Chappell Roan has taken our cyborg world – and my heart – by storm.
The 26-year-old, ultra-femme lesbian, hyperpop drag queen has exploded in popularity following the release of her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. I attended a local drag show that celebrated Chappell Roan by performing her entire album. The energy in the room was electric, filled with great drag and otherworldly pop. Chappell Roan’s heart lives in the local, despite her stardom hitting the global stage.
Her initial album release in September 2023 didn’t even chart on the Billboard 200 but went on to hit the top 10 this June. Her weekly streams have grown 20 times what they were at the start of the year, and finally in the past month alone, her Tiktok followers have grown by 76.9 per cent. Chappell Roan’s DIY fashion and campy drag make her performances unique on the big stage. The individuality draws in an audience and TikTok agrees.
The rise of TikTok and its infamous algorithm set a pixel-perfect stage to amplify Chappell Roan’s art and help kick off her career into stardom.
According to Michelle Greenwald, writing for Forbes, the TikTok algorithm is a gold star standard for social media algorithms. It tracks users’ movements so extensively it can “see,” collecting up to 300 data points daily for individual users, higher than any other platform. Accurately categorizing content to suit users has made the platforms especially good at cultivating community and subculture. Making “custom environments” that bring the niche interests and values of individuals together in the comments, through duets, and on the “for you” page at large.
Because of this algorithm, TikTok has been highly influential on the music industry. Musicians and record labels use TikTok to get eyes and ears on their art and find their niche audience.
Chappell Roan’s internet rise is a bit more complex and requires a better understanding of the history of 2SLGBTQIA+ internet. From the early internet days, 2SLGBTQIA+community found a place on the web. Initially, in bulletin board systems in the 80s and 90s, and then corporate platforms like AOL in the late 90s, delayed by initial resistance to gay, lesbian and trans forums. The internet has a legacy of being a place where 2SLGBTQIA+ people have found community while hopefully maintaining anonymity, privacy and safety.
Fast forward to today where 2SLGBTQIA+ people are still using the internet to cultivate space for community and subculture – and sometimes hitting the mainstream. The sometimes lifesaving benefits of finding a digital community become worth the potential risk for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks not accepted in their homes or hometowns. This is particularly evident among youth. More than two thirds of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth participate in online 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. The 2SLGBTQIA+ cybersphere is intertwined with real-life and has been since the beginning.
With Chappell Roan, we can see that intersection of the digital and the physical, or the local. Her shows are credited as community building. They include co-ordinated dress themes shared on Instagram, interactive dances and local drag queen openers. Chappell Roan performs a discography that tells the story of a small-town girl moving to the big city and having a queer awakening. Her fans can be a part of something bigger and feel connected through the experience.
Chappell Roan comes from a small, religious, conservative town in Missouri and represents part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ digital demographic who escape to the internet to find community and self-expression. A cyber hub for people to be authentically themselves and be safe doing so.
But she goes a step further and celebrates her small-town roots, warts and all. Her mini-YouTube documentary, titled The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, opens with Chappell in clogs wading through a creek in Missouri, catching frogs. The film cuts to her describing wonder at performing in her hometown to a room full of 2SLGBTQIA+ fans she never knew existed there, wondering where they were hiding, followed by an image of her in drag standing in that same creek – where she belongs.
Chappell Roan inspires the local meeting the viral in a way that is original for pop. To set the global digital stage calling in small 2SLGBTQIA+ communities break the boundaries of digital subculture and the pop world. This is shown most eloquently in her scholarship program that helped fans afford tickets to her shows. Through the program, 2SLGBTQIA+ kids in the Midwest could join the safe space Chappell Roan creates even if they don’t have the money.
Chappell Roan’s ability to harness the power of digital platforms, particularly TikTok, and turn them into real-world connection is a testament to her unique approach. Her authenticity and celebration of her roots resonate deeply with fans. She bridges the gap between the digital and physical and redefines what it means to be a pop artist in the modern age. Her rise is not just a personal success story, but a reflection of the evolving landscape of how artists can celebrate, build and sustain community in the digital era.
There’s been extensive criticism in recent years on how the digital bleeding into the physical is a problem that must be fixed, such as the negative impacts of social media algorithms. But in the case of Chappell Roan, we can see a harmony in the overlap, and find hope for our cyborg world.
