Boundaries between celebrities and fans
If you're a sane individual, there’s a strong chance that you respect boundaries. These boundaries could be physical, emotional, or even time-based but the whole point is that they are drawn for others to follow and respect. Boundaries ignite public discourse in some way, shape, or form. This issue is prominent in the music industry where boundaries established by celebrities are not acknowledged by their fans. For instance, the emergence of Chappell Roan and her way of setting boundaries with her fans.
To briefly outline Chappell Roan’s path to success, she started her music career at the age of 17 (after signing with Atlantic Records) and released her first EP in 2017. Unfortunately, her connection with them didn’t last long as she got dropped from this label due to some problems surfacing. Fast forward to when the pandemic hit, she rebranded herself as an independent artist, focusing on the queer drag-inspired aesthetic that ultimately led her to where she is now. Her real breakthrough came when she released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in September 2023, which included the hit song “Good Luck, Babe!” that broke into the Billboard Hot 100. Roan’s energetic performances at major music festivals like Coachella and Gov Ball further solidified her popularity.
Now that we’ve examined her musical background, we can shift to how she’s been able to manage her public persona against her real one. One of the boundaries that Chappell Roan set for herself was that she wanted Chappell Roan to be a separate identity from her real one. She discouraged her fans to confuse the two, stating how she wants to keep her personal life separate from her celebrity life. After her fans realized this, a portion of them got mad at her, desperately trying to cancel her career simply because she set these boundaries. This has hardly been done before by major artists in the past so the public didn’t know what to do with this. The argument that’s been brought up by fans/haters of Chappell Roan in response to the boundary she placed was that she “can’t handle fame” or that “she isn’t talented” and so on. This whole scenario was brutal for Chappell Roan, leading her to go on hiatus to mentally heal from the hate. Mind you, this was all happening last year after her debut album.
Hopefully, the situation surrounding Chappell Roan will draw attention to the necessity for artists to establish clear boundaries with their fans. From where I stand with this situation, I believe that the boundaries between celebrities (like Chappell Roan) and fans will continue to be problematic within the music industry. I don’t see these boundaries being taken seriously as everyone believes that “that’s just what comes with being a famous person” and so on. As Chappell Roan stated herself, “For the past 10 years I've been going non-stop to build my project and it's come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries. I want to be an artist for a very very long time,” Not only that but she also quoted how she doesn’t, “Agree with the notion that I owe a mutual exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I do not know, do not trust, or who creep me out — just because they’re expressing admiration,” All of these comments are posted on her Instagram.
