Chappell Roan is worth the wait. But five years? That’s a big ask
It was five years ago when I first came across Chappell Roan, a girl posting her music on TikTok alongside joking stories from her life and behind-the-scenes clips of her community helping her DIY a career.
I was instantly hooked. At the end of 2021, I proudly pinned her name on a ones-to-watch list for a magazine, already certain she was something more than special. When ‘Pink Pony Club’ dropped in 2022, that was confirmed. In 2023, I went to her debut UK show with a capacity of only 600, where she first did the ‘H-O-T-T-O-G-O’ dance. I’ve been locked in for a long time.
I’m not saying any of this in a gatekeeping way, though. The moment I discovered Roan, I made it my mission to make sure everyone else did too. Coinciding with my first job as a music journalist, she was the name I spearheaded loudest, keeping early single releases like ‘Love Me Anyway’ and ‘California’ on repeat. It felt like an honour, not to be able to write about her, but simply to be able to observe. It is rare to witness an artist from the start and know, with complete certainty, that they’ll be a star. Watching Roan’s TikTok reels of her and her friends making the video for ‘Naked In Manhattan’, the feeling was vivid.
My joy for her overcomes any feelings of impatience or any of the natural tinges of odd gatekeep-toned weirdness that naturally float in when, at first, you’re dancing at the front of The Garage or the 1600 capacity Heaven, and lost in the vast crowd. No, overwhelmingly, witnessing Roan’s rise has been faith-restoring that talent can be spotted and skyrocketed, and that the deserving can make it big and make it on their terms.
But honestly, a lot of you guys were very, very late. The release of Roan’s debut, The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess, despite now rightfully being considered a pop masterpiece, came in 2023 with not all that much attention beyond the cult she’d fostered. It took a moment, despite the press attention, for the mainstream public to catch up. Eventually, after an Olivia Rodrigo support tour, a few “viral” moments (for want of a better term), an NPR Tiny Desk performance, and finally the release of the non-album single ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, Chappell Roan was everywhere. From then on, the obsession hasn’t slowed; suddenly, she’s a headliner.
For early fans, though, it’s been a while. By the time ‘H-O-T-T-O-G-O’ was enjoying its moment in the sun with a huge Coachella crowd dancing along in April 2024, the song was approaching its first birthday. Even when the Grammys honoured her, nominating Roan’s debut for ‘Album of the Year’, it was deserved but confusing – why was a 2023 album being honoured in the 2024 class? From the previous year, the awards had changed their eligibility dates. Previously, Roan’s album wouldn’t have qualified, begging the question of whether they altered that just for her, almost as if the Grammys themselves didn’t want to look like they were slow off the mark, too.
All of this leads to today. In September, Roan’s debut will be two years old. Since then, we’ve been gifted three singles. Now, the singer has admitted that there is no second album yet, stating, “It took me five years to write the first one, and it’s probably going to take at least five to write the next.” Is that too long?
Artists should be afforded all the time in the world that they want. There shouldn’t be pressure or stress to rush art, especially when for someone as young as Roan, life has to be lived in order to be written about. But while for fans who got on board during the 2024 boom, this means a sizeable wait, for followers who have been there since the beginning, who are expected to still not have tired of the original debut tracks that are seeing a new revival of attention over and over, the interim period feels like forever, approaching close to a decade.
Chappell Roan is worth the wait, and her recent singles prove that the quality is only improving. But it begs a bigger question about the tradition of pop music, the longevity of a pop song and how that intersects with legacy. Of the three powerpuff girls that headlined Primavera, Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX are seemingly all playing out a different test here.
While Roan calls for her fans to allow her indefinite patience, Carpenter is leaning into the Short N’ Sweet nature of pop attention spans and delivering more new music less than a year after her last album. Meanwhile, Charli is openly considering the theoretical side, wondering out loud how long she can ride the Brat train, how long the world will allow her to and when her fans will get bored. Only time will tell which course of action reaps the best results.
For now, though, ‘The Subway’ keeps fans fed. However, how long will it last? Will snacking on the occasional track be enough to keep the hype going, or especially to keep the long-running fans around when even the best pop songs can start to become exhausting after five years on repeat? Again, only time will tell, but to be honest, I’m getting hungry.
