Up-and-coming popstar, Chappell Roan, depicts the inspiration by drag queens on her debut album cover. Photo by People Mag/Ryan Clemens.
With the hype around Coachella, it only makes sense for pop stars in the making to gain a spot under the headliners. One of these stars is Chappell Roan, who has been gaining quite an attraction on social media. Roan, born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, released her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” on Sept. 22, 2023. Roan is inspired by 80s synth pop and 2000s pop, along with the culture of drag performance.
Roan started her music journey with her EP, “School Nights,” in 2017, but it didn’t gain the amount of traction her debut surpassed, with several of the tracks gaining over 10M streams on Spotify alone. In an Instagram post, Roan states this album is dedicated to “the 10-year-old girl from the Midwest who never thought she could be herself. The girl who felt shame from the day she turned 13 for having a deeper love for her girl best friend that was unlike anything she felt for boys.”
The album dropped on Sept. 22, 2023, which was also the 7th anniversary of Roan’s grandfather’s passing, according to the same post. Roan’s stage name comes from the name of her grandfather, Chappell. Roan is continuing her career with being an opener for Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS” World Tour and just recently released a new single, “Good Luck, Babe!,” entering a new chapter of her persona.
The album houses 14 songs with no deluxe currently. It opens with the track “Femininomenon,” which has had its fair rounds on social media like TikTok, due to Roan’s signature look. The album delivers a fun, campy take on the feelings of classic life-is-a-movie trope. She explores several themes within the tracks, with sexually explicit yet vulnerable bars sung in “Casual” and villain-era type lyrics within “My Kink is Karma” and “Red Wine Supernova.” From everything to the lyrics to the album cover, Roan takes clear inspiration from the drag scene and queer culture. She’s implemented several experiences of her relationship with her queerness within tracks like “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” and “Naked in Manhattan.”
With the clear innovation taken from drag, it only makes sense for this album to entice me. Several of the fun songs within the album are my favorite, such as the two just mentioned, along with “HOT TO GO!” I have found quite the infatuation with the track “Casual” as it shows a more emotional, vulnerable side to Roan and her experience with situationships, which I’m sure many of us can relate to.
Overall, this album is one of my favorites at the moment with several of the tracks being my go-to songs. With a pop star like her going viral, many queer individuals (including myself) look forward to what she has coming next.
