable. This illusion of realness was broken though when Chappell Roan voiced her grievances with all the people harassing her. Now that her realness was too real, it cracked peoples’ perceptions of her. She was no longer relatable in a cutesy, fun way, but in an actual real way. She had done what other celebrities only break the surface of. Lady Gaga wrote the song “Paparazzi” about how the media essentially kills celebrities by turning them into a product for the world’s enjoyment, and now Chappell Roan has done the same, but not put it in a pretty package of a poetic song. After Chappell Roan voiced her opinions on this stalking, the internet decided to do what they do best: make fun of her through TikToks and memes. After seeing this, Chappell put out more statements, and finally people were coming to her aid. Even celebrities or friends of celebrities started coming forward and sharing their horror stories of how fans have treated them or their friends.
The hate of Chappell Roan seemed to be dying out, but then the VMAs came around and Chappell Roan decided to cancel her planned shows to perform at the VMAs instead. This decision was great for her career, but not great for keeping her fans’ allegiance. Many who were supposed to go to her shows during the VMAs were livid, but how was Chappell supposed to know she would gain popularity a year ago when she planned these tour dates?
With this underlying hate bubbling in the music community about Chappell it felt like any day now she was going to become the new woman to hate. Just as many predicted that prophecy came true. An article came out letting the whole world know Chappell Roan wasn’t going to endorse Kamala Harris for President, leading to a huge amount of backlash from fans. Ones who cheered at her declaration during NYC Pride about not performing at The White House because she wanted “liberty, justice and freedom for all” were now hating her. When she stated this everyone loved her, but when she brought these same grievances up about the U.S. Government when talking about how she was not endorsing Kamala Harris for President now the internet was angered. This could have something to do with the fact that Taylor Swift just endorsed Harris weeks prior, but I think that this sudden hate of Chappell Roan has to do with one thing in particular. Chappell Roan, as much as audiences love her real persona, has a PR problem. Chappell Roan shouldn’t be able to pick up her phone and film a quick video without her management team backing it up, but for some reason she is able to. This lack of PR training is causing what she wants to say to be misconstrued and used in clickbait articles rapidly. Now, was everything she said perfect? No, but the idea behind having our celebrities be like gods that tell us who to vote for is a heated thing to do, and secondly, she is valid in saying that both sides of our two-party system have some problems. Chappell Roan’s problem with this whole situation is her lack of a good PR team, but this takes us back to the notion of everyone loving Chappell Roan for being real. In this case, without her PR team, she is being too real, and the public does not enjoy that.
