Regular readers of The Stater might remember last week’s article critiquing Chappell Roan’s music. This article inspired me to give my own thoughts on the situation. If there’s one thing I agree with, it’s that there are many talented queer artists who deserve more recognition. However, I also disagree with many of the opinions in that article.
I first became a fan of Chappell Roan in summer 2024, when her song “HOT TO GO!” went viral. Chappell Roan makes lyrically queer music with pop instrumentation. She is among the first to reach such heights while making blatantly queer music. Since first hearing “HOT TO GO!,” her music has grown to mean a lot to me, as a queer woman.
My colleague at The Stater criticized Roan’s music for not adhering to traditionally queer music styles. While it’s undeniable that Roan’s music isn’t particularly traditional, I don’t think it has to be. Claiming that Roan should conform to historically queer music styles is just another way of dictating how she is allowed to express her queerness. Chappell Roan’s songs, in their instrumentation, are fairly basic pop songs. Roan was criticized for deviating from the standard for queer music, but that goes against everything that the queer rights movement originally fought for. The fact that Roan is palatable to a large audience is a good thing, and queer women deserve basic pop music too.
A comparison that comes to mind for me is the “queer suffering” debate in the reading community. Queer readers noticed that narratives about queer characters almost always centered those characters facing adversity and discrimination. People felt this was overly pessimistic, and wanted more stories where queer people don’t have to prove their worth. Characters whose queerness is simply part of who they are, instead of a central aspect of their stories, were in short supply. The abundance of books about queer suffering, whether intentionally or not, furthers the narrative that queer people must fight to survive. Chappell Roan’s music encapsulates what those stories are lacking: happiness, genuineness and an existence without martyrdom.
What makes Roan’s music so important to me is that she isn’t fighting for her right to exist. Comparing Roan to Hayley Kiyoko, another popular sapphic artist, helps accentuate my point. Kiyoko’s most streamed song, “Girls Like Girls,” is about two sapphic women who face violence and discrimination. The music video furthers this point, by showing the characters physically assaulted. While there is absolutely a place for this type of music, there’s something incredibly refreshing and hopeful about hearing Roan’s music–most of which has the exact opposite themes to Kiyoko’s. Roan’s top songs on Spotify, “Good Luck, Babe” and “HOT TO GO!” accentuate the differences. “Good Luck, Babe” is about a woman who is secure in her queerness… and becomes involved with one who isn’t. Compulsory heterosexuality broke this relationship apart, but the narrator of the song never once questions her own worth or preaches that she deserves to take up space, because she already knows she does.
“HOT TO GO!” emphasizes my point even further. The song is arguably one of Roan’s poppiest, most saccharine songs. There is absolutely nothing pessimistic about “HOT TO GO!” and that is what makes it so impactful. Queer artists should not have to fight or suffer to be allowed space in mainstream culture.
The best way for me to sum up my thoughts on this matter is that music like “Girls like Girls” represents the past and present reality for queer women. We face discrimination. Our identities are erased. We can’t always be ourselves. Listening to music that reflects our reality can be cathartic, but we also want to have hope for the future.
Chappell Roan’s music represents the future for queer women: a future where we can simply be queer without making it an inherent fight or central to our existence. Seeing Chappell Roan blow up is very inspiring to me. Some might see her “casual” approach to queerness as an attempt to assimilate into mainstream culture, but to me, it’s a sign that we might finally be moving away from the tired trope of queer suffering. Roan’s music might not push boundaries or start fights, but queerness should not be a fight or a boundary. It should simply be. I appreciate that Roan’s music highlights her queerness without commodifying it, and I think her success points to a hopeful future for the LGBTQ+ community.
