Chappell Roan is arguably the most important and influential pop artist of 2024. Her debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” (2023) received critical acclaim, but only in the last few months, after opening for Olivia Rodrigo and playing Coachella, has her popularity spiked. Most recently she played both New York City’s Governor’s Ball and Bonnaroo to enormous crowds, and her album is currently at the top of the U.S. iTunes charts.
Chappell Roan is the stage name of Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, a remarkably talented 26-year-old artist from Willard, Mo., who suffers from bipolar disorder and who identifies as queer. Unlike Chan Marshall, who performs under the name “Cat Power,” or Annie Clar, who uses the moniker “St. Vincent,” Kayleigh Rose Amstutz sees “Chappell Roan” not simply as a stage name but as a character that she plays, which is noteworthy.
In interviews, she speaks in the third person: “I think Chappell’s a drag-queen version of me because it’s very larger than life. Kind of tacky, not afraid to say lewd things,” she told Vanity Fair. She’s not lying. Chappell Roan’s lyrics are raunchy, although she also insists on using the word “campy,” and I recently heard someone aptly describe her as “the rated-R or NC-17 version of Taylor Swift.”
What I find fascinating is that she makes a clear and intentional distinction between Kayliegh and Chappell, insisting that one is not the other: “That version of me is really fun to play, but it’s very exhausting,” she told Vanity Fair. “It’s hard to play that character all the time.”
So who is this character, and why play it? I’m a philosopher by training, not a psychologist, but I have a theory.
The name Chappell Roan was inspired by Amstutz’s grandfather, Dennis C. Chappell, who died of brain cancer. His favorite song was “The Strawberry Roan” by Marty Robbins, which is an old country ballad about an unemployed bronc fighter who is offered a job to tame a wild old horse—a strawberry roan. He accepts the offer but acknowledges that the horse is a “regular outlaw” and “the worst bucker I’ve ever seen on the range.” The bronc fighter tries to break the horse but is immediately thrown off. He admits:
I know there are ponies that I cannot ride
There’s some of them left, they all haven’t died
I’ll bet all the money, the man ain’t alive
That’ll stay with that strawberry
When he makes his dive.
My theory is that the hero of this song—the strawberry roan—is, as the song notes twice, an outlaw. The laws that govern other horses don’t govern him. He can’t be tamed. He’s the artist of horses. He looks different and he acts different. (“His legs are all spavined, he’s got pigeon toes/ Little pig eyes and a big roman nose.”) He’s wild. He’s strong. He refuses to be broken. And anyone who attempts to break him gets tossed. As listeners, we admire such characters, even in a horse, because they display tenacity and courage and grit. My guess is that Amstutz saw these same traits in her grandpa and that he saw them in her, too. So, we should expect to see some of these same qualities in the character of Chappell Roan, and we do.
The music of Chappell Roan has been described as dark pop: dark lyrics and pop sound. “Femininomenon,” the record’s opening track, begins with a fairytale like sound and then glides into Amstutz’s beautiful vocals recalling serious disappointment in love: “Same old story, time again/ Got so close but then you lost it/ Should’ve listened to your friends/ About his girlfriend back in Boston.” After a few more sordid details about the relationship, the beat picks up and moves to the pre-chorus, then turns into a total banger by the chorus, but by this time all the seriousness has left, and the song becomes fun and even funny. That’s not normally how pop songs work, but this is precisely what makes Chappell Roan interesting. Her songs surprise you.
To listen to “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” as autobiographical, like one might listen to a Taylor Swift record, is the wrong way to listen to Chappell Roan. Amstutz explains, “Every song is inspired by something that’s real, or something that I really longed for. But it’s all very exaggerated, dramatic version of real life. There’s almost a drag queen feel around it, where it’s very much larger than life to make a point.”
When I first listened to “Casual,” a song with a sound warmly reminiscent of a monster ballad of the 80s, I was moved by the music but taken aback by the graphic action described in the chorus. Yet, in an interview with Capital Buzz, Amstutz herself recognizes that the line is “crass” and then confesses, “It’s real. It didn’t happen. It’s a nice line.” Again, I think that much of what makes Chappell Roan’s music appealing and intriguing is that, with all the exaggeration, it’s hard to wrap your mind around it, just like the old bronc fighter can’t seem to tame the strawberry roan. And maybe it's this elusive nature of her music that makes it attractive, because it is certainly not the moral messaging.
As an entertainer, Chappell Roan is top-tier, and her music is made to be performed live. Amstutz explains:
With every song I was very purposeful in including audience participation—most evidently in “HOT TO GO!” It all goes back to the live shows—I’ve never really liked concerts where you attend and it feels like you’re just standing in the audience, watching someone. That they’re up there and I’m down here. I want to be with them! So I wanted my audience to feel like they’re in it with me.
Recently, Chappell Roan played my hometown of Cleveland, and at the urging of some of my young friends who insisted that the show would be legendary, I bought a ticket. My friends were right. The crowd seemed to know every word of every song and sang so well that sometimes they were louder than the PA system. “Red Wine Supernova” and “Pink Pony Club” brought the house down, with almost everyone singing and swaying, and it occurred to me that this live communal action is something that we as a culture didn’t experience for two entire years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Humans are made to be with other humans, and, for the most part, we do enjoy each other’s company, especially when intentionally gathered for a shared experience. A concert is certainly not liturgy, but it is important to note the natural desires that emerge in men and women at such events.
I’m interested in Chappell Roan because the culture has interest in her and because she’s a very talented, intelligent young artist. More than anything, I have some important questions that I would love to discuss.
Questions about Chappell Roan
Amstutz told Teen Vogue, “This is the first time I’ve ever been single for real and not had a crush on literally anyone. This never happened in my life. It’s so freeing because I didn’t realize how much that ruled my life.” What does Chappell think of this quote from Kayleigh?
Twice on “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” we hear about “crossing the line” in a relationship. What is the line? Who decides? And what are the consequences of crossing it?
Amstutz claims that she experienced “religious trauma” from her conservative Christian upbringing. I’m wondering what the opposite of trauma is and if there is such a thing as “secular trauma” from the culture in general.
When it comes to life, how do you know if you are the old buck rider or if you are the strawberry roan?
To my mind, the most beautiful and true track on the record is “Kaleidoscope.” It is there that we hear about love: “how it works we’ll never know/ And even all the change/ Is somehow all the same… It’s beautiful somehow.” When love is mentioned on this record, it’s almost always eros, romantic love. But on this track, we consider a love that is unchanging. Christians call such love, charity, for God is love. Does this higher love exist? Does it matter? And do you hope your answer is right or wrong?
At a recent show in Raleigh, North Carolina, Amstutz had an emotional moment on stage. She stopped mid-set and tearfully explained, “I guess I want to be honest with the crowd. I just feel a little off today ‘cause I think that my career is going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up.”
I’ve already added Kayliegh Rose Amstutz to my list of artists to pray for at the end of my daily rosary. How about you?
