Pop singer Chappell Roan has some serious words for his die-hard fans as he continues his rapid rise to the top.
“I don’t want anything you think you should have whenever you see a celebrity. I don’t give a f–k if you think it’s selfish of me to say no. photo, or for your time, or a hug,” the American singer said on Tuesday in a TikTok video.
“That’s not normal; it’s weird. It’s amazing how people think you know someone just because you see them on the Internet or listen to their art…. I’m allowed to reject scary behavior, okay?”
Roan joins a growing list of singers, including Halsey and Tyler, the Creator, who have expressed frustration with rude and overzealous fans in recent weeks.
On Tiktok another was posted on the same day, the Good luck, Babe the singer asked viewers if they would talk to a random person in public the way they approach celebrities.
“Would you harass his family? Would you go after him? Would you try to take his life apart and harass him online?”
Roan blocked comments on the video, which has nearly 12 million views.
Criticism of Roan is not unusual for famous people: prof
The 26-year-old has been recording music since he was a teenager but has seen meteoric rise this year.
He released his first album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in September and saw a steady rise into 2024, but his monthly audience on Spotify went from over a million in February to nearly 21 million in June, according to the platform of music data analysis Chartmetric.
Jenna Drenten, a marketing professor who studies digital consumer culture at Loyola University Chicago, said it was powerful for Roan to speak on video without his stage makeup, at this point in his career, about the way fans treat him with it.
“I can’t remember a time when a celebrity at the top of their career, with such a following, has come out with the courage to advise the kind of parasitic relationship that fans expect to have with celebrities,” he said.
Roan gave some details last month about fans acting like “freaks”. Commentary Section podcast where he has “put the brakes” on what he shares publicly.
“[Fans] Follow me and find out where my parents live, and where my sister works. All these amazing things,” he said.
Drenten says people have long held the view that celebrities have chosen or “asked for” a lifestyle of judgment, scrutiny and criticism from fans and viewers in exchange for fame and fortune. He says that fans also believe that famous people are seen in a certain way, they take credit for their fame.
Social media has amplified its effects, turning it into “fandom on steroids,” he said, by providing unfettered access to celebrities’ lives and lowering public opinion. about intimacy.
Rapper Tyler, the Creator shared similar sentiments last week about “weirdo” fans on Mavericks podcast.
“They want to know who your sister is, and like what you had for dinner. Like, mind your f–king business,” he said. “Thanks to the internet, people no longer know personal boundaries, and it’s normal.”
Halsey said the fans “need” her more than anyone else
Pop singer Halsey called out her fans in a Tumblr post last month, saying negative online comments made her regret returning to music.
Halsey took a break from acting after being diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2022, then with a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder, and returned in June with new music that didn’t go down well with some fans. .
“My fans have worse hands on me than anyone else in the world,” he wrote in a now-deleted post.
Of course, I don’t speak for all of you. But it used to be only a few who bothered me and now it seems that the majority stuck around sometimes to talk about how much or how much they hated me. I’m terrible.
“It is difficult to want to participate in a place that does not have any kindness, compassion, tolerance, or honesty, respect for people.”
Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has set public boundaries with fans, speaking of being abused several times since at least 2016, when he said he felt like an “animal” and “done taking pictures.”
As fans continued to abuse his wife Hailey last year and push Bieber to get back together with his former partner, singer Selena Gomez, Gomez asked fans to “please be kind and consider the mental health of others.”
How social media is changing celebrity culture
Jordan Foster, a researcher at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business who studies culture, new media and inequality, says celebrities hitting on fans for crossing boundaries is part of a broader shift in celebrity culture.
While extreme fan behavior is nothing new, online platforms have allowed new types of celebrities and sub-celebrities to emerge, he said — and for some fans to feel they know even though they don’t know them.
Foster says Twitter, now X, started the revolution by allowing celebrities and fans to interact directly. That reach has been through Instagram and TikTok.
“Fans started to feel like they had a very close relationship with a celebrity that was very accessible,” he said.
But if their comments or online behavior crosses the line of behavior, they may not be sure how it has affected the recipient. “We are no wiser than the damage we do.”
WATCH | Chappell Roan on CBC’s Q with Tom Power
Foster says that in the case of Roan and Halsey, who are both queer people – Halsey also uses her pronouns – their identities make them vulnerable to public criticism, as they “have and these characteristics of conditions that have historically existed and continue to do so are subject to abuse, prejudice and discrimination.”
Foster suspects that Roan’s comments in particular could alienate his growing audience, but it’s unlikely to cause much damage. In fact, it can help advance a broader conversation about bullying and harassment.
“She has a personality that hinges on this resilient person, this outspoken person, this person who is able to defy traditional ideas of gender and sexuality and binaries. And so in that regard, she’s really in a good position. they talk a lot,” Foster said.
“It doesn’t mean that he won’t fall. There will be members of the audience who feel that pushing him is not necessary.”
#Singer #Chappell #Roan #calling #fans #weird #behavior #hes #CBC #News