I'm Obsessed With Chappell Roan and You Should Be Too

Here's why.

If you’ve been on social media in the last week or so, the chance that you’ve seen some variation of the above picture has to be close to 95%. This is in fact not the Statue of Liberty, but actually something much better. This is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, a Missouri-born pop phenomenon who makes excellent pop music under the stage name Chappell Roan. She will be a household name in two months time and here’s why.

With the exception of The Weeknd and Billie Eilish, the pop mainstays have really been on auto-pilot for the last several years. Every year or so, Drake will put out a 28-song album of recycled flows. Post Malone is always around to hold a number one spot for way too long. Taylor Swift is around to drop yet another re-recording of an album from 2011 and god forbid, even worse new material. Yawn. Particularly when it comes to Taylor, I think her bubble is getting ready to pop, and I’m all for it. To me, it’s exciting because with her repetitive schtick out of the way, we’ll get younger and more interesting voices inhabiting the space. At the moment, that choice looks something like this.

By this, I mean we are being presented with three unique but strong choices for the new pop star we want to see evolve into the next big thing. Olivia Rodrigo (Bulbasaur), Sabrina Carpenter (Squirtle) and of course, Chappell Roan (Charmander). I always used to pick Charmander, but I knew some people that were Squirtle or Bulbasaur stans. As a critic who only thinks there’s one right choice, my analogy looks something like this, with Chappell being the clear winner a.k.a. Alvin. I digress.

There are people who think peak pop was ‘90s grunges or pop-punk, and I’m sure they’ll go to Olivia Rodrigo as their queen. A similar crowd of Sabrina Carpenter fans would prefer something like a continuation of Doja Cat’s old sound and Taylor Swift’s more every girl appeal. Like Bjork did in her beginning stages, all three of these girls are able to seamlessly blend their influences with punchy, modern production to create something that could only drop now. I just happen to think that the ‘80s continues to be the real MVP in terms of longstanding influence on popular culture, so Chappell is it for me. I hear the music of Prince, Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna as well as modern icons like Lady Gaga in the DNA of her sound. Her act is such a well executed and respectful homage to a timeless sound, and I think her next album will be a classic. And like Prince and Sheena Easton sang on “U Got The Look”, “U got the look”. She has the look.

Her debut album functions as a collection of hits, and that’s because it is. Whether out of necessity or just understanding how singles are king in the modern streaming economy, 9 out of 14 tracks on the record were released from 2020-2023. During the process of scraping recording the material that would later become The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Roan was a nanny, drive-thru worker, and a barista, all because the singles were not very profitable for her label Atlantic, who dropped her. After its insane success, she signed with their rival, Universal Music Group. Gotta be one of the bigger fumbles in modern music history.

The record, despite its quirks, is a really cohesive and colorful crop of songs that I can’t get enough of. Here she really proves that she can do slow ballads (“Picture You”, “Coffee”), targeted viral anthems (“HOT TO GO!”) and classic pop bangers (“Red Wine Supernova”). The chorus on that last one is out of this world. Aside from the piano and acoustic guitar driven ones, all of them utilize bass, synths and ‘80s inspired percussion to great effect. The songs are danceable, but packed full of lyrical detail and personality, as on “My Kink is Karma”. I see this song as her doing Midnights by Taylor Swift but with catchy refrains and impassioned vocals. The song itself is about how she gets off on watching her ex fucking up, which I think we can all toxically relate to it. Elsewhere, we get what I see as an ode to queerness and being yourself on “Pink Pony Club”, perfect for Pride. She is just running on all cylinders here, appealing to lots of different audiences without having to pander. Shoutout to her co-writer and producer Daniel Nigro for really making this work as well.

This brings me to my strongest piece of evidence as to why you should also listen to her more, despite how popular she already is. It’s also going to take something I’m really bad at doing myself, and that is getting over yourself. Yes, her newest release “Good Luck, Babe!” is a viral TikTok soundbite that you probably hear all the time regardless if you’re trying to or not. All I’m saying is, actually listen to the track out of the context of the 15-second clips. It’s a fucking pop masterpiece.

Here, she equally channels Kate Bush and Angel Olsen to great effect. The beat and vocals both have this over-the-top style, interweaving her strange tone with strings and pummeling drums. She wisely ignores the shortened trend of many newer songs, fully implementing two verses, a bridge and three increasingly explosive choruses to really drive the point home. Like “My Kink is Karma”, it is another deceptively upbeat track about dunking on your ex, but to me it’s even more effective. She does away with the girlie pop ad-libs and immaturity of the debut and the entire thing just feels like it would be good in any era because of it. The chorus, “Good luck babe / You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling” is powerful and will get stuck in your head where the fuck it belongs. It's as perfect as pop gets in my opinion, I envy anyone who hasn’t even heard it once. I’d pay $50 to hear it again for the first time. To me, it’s a concise introduction to her sound, opening up what I think is a very exciting world that you will rightfully get immersed in.

That’s my spiel. You don’t have to love her or her awesome music but I’m just here to say Chappell Roan gets the ANTIART seal of approval. She is one of the most versatile and high-potential talents in modern music period. This is how I felt about PinkPanthress after I first heard “Pain”, and this is what I’m saying now. Have a pleasant day and tell your friends to subscribe, or you’re gay. Happy Pride :)