From trans rights to Palestine Chappell Roan has used her platform to say fuck the duopoly and demand more. Failing to see how genocide isn’t a red line for American liberals she offered a bold indictment of the liberal band-wagon ridiculing anyone who mentions Palestine. Alexandra Day explore this saga and the liberal outrage that has come from her simply expressing a principled outlook on the world.
Why do we keep turning to the icons of pop music for the lead on our politics? It seems that, barring a few special cases, audiences are inevitably let down by the artists they love – see Radiohead’s refusal to support the BDS movement against Israel. Is it simply because of the platform they have, and our desire to see that platform used for the advancement of progressive causes? Or is it because, in the twenty-first century we are still seeking a soundtrack for the next great wave of struggle against the system?
Commodifying Art
In the middle of the last century critical theorist, and part-time composer, Theodore Adorno roundly criticised pop music for ‘standardising’ the musical form, thus making it an easier commodity to distribute. Adorno also argued that pop (and jazz) operated as the cultural arm of capitalism, mollifying the masses, and dimming their spirit of resistance and criticism. All Adorno heard in the rhythm of the popular music of his time was alienation.
Looking at the musical landscape of today, some might agree. The absence of broadly popular protest music in a time so dominated by war and inequality is striking. Even music seems to fail against the daily reality of a live-streamed genocide and the mounting destruction of the planet.
However, what Adorno did not consider was how even the most popular of pop music can be interpreted by the listener in ways far beyond what the artist intended. We still turn to musicians not only for respite from the realities of life under capitalism, but for an expression of feeling that transcends these realities.
Roan’s Pop
Chappell Roan’s music evokes intense feelings in her audiences. Roan’s music is firmly in the camp of pop, though her lyrics and live performances refer to drag culture, Joan of Arc, lucha libre, and her background in the blue-collar Midwest. Roan’s music has a special appeal to her queer community, and her global tour was notable for its ongoing inclusion of local drag artists as opening acts.
At a show in June, while dressed as the Statue of Liberty smoking a joint, Roan stated the following: “I am in drag as the biggest queen of all, but in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.’ That means freedom and trans rights. That means freedom and women’s rights. And it especially means freedom for all oppressed people in occupied territories”.
Originally hailing from Missouri, Roan has taken the world by storm in the past year. Since releasing her debut album, ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’, she has become “your favourite artist’s favourite artist”, the obsession of many twentysomethings and their mothers, and the object of ire for many more. She has been making music for well over a decade, but is now receiving the full flush of fame, and the ‘rewards’ that come with it. One of these has been not only stalking, but also a constant scrutiny of her political beliefs.
Roan’s Politics
This came to a head last month when Roan was quizzed on her stance on the upcoming US elections. Initially, Roan was vocal in her critiques not only of Donald Trump, but of the Democrats as well. This brought the artist into the crosshairs of both Trump supporters and Kamala fanatics who see anything other than blind praise of the genocide-funding girlboss as supporting Republicanism.
Early in September, Roan told the Rolling Stone; “I’m pretty, ‘Fuck the government, and fuck everything that’s going on right now… I don’t have a side because I hate both sides, and I’m so embarrassed about everything going on right now.” As well, Roan mentioned her refusal to perform at a White House Pride event earlier that year; “I won’t be a monkey for Pride”.
Roan was strident in her refusal to back a Democratic Party whose hands are presently steeped in the blood of people in Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond. In the era of contemporary artists such as Charli XCX tweeting ‘Kamala is brat’, and Taylor Swift’s trite yet unsurprising political endorsement of Kamala, this could not have been an easy stance to take.
Acquiescence
However, the pressure to acquiesce in some way was evidently felt by the artist. Roan took to TikTok to elaborate, stating that while she would ultimately vote for Kamala, she would not endorse her; “There’s no way I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views… Fuck Trump, for fucking real, but fuck some of the shit that has gone down in the Democratic Party that has failed people like me and you.”
Many of her fans have expressed disappointment with her decision to capitulate on the voting question. It is telling that Roan still felt obliged to spell out her intentions to vote for Kamala. In an argument that anyone familiar with the concept of pinkwashing will be unsurprised by, those who criticised her initial comments insisted that her failure to fall in behind Harris was an abandonment of the LGBT community. Thousands of comments across her social media, and a variety of channels on Reddit, condemned Roan for not taking seriously the threat of Donald Trump to people of colour, women, and queer people in America.
As predictable as day turning to night, the Democratic Party have positioned themselves as the only alternative to Trump, and convinced thousands of voters that there is no other option. Furthermore, as an openly queer young woman, Roan has faced disproportionate scrutiny for her views. Whereas male musicians get to be musicians, male actors get to be actors, audiences expect women to not only make music and art, but to meet impossible standards of behaviour, politics, and appearance.
Particularly in the era of social media, female artists are defined not just by the creative output, but by how their personal lives can be cultivated for an audience.
US Politics
Roan’s disillusionment with the electoral landscape of America is reflective of the conditions that her generation has been raised in: the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ and its demonisation of Muslim people, the ongoing politicisation of the female body, a terrifying clampdown on bodily autonomy for women and queer people, a pandemic, a rise in school shootings, and the horror that is the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
In every election she has been eligible to vote in, Roan has been faced with the choice between the neoliberal, carceral machine of the Democrats, and the barbaric racism of Donald Trump. At the DNC earlier this year, Harris disturbingly bragged about having the “most lethal” military in the world. This is the society which Roan, and millions of others her age, have been brought up in. What those in power, across the various shades of establishment around the world, want us to believe is that this is normal. There is no other way of living than what we have been presented with.
If there is something to be taken from the writings of Adorno, it is that music’s meaning is found in the way that society’s material processes become embedded in the very language and form of music. The music we listen to is ultimately shaped by the society that has created it. It is certainly true that much popular music is churned out purely to fill the catalogues and pockets of label executives.
Moreover, it is rare that art neatly projects working class interests.
So What’s the Answer?
However, what music can inspire in its audiences is of crucial importance. The music of Chappell Roan isn’t just about joy, and the highs and lows of love, but also about resistance to what we are told is normal. I was one of many who could not beg, borrow or steal a ticket to her recently sold out gig in Dublin, but seeing pictures of the crowds confirmed what I already knew to be true about the artist. Good pop music has a unifying and transformative potential deeper than what specific lyrics say.
Listening to Chappell Roan does not in itself help the fightback against capitalism. However, it does deny the deepest and most pervasive myth of capitalist society – that the way things are is normal.
With the ceaselessness of the crises in our world, getting people to believe that things can change is paramount, yet extremely difficult. It behoves us to use every avenue at our disposal to win people’s minds, and hearts, to the idea that the world can be different. In the words of Chappell Roan, it’s not over until it’s over, and it’s never over.
