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Monday, January 8, 2024
Bad Ass Break-Outs: Chapelle Roan
Stephen Jabaut posted: " It was May of 2020, and my friend's boss' daughter was the make up artist for a music video called, "Pink Pony Club." The video was performed by a little known 22-year old artist named Chapelle Roan (pronounced like Chapel). The song was a queer pop " The Indy Review
It was May of 2020, and my friend's boss' daughter was the make up artist for a music video called, "Pink Pony Club." The video was performed by a little known 22-year old artist named Chapelle Roan (pronounced like Chapel). The song was a queer pop anthem that depicts the dreams that so many people in America have about moving to the promised lands of Southern California.
The song became a summer cult hit in Los Angeles and could be heard at select parties during pride month around West Hollywood. Surely this song would be a breakthrough smash, since it was so beloved by everyone who heard it.
At the time, Roan was being produced by Dan Nigro under Atlantic Records. Even though "Pink Pony Club" was considered a banger by those who knew it, the song was not deemed financially viable enough for Atlantic to continue to produce her, and she was dropped from the label later that year. Dan Nigro was asked to focus on a different talent, and in 2021, he produced Olivia Rodrigo's album Sour, and the commercially successful first hit Driver License.
As fans of Chapelle, we were all left wondering…what happened? This happens sometimes with music, something slaps really hard, and then you never hear anything from the artist again. For whatever reason, they aren't selected by the capitalist fame machine, or the greater public. My friend and I chalked it up to bad luck; something in the fates were against Chapelle at that time. So imagine our delight and surprise when she popped up on our Spotify Discover Weekly with new music in the Fall of 2023.
During the span of the pandemic, Chapelle took up work as a production assistant and a barista. She could not find a collaborator who she enjoyed as much as Nigro, and so her music career took a pause…but in those two years, "Pink Pony Club" racked up over 10 million listens on Spotify. When it came time for Olivia Rodrigo to go on tour with Sour in 2021, Chapelle Roan was an easy choice as an opener, as she was also a back up vocalist on the track "Lacy."
Rodrigo was quoted in Billboard about Chapelle Roan saying,
"Honestly, selfishly, I'm just like, 'She has to come on tour with me because I just want to watch her every night.' I get a free concert every night. I'm so stoked."
Chapelle will open once again for the upcoming Olivia RodrigoGuts tour. And to make it a full circle, Chapelle has produced a full length album entitled The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess written and produced with her favorite collaborator, you guessed it, Dan Nigro. Chapelle Roan is a prime example that if you keep working at it and you are doing what you love, nothing in this world will pass you by.
Chapelle has also had an extensive push in the music video department. Her wispy, twisted, and erotic storytelling puts flesh, monsters, and cake to the forefront. There is a theme with her work that centers around a departure from a heteronormative identity and stepping in to her own sexuality, and the different struggles that come with discovering a new dating landscape.
"My Kink is Karma" plays a twisted breakup fantasy of a Jester and a Clown in an erotic cake-tease with lyrical drops like "my kink is watching you ruin your life". It represent a period of her life when she was broken up with shortly after being dropped from her label. "California" further explores this idea of being rejected from an industry that perhaps simply wasn't ready for her.
Another video, "Casual", depicts Roan along side a Malibu mermaid with a taste for human flesh. She dives deep into a Sapphic love that ends tragically as her supernatural paramore cannot rid her hunger for the flesh of man. Perhaps touching on what it's like to date a bisexual woman who doesn't quite know what she wants.
"Red Wine Supernova" plays into the idea that 'magic' is wrong, which could very well represent any alternative lifestyle from the mainstream. Chapelle's music-video library features almost every song that she's produced in her YouTube channel. She seems to have a knack for it, and I wouldn't be surprised if her next album goes in the direction of Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer, which featured a full length album film.
Chapelle has a star quality that has us wondering how long it will be before she is a headliner at Coachella, or is performing at the Grammy's. Her wardrobe, make up, and affectation is completely unique to her. When you pay attention to music and the people who make it long enough, there's an intangible quality of authenticity that you can catch glimpses of. There's no formula, some people just have it. And when they keep at it, there's no denying them from their achieving their dreams. And we all get some pretty fierce bops along the way.
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