Credit: Alex Corey
Chappell Roan owned the cultural zeitgeist this year, capturing both hearts and playlists with her vibrant pop anthems “Good Luck, Babe!,” “Pink Pony Club” and “HOT TO GO!”
Roan’s debut album, 2023’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, rocketed up the charts and she opened for the first leg of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour. Roan has also been propelled to the forefront of queer pop with her drag-inspired aesthetic, and many of her electrifying performances have gone viral, creating a gravity of their own.
But Roan, the 26-year-old American singer and songwriter, quickly learned that social media stardom intersects with real-life fame in ways that are not always simple to navigate. Roan is also maneuvering stardom at a time when the pressures aren’t even human – sometimes, they’re algorithmic. The forces of digital virality and online fandom culture are reshaping the music industry—with songs that blow up on TikTok dominating the charts and attaining global recognition. As this unfolds, the viral artists catapult to mainstream fame overnight. Even as Roan had seven songs land on the Billboard Hot 100, five of them certified Platinum, she began to buckle from the pressure of internet celebrity.
“I have all these new emotions and I’m really confused,” Roan told The Guardian in September. That same week, she compared fame to an “abusive ex-husband” in an interview with The Face. “I didn’t know it would feel this bad,” she said.
Emily Fiorelli, a senior therapist at Manhattan Wellness, reflects on the role social media plays today in enforcing the pressure to be perfect.
“As a young celebrity, especially on social media, there’s just the opportunity to be criticized all day long, which can really impact someone,” she said. “It makes them feel like they can’t make a mistake or can’t say something without it being combed through with a fine tooth comb.”
Roan is an outspoken advocate for Palestine and the LGBTQ community, including transgender rights, and she hasn’t been afraid to take controversial stands. That fierceness that endeared her to fans, however, caused trouble. Later, while talking to The Guardian, she said she wouldn’t endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidential election because she sees “problems on both sides.” This didn’t sit well with the general public and her fans, who expected her to champion Harris. The online attacks on Roan continued when she had to cancel shows to prioritize her health, including tour dates in Europe and a couple headlining gigs at the All Things Go Festival in the United States. In September, she revealed she had been diagnosed with severe depression.
She aired her frustrations in a candid Instagram post in August this year.
“I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path,” she said, and clarified that she was specifically calling out “predatory behaviour disguised as superfan behaviour.”
To be famous in the digital age means accepting that not just being watched — it means also accepting being interpreted, reinterpreted, and scrutinized, often in unintended ways, all on a public platform for the whole world to see.
Jesse Coren, founder and CEO of Mutual Friends, a New York-based artist management company, says in an email interview that overnight fame is bound to take a toll on artists.
“They’re experiencing a lot of ‘firsts’ at once. They are learning how to deal with the lifestyle, the attention (both good and bad), meeting so many new people every day (many who want something from them), and learning a lot about the industry,” Coren said.
In a raw TikTok video, Roan addressed her need for personal space.
“I don’t give a f–k if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo, or for your time, or a hug,” she insisted, looking directly into the camera, her voice breaking as spoke. “That’s not normal, that’s weird. It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online.”
“I think the expectations that we put on stars to carry this title, and be a role model, can create immense pressure. Especially when someone is young and still kind of figuring themselves out,” said Fiorelli.
The viral era
Roan joins many other musicians facing the perils of modern-day celebrity. Sabrina Carpenter navigated her own rollercoaster this year, emerging as a pop symbol and youth icon with her latest album Short N’ Sweet. Though she had released other albums, her song “Espresso,” released in April, signaled the dawn of a new era of stardom for Carpenter. It wasn’t just a song it became its own cultural moment, and the soundtrack to endless TikTok trends, Instagram reels and viral memes. This December, Roan even appeared in Carpenter’s “A Nonsense Christmas” special on Netflix.
“Espresso” blended Carpenter’s knack for sharp songwriting with digital-era virality, making her a pop powerhouse for the algorithm generation. The song ranked No. 3 on Apple Music’s top songs of 2024.
“Espresso” was followed by her next popular single, “Please Please Please,” in June, the music video for which featured her then-boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, the Oscar-nominated star of “Saltburn” fame. The Irish actor’s cameo helped further skyrocket Carpenter’s popularity, giving fans just the right amount of context to stan, dissect and discuss her personal life. When the news of the couple’s split broke in December, fans left a myriad of comments on Keoghan’s social channels that referenced the song. Keoghan even alleged that Carpenter fans had directed their ire toward harassing his family and he subsequently deactivated his Instagram account, saying in a post on X, “That’s crossing a line.”
Some fans can set demands for their favorite artists, leading to them not respecting the artists’ personal space, Coren said. However, he emphasizes that usually, a very small percentage of fans fall into this category.
“It isn’t necessarily a result of fandom culture as a whole,” he points out.
But as the internet brings fans closer to the celebrities and their elusive worlds, pressures mount — with fandom culture today demanding more than it ever has before.
Coren says that in today’s online landscape, fans can band together and cultivate their community based on shared experiences and interests. “This has heightened the culture of fandom because of the strength in numbers and a sense of community,” he said.
Taylor Swift’s fiercely passionate fanbase, the “Swifties,” erupted into controversy last year when rumours circulated about her brief romantic involvement with Matty Healy, frontman of the band The 1975. Healy has been previously criticised in 2023 for making racially insensitive comments and engaging in problematic on-stage antics such as kissing fans on-stage and behaving erratically during shows. Swifties, known for their loyalty and moral scrutiny, questioned Swift’s association with him.
The situation escalated into widespread social media discourse through tweets, TikTok videos and Reddit posts, with factions of her fandom clashing over whether to hold Swift accountable for Healy’s controversies or to separate her personal life from her artistry. Swift has herself written about being held to an impossible standard on her latest album The Tortured Poets Department. (“God save the most judgemental creeps who say they want what’s best for me, sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see.”)
A rapidly evolving music industry
At the same time, a major complicating factor is that the music industry is experiencing a period of acute change, said Cal Nyantakyi, the founder of Consistent Group, a creative collective based in New York.
With the growing popularity of streaming platforms and so many new artists releasing their music around the world, even well-established musicians are under immense pressure. They need to continue producing music that is catchy enough to captivate the zeitgeist and do so consistently, along with having the marketing and individual brand identity to help them stand out among the many new voices that have rippled through the internet in recent years. As the industry continues to become increasingly fast-paced and competitive, the future may depend on not just those who can ride the viral wave, but also those who can survive the crash.
“It has been a tough year for the music industry, with several layoffs across all the labels,” Nyantakyi says, adding that we need “sustainable superstars” who can carry the next decade of music. He also believes that the kind of overnight success that’s fueled in part by the internet is not inherently built to last. “We are seeing more artists have a moment or song that everyone is in love with, but it is tough to maintain that rhythm,” Nyantakyi said.
