Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].
Chappell Roan went viral this week with two TikTok videos in which she talked about harassment from fans. It goes without saying that things like stalking or attacking a celebrity (verbally or god forbid physically) are beyond the pale. But what about approaching an artist you like because you want to tell them how much you like their work? I feel like that is a harmless act, and it even seems like a nice thing to do. But at least based on Chappell Roan’s comments, even that might be invasive. For instance, she complained about people asking to take a photo with her. I guess I don’t know where the line is drawn. What’s the right way to approach a celebrity? — Emily from St. Louis
This is a good and valid question. The Chappell Roan videos inspired a lot of conversation online this week. Some of it was good and insightful. Some of it was reactionary and lacking in empathy. Almost none of it was instructive. I truly believe that 99 percent of us want to be kind and normal when it comes to how we act around famous people we admire. But sometimes we don’t know how to be kind and normal. Clearly — as you said — nobody wants to be the Mark David Chapman-style fan. But it’s also possible to proceed with the best intentions and still end up acting like a complete jerk.
The problem is that the average person has no idea what it’s like to be famous. We think we have an idea, but the common perception of celebrity is mostly fixated on presumed wealth. We only imagine the luxury of being rich and make the money part the entirety of the fame experience. There’s even an increasingly common belief that celebrities work for us, and therefore owe us certain consideration should we ever encounter them face to face. We gave you all the money you have, the thinking goes, so the least you could do is give me a few minutes of your time. Social media has accelerated this by collapsing the perceived space between artist and fan. These people are so present in our minds that we are deluded into a false sense of intimacy.
Also: Being rich is not the same as being famous. You can be rich without being famous, and you can be famous without being rich. (The latter is way more common in the music business than fans believe.) For those who are rich and famous, there’s an expectation from the public that the former status ought to pay for the burdens of the latter status. I don’t think that expectation is totally wrong, though it shouldn’t cause the rest of us to completely disregard the very real strangeness of living in the public eye.
