Interviews & Reviews
The Dark Side of Parasocial Culture: Why Fans Need to Let Chappell Roan Live
Leave Chappell Roan alone, bitch please.
Maybe what is limiting our current generation from having the pop stars of the early 2000s is our internet access and disrespect for boundaries. Being a popstar in 2005 meant intrusive paparazzi sure, with fans trying to consume their every moment.
But the rise of social media like TikTok has brought an experience of “knowing” the artist. When Chappell makes videos talking to her phone camera with just her head in frame, it feels like you’re on FaceTime. Fans get to interact with her. Especially because part of her rise to fame came with her being an independent artist and internet persona while she promoted her work. Likely before her massive spike in fame, she responded to her TikTok comments personally. She may still do. But regardless of whether it is Chappell herself responding to messages and having fan interactions online, there are members of her fanbase who feel that they know her on a deeply, uncomfortably personal level.
TikTok marketing (among other things) has led to a massive rise in parasocial relationships between fans and the artists they idolize. We can recognize that an artist like Chappell Roan who has spent ten years mastering her craft and creating the persona we’ve seen in her most recent project, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess is a gift to pop music. I can also imagine how exhausting it must be for her.
I saw Chappell at her New Haven show the week of the release of “Good Luck Babe,” her single that triggered a landslide of success. I photographed her at a 2,000 person sold out venue at College Street Music Hall for my school paper. It was the biggest show I’d ever shot. I thought about how successful she was already. I had no idea that a month later she’d be playing two weekends at Coachella and would become a name in the mouths of straight people. I watched her speech on a live streamed intro to the song “My Kink is Karma” saying “This one goes out to my ex, because bitch I know you’re watching and all those horrible things happening to you are karma. It’s me!” The next weekend in the same intro: “My name is Chappell Roan. I’m your favorite artist’s favorite artist. I’m your dream girl’s dream girl, and I’m gonna serve exactly what you are, cunt!” – says Chappell Roan dressed as a butterfly on the Coachella stage. These two introductions were iconic and left the internet ablaze with talk of how she was single-handedly bringing back pop stars.
This summer she has performed at music festival after music festival, with many having to move her to larger stages because of the crowds she was sure to attract. At Lollapalooza she pulled 80,000 people. At Kentuckiana Pride people watched from bridges for the sold out event, doing the “Hot to Go” dance with the artist. Seeing her at Outside Lands in San Francisco just two weeks ago, the crowd was so packed that it filled the entire lawn for the main stage. This success is absolutely warranted but I am sure it is terrifying.
I must admit that I was late to the Chappell Roan party myself, I was a casual listener when the album dropped but I did not give the record a chance. I need to listen back to back to back on repeat in order to take a song in and then decide how I feel about it. Once I did this with her album I was instantly hooked. When I started seeing videos of her performing, jogging in one place singing the bridge of “Red Wine Supernova” I fell in love with her again. I fell in love with her art, that is. And this is part of the problem. What I love about Chappell is she is campy and outgoing, reminding me of the queer community I was raised in.
My experience couldn’t be more different than Chappell’s, I was raised by lesbians in Berkeley California, compared to her religious midwest upbringing. But for me, the experience of being a femme lesbian is putting on a drag performance of femininity– and I see myself in her outrageous stage outfits. It all comes back to the performance of it all. I like that it’s an act. I don’t think that the woman who created Chappell Roan owes me anything. Nor do I know if I’d even be a fan of her or like her. I am a fan of her art.
On Monday August 19th Chappell made a TikTok asking fans:
“I need you to answer questions…if you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from your car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say can I get a photo with you and shes like no what the fuck and then you get mad at this random lady? Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time? Would you stalk her family, would you follow her around? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online? This is a lady you don’t know, and she doesn’t know you at all. Would you assume that she’s a good person, assume she’s a bad person? Would you assume that everything you read about her online is true? I’m a random bitch, you’re a random bitch. Just think about that for a second okay?“
Underneath “Chappell Roan” there is an artist who is ultimately a young woman who has been made to feel unsafe.
In the second part to this video she continues:
“I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking whatever is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous or whatever. I don’t care that it’s normal, I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it okay, that doesn’t make it normal. Doesn’t mean I want it, doesn’t mean that I like it. I don’t want whatever the fuck you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity. I don’t give a fuck if you think its selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal, that’s weird. It’s weird how people think you know a person just cuz you see them online or you listen to art they make. Thats fucking weird, I’m allowed to say no to your creepy behavior okay.“
People called her ungrateful for these comments. Others worried she would stop creating music altogether. The comments are turned off on both of these videos.
On Friday August 23rd Chappell posted a statement to her Instagram. It reads:
“For the past 10 years I’ve been going nonstop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries. I [have] want[ed] to be an artist for a very very long time. I’ve been in too many non consensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you shit. I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it. I am specifically talking about predatory behavior (disguised as “superfan” behavior) that has become normalized because of the way women who are well-known have been treated in the past. Please do not assume you know a lot about someone’s life, personality, and boundaries because you are familiar with them or their work online. This situation is similar to the idea that if a woman wears a short skirt and gets harassed or catcalled, she shouldn’t have worn the short skirt in the first place. It is not the woman’s duty to suck it up and take it; it is the harasser’s duty to be a decent person, leave her alone, and respect that she can wear whatever she wants and still deserve peace in this world. I want to love my life, be outside, giggle with my friends, go to the movie theater, feel safe, and do all the things every single person deserves to do. Please stop touching. me. Please stop being weird to my family and friends. Please stop assuming things about me. There is always more to the story. I am scared and tired. And please–don’t call me Kayleigh.
I feel more love than I ever have in my life. I feel the most unsafe I have ever felt in my life. There is a part of myself that I save just for my project and all of you. There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me.
Thank you for reading this. I appreciate your understanding and support. ❤️“
The caption reads:
“I turned off comments because I’m not looking for anyone’s response. This isn’t a group conversation. I understand that this is jarring to hear from a person in my position. I’m not afraid of the consequences for demanding respect. Just to let you know, every woman is feeling or has felt similar to what I’m experiencing. This isn’t a new situation. If you see me as a bitch or ungrateful or my entire statement upsets you, baby that’s you… you gotta look inward and ask yourself “wait why am I so upset by this? Why is a girl expressing her fears and boundaries so infuriating?” That is all. Thank you for reading <3“
Let’s evaluate our relationships with artists like Chappell. Do you “stan” her so hard that you’ll scare her off the internet. Will this be the downfall of this new wave of pop stars?
Her last post was on her Instagram story Saturday late morning. She says: “When a woman is upset and says something the automatic response is to be like yo chill. It’s not chill. So I’m not going to be chill. I wanna throw fucking parties for gay people on stage, that’s my favorite part of this. And I want people to feel safe at my shows and feel like a community. I want to feel that way too. I love you and love is not transactional and I think you know that. Thank you for your support.”
Please. Let queer women live. We should be grateful we get to experience their art at all. What gives fans the right to consume the artist in addition to their art. This applies to more than just Chappell Roan, it is about all women in music, all marginalized artists. They don’t owe us themselves, they don’t even owe us their art. Let’s say thank you for what they do give and learn some respect for their boundaries.
Written by Anya Tucker
Photo by Anya Tucker
Interview
Crown Lands talks Ritual I & Ritual II – Interview
Sarah Sharpe – Interview conducted on August 15th, 2025
Crown Lands is a progressive rock duo exploring intergalactic storytelling through experimental music. They recently released two EP’s Ritual I and Ritual II, which expand on their sound by incorporating ambient soundscapes and world music influences. The band approached these records as a meditation-inspired project, free from the pressures of a large label.
I had the chance to sit down and talk to Kevin and Cody of Crown Lands last month for a more in depth look at their recent releases and what fans can look forward to coming up next!
To start, for those who don’t know, who is crown lands?
“Were a progressive rock duo, we make grand storytelling, epic, prog rock that tells intergalactic stories that come back to dealing with a lot of themes that Canadians would understand like colonialism and being a good person.” – Kevin
So, we obviously are here to talk about not one but 2 new releases, Ritual and Ritual II. These 2 EP releases mark a noticeable shift from your previous work over the past few years what inspired you both to move away from your signature sound?
“Were not moving away from it, were just expanding upon it. Theres a lot of those elements of the Rituals that have already been present in our music. Especially the beginning of Reflections deals with a lot of that kind of ambient soundscape work that is all over Ritual. And of course, Codys flute playing is already present on the journey from Starlifter. The polyrhythms were already present throughout our music especially on Interfacing the Machine. We just wanted to take those small moments and kind of expand them out into a full cinematic scope” -Kevin
“When we finished White Buffalo after that, in the height of the pandemic is when we actually got the idea to write Ritual I. So, we both just kind of took our love for weird, electronic and world music, and came together and put together this record first under the premise of it being a meditation record because we love that kind of stuff. I’m into meditation and we were like, okay, let’s make a record around this vibe, and just kind of change pace. Do it for more of like, you know, something that is more fun for us, instead of something that requires a lot of effort and pressure, which is often the case in a studio scenario with our main sound. Then it quickly became more psychedelic, and we just expanded it and incorporated the story of this being the sounds of Fearless’ people and incorporating it into the grander scope of the story we are trying to tell through our music.” – Cody
“Writing the rituals from the lens of the idea that it’s not Cody and I, but rather we discovered this music as like an ancient transmission from Fearless’ planet that kind of gave us the freedom to write music that didn’t have traditional song structures and allowed us to explore things that were interesting to us musically without having to face any commercialism. Obviously the first Ritual too was the first record that we wrote front to back without the pressure of a major label. We had just left Universal and were free agents and then we started talking to Inside Out Music who are a German progressive rock label, and it felt like that was where we wanted to go for our new home. And these records kind of confuse even them… which is great! So, when you’re confusing even the Prog heads with Prog, you know you are actually going in the right direction. We’re very lucky that they eventually that they wanted to help us put out these Rituals.” – Kevin
“These elements have always been present in our music again, but we decided to just remove everything else.”-Kevin
“We just turned it up to a 10” – Cody
What led to the decision to release these songs as 2 separate EPs rather than a full-length album?
“They tell complete stories within themselves.” -Kevin
“They were also recorded at two different times. Two completely different headspaces.” -Cody
“They are companion pieces, and it paints a complete picture within it. so, we wanted to give each one its own space and also the idea is that Ritual I is such a big departure I think where it is a lot more ambient and a lot more new age. And Ritual II serves more to bridge the gap between those textures and more the kind of prog rock leaning stuff in the rest of our catalogue. so, anyone who might feel alienated from Ritual I would find a lot more elements about the band on Ritual II. But it still is pretty far out.” -Kevin
“We really love that about music, we have our own idea of what it’s about but to someone else they have their own sort of storyline. Especially without lyrics you can make up your own story for it.” -Cody
What were each of your favourite tracks to create from each EP? Whether it was because of the music itself or a memorable experience during production process, Id love to hear what made certain songs stand out for you both?
“For me on Ritual I my favorite track is The Serpent because it has an interesting inception. We had no demo for it when we first came together. We had everything in front of us, when Graham brought all the percussion instruments, and there was this log drum… like a hollowed-out log and it’s an amazing African instrument and it has these beautiful tones when you hit it with mallets. I was just obsessed with this thing. We were still setting up and I just started hitting on it and I made this beautiful rhythm and I was like ‘GUYS this is really really cool!’. We just recorded it and then there was also a cool African marimba we messed around with and we just built the song up on the spot. The Serpent came together the first day we were recording which is so cool, just off the dome! To me that really feels like the crescendo of the entire record.”-Cody
“Respite really does stand out to me, I feel there’s a lot of Peter Gabriel influence on that, especially his fourth record Security. There is one song, San Jacinto, and that influenced a ton of the textures that I was going for on that. The guitars, synths, marimba, I’m sure there is a lot within that. That song started out with a marimba sequence that I ended up doing and then Cody played another marimba on top of that. It feels very that there’s a blending between the machines and the organic on that one, it blurs it because you don’t know what’s a synth and what is real or organic. I also love Shadows Under Moonlight because that one felt like the closest to bridging the gap between something like Starlifter and something like Ritual I. The guitars are a bit more present and there’s a lot of that kind of 80s King Crimson influence. I love the talking drum that Cody did on that one, I also really loved the sonic feel mixing that one. It was a really fun one to do, it came together so quickly.” – Kevin
Another thing that stood out to me was that many – if not all – of the tracks in the release had sounds of wildlife like birds, frogs, and crickets. Did you record these sounds yourselves?
“All sounds we just recorded around the studio. Either with our phones or with a zoom recorder, a lot was just with phones, it is kind of interesting because on Dawn what sounds like rain hitting leaves… is actually, we learned later, there’s this invasive species of caterpillar that was eating all the leaves… so the sound of rain is actually their poop hitting the leaves. It was sunny and it sounded like rain all day, we thought it was amazing, so we recorded it, it was perfectly matching what we were going for.. that sun shower vibe. We talked to the owners of the studio after and they were like.. ‘no we’ve been trying to get rid of those caterpillars for years’.. I mean who cares it sounds beautiful!!” – Kevin
“ I hate caterpillars.” -Cody
“ I never would have known it sounds great!” -Sarah
“ I know, we did also record some actual rain.. so who’s to say where the poop ends and the rain begins..” -Kevin
Can fans expect any upcoming shows in the next few months or upcoming year?
“We’re mostly recording this year. Just a handful of shows, we are supporting Bruce Dickenson at History which is great!. Next year we are going to be doing a lot more. A summer run, early 2026, and later on I’m sure we will be going back overseas. I’m not sure when we’re getting back to western Canada but hopefully next year!” -Kevin
How do you think performance wise will these shows differ from your usual live sets? Especially if you plan to do a mix of stuff from other albums and the Rituals? How are you guys going to manage the performance?
“Actually next week were going in next week with two close friends who will be joining us as percussionists to work through the Ritual music. Cody will be focusing more on the flutes, were going to see how that goes. I would love to see how we can pull some stuff off. Like In the Reeds would be easy to pull off but a few others would be more challenging to pull off the layered rhythms.” – Kevin
“Respite or Tempest, like BIG ones, it’s hard to replicate those polyrhythms.”-Cody
“There’s a lot of repetition in this music though so I would love to explore some live looping in the future to see how we can pull this off with the two of us. but yeah.. I don’t know yet!” -Kevin
“We’re figuring it out!” – Cody
I hope for those of you who love Crown Lands, you had questions about the new releases answered… and for those of you who have never heard of them.. what are you doing!!
Go listen to Ritual I and Ritual II, streaming anywhere you can find music now!!
Interviews & Reviews
KATSEYE’s Beautiful Chaos – Album Review
KATSEYE have moved fast since forming through HYBE and Geffen’s global audition experiment. Their debut EP SIS (Soft Is Strong) set them up as a bright, polished pop group with sweet harmonies and a clean image. Beautiful Chaos flips that script. It’s louder, weirder, and more curious about the edges of modern pop. The result is a five-track EP that swings from hyperpop noise to soft warmth to club-ready confidence, all while the group tries on new identities to see what sticks.
Gnarly
“Gnarly” was the curveball no one expected. The track comes from Alice Longyu Gao, whose chaotic pop brain we already adore (her 2024 set at the Commodore Ballroom is still burned into our memory). The song hits like a flashing neon sign. It’s abrasive, bratty, and absolutely the right move for a comeback. It snaps people awake, especially for fans still holding onto the softer sound of SIS. Whether you love it or hate it, you’ll talk about it, which seems to be the point.
Gabriela
“Gabriela” feels like the EP’s most mainstream-friendly cut. The Latin pop bounce is smooth, and the melodies land right away. Daniela’s Spanish verse adds warmth without feeling forced. It’s easy to picture this one floating onto radio playlists and sticking around. It’s KATSEYE at their most accessible and clean, without losing the spark that makes them interesting.
Gameboy
“Gameboy” brings back the sugary energy of their debut. It’s playful, and full of little 8-bit quirks that make it instantly fun. The hook lands on the first pass and refuses to leave your head. It’s simple in a good way. It’s the kind of track that makes sense blasting through arena speakers while fans scream along.
Mean Girls
The EP’s heart sits in “Mean Girls.” It’s soft, warm, and full of grace. One lyric jumps out: “God bless the t-girls / And all the in-between girls.” Hearing a major pop group sing an openly pro-trans line this clearly feels rare and refreshing.
M.I.A.
“M.I.A.” charges forward with swagger. The production leans heavy on electronic grit, and the group sounds energized by it. The chorus is loud and built for live shows. It’s the EP’s pure adrenaline shot: all attitude and no hesitation.
Beautiful Chaos doesn’t pretend to have one identity. It sprawls, experiments, and tries things that may surprise longtime fans. That’s what makes it interesting. KATSEYE sound like a group figuring out who they want to be, they’re clearly having a good time doing it!
Listen to Beautiful Chaos here.